Off Topic Politics Thread

Nothing to do with politics, she just likes wild ****ting

 

Lest we forget…

 

20th century militaries: it's important for discipline and unit cohesion that regular infantry follow the dress code and personal grooming standards to the letter. Today's unpolished boot is tomorrow's mutiny in the ranks.

21st century Ukraine: our soldiers in Bakhmut made camouflage cat ears for their helmets.

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Sunak does like a tax dodger.


A TOP Tory who runs the party’s finances wrongly tried to use a tax avoidance scheme to buy a mansion, the Mirror can reveal.

Property tycoon Graham Edwards, who has donated £940,000 to the Conservatives since 2018, was named as the treasurer last month by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

It is a fresh crisis for Mr Sunak after he sacked party chairman Nadhim Zahawi for not telling the truth over an HMRC investigation into him.

Following a dispute with HMRC, Mr Edwards was found to have wrongly tried to reduce the tax due on £5million he received in bonuses.

According to court documents, a trust set up as part of a complex tax scheme was used to buy a £1.5m country mansion for him.

The home in Buckinghamshire has its own boathouse on the banks of the Thames as well as a heated swimming pool and tennis court. A tax tribunal ruled that the scheme was tax avoidance in 2007.

He challenged the decision in both the High Court and Court of Appeal, but his appeals were dismissed.

Labour’s Anneliese Dodds last night said: “From the party chair sacked over his tax affairs to the party treasurer who took part in a tax avoidance scheme, Rishi Sunak is drowning in a swamp of sleaze.”

Meanwhile, Tory chief executive Stephen Massey is still working on the side for a firm that encouraged the rich to slash their tax bills by ploughing cash into a controversial movie investment project.

Mr Massey started as the Conservative Party’s chief executive in November, but he remains chairman of City firm Canaccord Genuity, where he has worked for the past decade.

Rich clients launched legal action against the company in 2019 after it advised them to put their money into a film investment scheme that was targeted by the taxman. They complained that an HMRC crackdown had left them with huge bills.

Mr Massey has donated £343,000 to the Tories including £25,000 to Mr Sunak’s leadership campaign.

He has temporarily been handed the duties of the Conservative Party chairman from Mr Zahawi.

A spokesman for Mr Edwards said: “Two decades ago Mr Edwards received a bonus and paid full tax and National Insurance on it, on the day he received it. The scheme mentioned was a KPMG led tax reclaim scheme that HMRC disallowed.

“Mr Edwards paid all taxes properly and never received any penalty. Mr Edwards bought the property mentioned with fully taxed income.”

A spokesman for Mr Massey last night said he had “no involvement in the advice related to this case, which arose in a company acquired by Canaccord before he was employed”.

The Tories did not comment.

 

Neil Kinnock’s “I warn you” speech from 40 years ago. It really was quite prophetic.

 

The fReE sPeEcH revolution in Florida is really something. All books need to be approved individually by the state, or teachers can face felony charges. Consequently, they're simply removing all of the books at the advice of the school boards.






I know that some feel that these are just issues in the US, but they won't remain such. It has already spread from Florida to other states, and there are the first hints of it appearing in Canada, as well. And if they are able to do so successfully in North America, it won't be long before some enterprising proto-fascist tries it out on the other side of the Atlantic.

 

Worth a read. A very honest take on how one Ukrainian feels about the invasion of her country.

 

lest we forget the lies and misinformation that lead to the national self harm that is brexshit..

 

Led by Donkeys visited Michelle Mone’s yacht

 

Brilliant!

 

Good work by LbD well worth contributing to.

 

McCarthyism all over again!!

 

Slightly different example but my fiancé (recent upgrade so getting used to using it ), was talking about trying to get her hands on some Ferdinand Marcos related history/text books as she suspects those will soon become banned/burned in the Philippines now that Junior is in charge and the government is rapidly getting its claws into reshaping education of that era.

I reluctantly suggested it might not be a great idea to have them in her case when leaving just in case, but I can fully understand the sentiment.

 

I know it’s old news now, but the Tate brothers are still locked up, with no charges against them, seemingly no evidence presented whatsoever.

Most of the alleged victims have released videos and statements saying they are innocent. Even the vice story with the WhatsApp convos was debunked by the girl.

At what point does their imprisonment without just cause become a human rights violation?

 

Double post