I posted this short thread on Twitter this morning:
I have never been enamoured by corruption. My dislike of everything to do with it motivated all the work I did on tax havens and the abuses that they permit. I have little more liking of corruption within government either. And it seems like we are plagued with it, again. A thread.
For those old enough to remember, what is happening now feels quite remarkably like a re-run of the dying years of John Major's 1992 - 97 government. It matters not a jot if the PM is as clean as a whistle if those all around him are sleazy.
Sunak has every reason to be worried on this score, although his own fixed penalty notices hardly stand to his credit in terms of judgement. Those around him are worse.
Zahawi's days are numbered. You can't pay a tax penalty of more than a million whilst Chancellor and hope to survive in political office. He will be gone by Wednesday morning as Sunak will be unable to defend him at Questions to the PM.
But he is only a part of the story. Johnson's excesses, and stories relating to the BBC's chair are very unlikely to go away.
And his party is now proving notorious for having other MPs pursuing dubious or even alleged criminal activity, which activity appears to be too readily tolerated compared to most reactions from Labour when similar allegations arise (as they do).
On top of that though, Sunak also has the problem of the political corruption. Braverman is pursuing immigrants contrary to all the commitments to the Windrush generation. Kemi Badenoch supports her, too often.
And Jacob Rees Mogg's utterly foolish attempt to abolish 4,000 laws that will create chaos continues its passage through parliament even though he is not in Cabinet any more, threatening mayhem in everything from environmental protection onwards.
That exposes the simple fact that Brexit has clearly failed: the whole raison d'etre of this government has long gone, clearly having been a disaster, and yet it lingers on in office, clueless as to why and with the stench of the Covid era still hanging all around it.
And underpinning all this is the nagging feeling that some very rich donors are pulling the strings, aided by the fact that we never did see the report on Russian interference in elections, suggesting there might still be something to hide.
No wonder that the Tories are doing badly in the polls. What is staggering is that 20% or more still plan to vote for them. Labour have little to say or offer, but right now they don't stink of sleaze like the Tories do.
But, the question is, should things really get this bad before we can have changes of government in the UK? Isn't that in itself some indication of how bad our politics and our political system is?
Sweeping the corruption-laden Tory party from office is important. But first-past-the-post and the whole rotten system of party politics we now have should go with it. An alternative can't guarantee corruption-free politics, but it has to be better than this.
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The final years of the Major government were dreadful…. but today the situation is FAR, FAR worse.
It is incredible what short memories the electorate has.
Fascist political science helps us to forget where the real problems are time after time and give us something else to focus on.
Time and time again, the electorate’s decision to punish New Labour for 2008 has proven to be just as bad as the BREXIT vote. In many ways you can but say that the British people deserved what they got in 2010. The Tory party was a mess at the end of Major’s reign – the birth and increasing rabidness of the anti-EU faction in particular and the sleaze. It was (is) a party of the worst possible people to be in charge.
The modern conservative only wants to get in power to help themselves.
‘They’re all the same’ are they? I hope not.
“Time and time again, the electorate’s decision to punish New Labour for 2008 has proven to be just as bad as the BREXIT vote. In many ways you can but say that the British people deserved what they got in 2010. ”
This is a key point.
It was madness to allow an unreconstructed Tory party access to the tillers of power in 2010. It is that decision we lament at leisure now, it led to the utterly corrupt EU referendum and the widespread debasement of democracy we live with today.
I still see Tories refer to Labour “spending all the money” (the infamous Liam Byrne note still does the rounds) even though their beloved Tories now hold the record for record borrowing in a year by a colossal margin – it’s as if their prejudices have been left fixed in time awaiting an upgrade from their Tory media sources.
The Brexiter claim that the vote for Leave was a vote against an ‘elite’ was perhaps the biggest of their deceptions – true gaslighting. The reality was that we have an elite centred on sections of the City, big money and the Tufton Street network. For them, avoiding tax and handing out government contracts to their friends is perfectly acceptable, justified even by their ideology.
