Off Topic The "Discuss Anything Else" Thread

Is that all?

 

Now we have the "Paradise Papers"! Don't worry, these super-rich scallywags will get away with it:

http://www.dw.com/en/paradise-papers-expose-tax-schemes-of-global-elite/a-41246087

 

Just happened to tap on "Notable Members" portal. Only horseracing member on it is the honourable OddDog under "Staff Members". Interestingly, under "Most Points", and at the head of the table is one "Odious Turd". ****ing stroll on!" The input of the guys in the tables must be truly amazing, must say. Horseracing section just cannot compete, it would seem?

 

This Paradise Papers furore really has become the height of hypocrisy.

After several days of news headlines about famous names involved in tax avoidance schemes, somebody finally pointed out that here in the UK we can all avoid tax legally (without an expensive accountant) simply by having money or stocks and shares in a tax exempt ISA. I do it and I imagine that plenty of those moralising at the BBC and The Garuniad do it as well.

Lewis Hamilton avoided VAT on a private jet but HMRC will be chasing that VAT because it has been proven that he did not use the jet exclusively for business purposes so he was not entitled to claim back £3.3m. When I worked for myself, I bought a computer for the business and claimed back the VAT but that did mean I could only use it for work because it belonged to the company as an asset.

We know that The Bearded One despises the Royal Family but I wonder how much of his £130k salary he squirrels away in tax exempt measures whilst calling for The Queen to apologise for the fact that the Duchy of Lancaster – run for Her Majesty by a firm of accountants – put money offshore to avoid tax. There is nothing illegal about avoidance but it is hard to see how a terrorist sympathiser can make a moral argument about rich people avoiding tax when he would have no problem with them all being blown up.

It has been common knowledge for years that the major American corporations avoid tax because the US tax system charges 35 per cent corporation tax on all their global profits, so they shelter their profits in dubious offshore holding companies. If there is so much moral indignation about this practise, why do people still buy frothy coffee from Starbucks and queue up at the Apple store for the latest rip-off iPhone? Surely they should be boycotting these moral laggards. If they paid their taxes here the NHS would have hospitals built with marble, everything would be gold-plated and queues and the annual winter crises would be non-existent. It is not difficult to find details online about how Apple paid a few millions in UK taxes on a UK profit of £1.6bn. Not sure how they are leaving the world better than they found it...

 

No comment, other than "Good grief!":

http://www.dw.com/en/german-police-...-after-noticing-considerable-bulge/a-41288230

 

Really don't know what to say! My first thought was the pain and discomfort the 'python' could have caused had it resorted to it's natural preparation method for a quick snack!

Drunk; the a-hole must have been 'aff his heid' and certainly lacking in knowledge of limbless and scaly reptiles.

Cheered me up though!

 

Seen a few snakes in my time abroad, many at close quarters (what expat. hasn't?), snakes are damn sight nicer guys than rats, for example, but to have a Python in one's pants! Holy cow!

 

I often have to siphon the python. It's impossible if I keep it in my trousers.

 

My only experience of reptiles abroad was a friendly wee monster who took quite a shine to me in Jamaica!

 

No need for such smut!

 

Maybe you've heard that every person swallows eight spiders a year while sleeping.
It's a popular claim on the internet, but to BuzzFeed's Shane Madej, the stat set off his "baloney" detector. So he decided to test it out on himself.

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http://uk.businessinsider.com/people-eat-eight-spiders-every-year-myth-2015-9?r=US&IR=T

 

Don't know about scoffing spiders while you are in your scratcher however ..........

 

That's it, I'm never gunna sleep again.

 

Formerly on BBC ‘Country File’...

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I always thought that in this country you were innocent until proven guilty. When did that change?

 

Already I've had my fill of the potential wedding of Harry and Meg. It'll be rammed down out throats for months now.

 

Atlas the six foot nine inch robot does his thing.