Lord Ashcroft Offers Tory Voters Guide To Avoiding Tax
DEPUTY Tory Party chairman Lord Ashcroft is non-dom – he is not a permanent resident for tax purposes. Is this right and proper? Does it matter if he or any Labour Party donors live overseas?
Doesn’t it make sense to vote with a man who knows how to avoid paying tax rather than for Gordon Brown for whom tax is the breath of life? Do you want people who are good with their money in charge or those who are crap with yours?
Dizzy writes:
As for Alan Johnson suggesting that Ashcroft is “unpatriotic” let’s not take the piss or take the intellectual capacity of the voter for granted now. After all, Johnson is a member of a Government that has given anyway quite a bit of British sovereignty over the years to the supranational EU. If non-domiciles are unpatriotic then I shudder to think what he could be called.
BAT E Bird hears Gordon Penrice MP claim it is all unfair because Ashcroft has money to spend on Tory campaigning:
* “Lord Ashcroft, the Conservatives’ deputy chairman, has bankrolled his party’s bid to secure the Nelson, Colne and West Craven seat to the tune of £50,000 to £60,000.”
Matt Buck puts his view well – the image is of Ashcroft.
PAYMENT of taxation on your earnings is how you get a vote in the way the country is run. People who choose not to pay tax in the UK through use of the non-domicile loophole but who still seek influence on the electoral process need to be viewed with extreme caution.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair reminded us that political influence is sold for economic reasons with the £1m donation from Bernie Ecclestone in return for delaying a ban on tobacco advertising in Formula One. (The timing of this donation is interesting in relation to the current election campaign. Ecclesone’s gift was given several months before the 1997 election in expectation of services to be rendered after it.)
Clarity and transparency of donations to politicians need to apply to the funding of all UK political parties during elections – and in between them. All corporate donations are listed at the Electoral Commission and available to public scrutiny. This includes gifts in kind as well as money.
Does it matter where the money comes from?
Posted: 2nd, March 2010 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