Contrary to the odd piece here, the bulk of business thinks it was mad. Yes there are ideologues like Dyson, Bamford, or Ratcliffe but they are not typical. The bulk of SMEs have seen their ability to trade with Europe, importing or exporting, completely stuffed. As the data shows, many have just given up. It is easier for the bigger multinational companies as they have the experience of international trade and more resource but it is still causing them much grief and cost. It has made the UK a far less attractive place in which to invest.
Less Singapore on Thames – which of course has lots of manufacturing and social housing. Funny how that does not get mentioned. More like a dubious Carribean money laundering tax haven, with obscene wealth owned by that elite, surrounded by poverty. But without the weather and beaches.
“But, the question is, should things really get this bad before we can have changes of government in the UK? Isn’t that in itself some indication of how bad our politics and our political system is?”
This is the crux, isn’t it? I don’t really know what triggered the right wing media to decide Johnson was beyond the pale back in October/November 2021 and to start actually running pieces on the parties and then corruption following on from that. But it was a surprise to me. I assume the much of it was them taking a good look at the opposition and deciding they aren’t that much of a threat to the status quo.
The thing that galls me about the whole thing is I don’t actually believe this iteration of the Tories is much worse than previous ones. Remember when Cameron’s family and numerous Tories and Tory donors were in the Panama papers and we had a few tepid headlines and then nothing? Everyone knew what a corrupt buffoon Johnson was, but they still happily cheered him on in 2019 and kept all the stories to themselves until the time was right. Theresa May received donations from a property tycoon convicted of bribing Sadam Hussain and it got barely a whisper in the press. Private Eye have been banging on about various corrupt Tory party money men for years. And even a glance over any honours list produced by a Tory prime minister in the last twelve years shows just how corrupt the system has always been.
We are entirely reliant on a right wing, corrupt press to report this stuff and keep on reporting this stuff for it to cut through
Apart from the party system and its opaque donor system and the FPTP voting system, there is the toxic press. On the side of this blog the Daily Mail headline of “Shocking rise of something for nothing Britain- over half of households get more from the state than they pay in tax …while the top 10% of earners pay more than 53% of income tax.’
Cue for more tax cuts for the better off and more public service cuts?
If people’s wages and salaries kept pace with improvements in productivity, more people would not need some of the state payments and would pay more in tax. Boris in his last days gave a speech saying ‘the answer can’t always be more spending and more taxes. The supply side reforms were necessary.’ Ditto Liz Truss.
Half of households are not getting something for nothing. Most are in work and employed. The value of what they create is less than their remuneration and the difference is called profit which goes to the owners of the companies or individuals they work for. Profit is necessary but the Mail should acknowledge that the income of of many of those paying the higher rates of tax is created by the work of millions who get something back through the tax and benefit system.
We see the same attitude far too often in the line of questioning by TV presenters when interviewing trade union leaders. ‘Why don’t you accept the (less than inflation rate for the umpteenth years) pay offer? Do you appreciate the disruption and inconvenience you are causing? Arn’t you being greedy? A lot of people get less than you!’
Rarely do we see their employers being asked ‘why don’t you reduce dividends and pay the workers more?’
The attitude of both the interviewers and tabloids/Telegraph, is what i would call the Master and Servant dialogue.
It was in decline when i grew up in the 60s but it is coming back- in fact it is here.
And Masters don’t have to follow the rules which apply to the masses. They are entitled to rule.
My hope is that the ‘masses’ will re-assert their view. We need-taking some names at random, the likes of Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Paine, George Fox, William Beveridge, Nye Bevan, Annie Besant and Millicent Fawcett today.
There might be something in this reincarnation idea!
This sort of calculation – how much do you get out, how much do you put in – firstly assumes that everything has a monetary value, but in any event needs to be done over a whole lifetime, starting before birth with maternity healthcare, through obstetric and peri-natal care, vaccinations, parks and playgrounds, schools, universities, public transport, law and order, defence, refuse collection, roads, pensions, social care, and everything else along the way.
On a personal level, most people will take out in the early years until they get a job, then contribute for their whole working life until they retire, and take out increasingly more as they get older. In a particular year, it is not terribly surprising that people between say 20 and 70 are supporting most of those between 0 and 20 and those over 70, and many in the middle whose circumstances require it.
Of course those with the highest incomes pay the most income tax. It is progressive. That is the way it works. Unless the suggestion is that the poorest should pay proportionately the same amount as the richest?
But even they should be annoyed at people who get away with paying low rates of capital gains tax, like Zahawi. Why is he paying only £5m when he has made over £20m?
Thanks
If the top 10% are paying 53% of income tax it says one thing very loudly. That the *rest* of the population are not being paid enough. Most of the ‘pie’ is being taken by the greedy, not the needy (or the worthy)!
The fact that so very many people need top-up benefits proves it.
Forty years ago, a man my son’s age and in an equivalent job would have been a homeowner for at least fifteen years. Even if his wife didn’t work. They might have moved to a better/bigger home a couple of times as pay and equity rose. Yet they haven’t had a cat in hell’s chance of getting their own – or a socially rented – home. My d-i-l (and my niece) were both made redundant from the same longstanding but small local business before the end of 2020. D-i-l only has part time low paid work now, and with two young children they have had to apply for UC.
The utterly disgusting Da*ly Fail of course, will absolutely *not* provide even an iota of political analysis as to why so many people need “something for nothing”, they seek only to stoke the fires of class resentment.
Jacinda Adhern has more balls in her little finger than this bunch of little schoolboys on the scam.
Their excuses are exactly like … well, watch for yourselves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRx3eOWC2l4
Unfortunately the clip cuts off before they get to the excuses, which are priceless. The way that they egg each other on is fascinating…. campaign material here, someone! 🙂
I think
“Labour have little to say or offer, but right now they don’t stink of sleaze like the Tories do.”
Is more probably
“Labour have little to say or offer, but right now they don’t stink of sleaze as much as the Tories do.””
This is very different from John Major. We have now entered the world of Rufus T Firefly; it is pure farce,the only test it passes is the ridicule test. Allow me to provide two basic examples.
1. Rishi Sunak, whose reputation is of the ‘smooth operator’ produces his own video pitch. He chooses the safest and esiest setting known to man; a closed space, inside a moving car where the few present are all on his team, and free of any rogue, michanced meeting with an actual member of the public; a pensioner, a patient or a homeless man. What can go wrong? Everything, the smooth operator cannot lock his own seatbelt, or presumably tie his own shoelaces (perhaps that is why he wears £700 loafers on a bulding site?). At best Sunak is a virtual clone in someone else’s video production.
2. I know very little about Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs, and I am prepared to accept what I understand is his own case. He was “careless” about certain tax affairs under investigation by HMRC, and eventually settled the matter; clearly over substantial amounts of tax, and long delayed by paying a large penalty. This example of his behaviour toward tax; an incouciant, casually bravura carelessness is truly inspirational (and perhaps for dedicated professional tax avoiders everywhere); but especially makes him an exemplar, a paradigm in the Conservative Party, as a ‘stand-out’ candidtate for senior office; not just to be the Party Chairman, but the Chancellor of the Exchequer. This is what we want, inattention to detail, especially with contextually big numbers, or carelessness about the little sums of tax that are grinding down the ordinary person everywhere, with no economic upside anywhere. Sure, that’ll work, well maybe in Freedonia.
I rest my case. My vote goes to Rufus T Firefly for Chancellor; at least he made you laugh.
I agree with you John, it seems all we can do is laugh. But we must direct our laughter at these buffoons.
I make myself laugh by writing silly doggrel. Apologies in advance.
SHOULD HE PAY FOR HIS PECCADILLO?
There is someone we all know
Who has no control of his libido
We know that this is not a crime
However, many good people view it as grime
But, when London was asked to pay the bill
It looked suspiciously like fingers in the till
And he gave his mistress a lucrative position
Let’s call it what we all know it is – prostitution.
Groucho and Chico Marx would feel completely at home in this Tory government.
Groucho an expert in language that sounds like it might be reasonable but is actually an insulting lie and Chico a speaker of such incomprehensible gibberish that it is hard to tell of he is an idiot or just avoiding giving a straight answer.
Plus of course Groucho’s wonderful quote about ‘if you don’t like my principles, I have others’. Perfectly fits today’s Tories.
‘should things really get this bad before we can have changes of government in the UK? ‘
Its like being in some kind of dreamland where everyone knows that secret money – from Russia – mad UK billionaires, etc is sloshing around politics – buying governments, the media, and individual MPS and Peers, knighthoods – but there seems no popular movemnt in favour of outlawing money , or the corrupt FPTP.
As a country we dont seem to realise how far we’ve sunk, but its sgood Richard is getting some kind of a hearing
What’s different about now is how blatant and in your face it all is – the tories don’t care because they have (with collusion from inside) neutered labour. All we can hope for is the appearance of competence but business as usual is just what we don’t need.
Where there is no vision the people perish.
We have to remember what is going on here – that there is the Fixed Term Parliament Act the Tories introduced – a self preserving life raft of a piece of legislation that insured them against their own BREXIT disagreement and that the Tories are buoyed by the the MSM as they have become increasingly extreme and in competent.
The Tories have simply dug in, that’s all and they’ve been doing that since Theresa May. ‘We’re in charge’ they say ‘and up yours!’.
The thing is that all this lack of accountability they wrap themselves like cotton wool in just undoes them because it brings out what they really are – rapacious and greedy self serving bastards.
What is it that they say ‘The higher the monkey climbs, the more you see its tail’?
Then there is the passive role played by Labour who decided to have a period of in-fighting just as we needed them the most (the Tories in the Labour party doing exactly what the Tories in the Tory party do – look after themselves and sod everyone else). This was gift and I’ll never forgive Labour for it.
Then, add in copious amounts of dodgy funding and a huge dose of the internet and ‘Voila!’ – there you have where we are.
It’s all eminently explainable but it will take more than the reform of Lords to sort it out Mr Stymied, I can tell you that.
The Fixed Term Act has gone…..PM’s decide the data again now
I didn’t know that – thanks.
Indeed, the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 was repealed by the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, putting the prerogative power to call a general elections back in the hands of a Prime Minister. The revival of prerogative powers once they have been put on a statutory basis is a pretty unusual thing.
But the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 was a bit of a dead letter already, as the 2017 and 2019 general elections were both called early, each using different means: the first through the procedure set out in the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (a two-thirds majority of MPs – easier than it sounds because the Opposition is likely to support the Government if it calls for an election) and the second through a special Act of Parliament, the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019, which sailed through both chambers of parliament and received royal assent in three consecutive days.
If there is anything in this story on openDemocracy about the government allowing Yevgeny Prigozhin circumvent sanctions to target journalist Eliot Higgins then Tory corruption has reached a new low.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/prigozhin-government-russia-ukraine-hack-libel-slapp/
Funnily enough, the govt probably prefers corruption and ‘sleaze’ dominating the news rather than the collapse of the NHS the 50K excess deaths last year and all the stirkes. And the BBC seems happier with the knock about yaa-boo of political personalities, which go on for days on end.
As radio 4 PM programme said today – it sucks the life out of other news.
But the public services and NHS news is much more destructive for the govt. Where are the heartrendning personal accounts of all these unnecessary deaths – to compare with the on the ground personal accounts from Ukraine?
Bizarre – but all still looks like news management.