Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Tories up to their old tricks again, avoiding external oversight and harvesting the tax take for friends and family.

Of all the old villains, I didn't expect Dodgy Dave to get a reboot.

Like they're all a bunch of corrupt bastards, isn't it? Still, Eric Pickles'll do the right...oh.

I wasn't sure whether to put this here, or in the Johnson thread. I'm not shocked, either:

Minister admits Boris Johnson's 'review' of lobbying scandal will have no powers

Boris Johnson’s ‘review’ into the David Cameron lobbying scandal won’t have enforcement powers and won’t make recommendations, a minister has admitted.

He defended Health Secretary Matt Hancock owning a 15% share in a company which has contracts with the NHS.

And he said there's "nothing wrong" with ministers having financial stakes in companies, as long as they don't have a role in procuring from those companies.

The PM's "independent" review, led by lawyer Neil Boardman, who will be ‘pausing’ his job as a director of the Business department to undertake the work, is expected to report back to the PM in June.

But today Environment Secretary George Eustice admitted the “probe” won’t have any power to toughen up lobbying rules - and probably won’t even recommend any changes.

As they say: "nice work if you can get it."

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/polit ... gs-265342/

I told you he was a shit.

The Red Arrow wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 11:52 pm I told you he was a shit.

Thank goodness you're here, we'd never have known otherwise.

Don't just take my word for it. Not-so-startling similarities with another Buller boy...

Words Pop Out of his Mouth
The Corrupt Nature of David Cameron
Anthony Barnett
16 April 2021
In light of the former Prime Minister’s involvement in the Greensill affair, here is chapter eight of Anthony Barnett’s 2017 book The Lure of Greatness: England’s Brexit and America’s Trump, explaining why Cameron does not have a normal belief in right and wrong and says whatever he thinks will work, and the personal background essential to understanding his role in the current corruption scandal

https://bylinetimes.com/2021/04/16/word ... d-cameron/

Is anyone else watching his committee appearance at the moment?

If Siobhain McDonagh keeps tearing strips off him at the rate she is doing, I'm going to need more popcorn.

It's Ascension Day, or Fathers' Day, here today, when groups of blokes roam the streets from mid-morning with cartfuls of increasingly luke warm beer, becoming more lairy as the day wears on.

So yes, I'm glued to the Graun's feed from a safe and sober distance.

Fuck me, he is human Swarfega. Horrible man.

kreuzberger wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 3:47 pm It's Ascension Day, or Fathers' Day, here today, when groups of blokes roam the streets from mid-morning with cartfuls of increasingly luke warm beer, becoming more lairy as the day wears on.

So yes, I'm glued to the Graun's feed from a safe and sober distance.

Fuck me, he is human Swarfega. Horrible man.

[Gammon] If we won the war, haaw come the Jerries have all the best holidays? [/Gammon]

Angela Eagle is on good form too.

Cameron does not deny using Greensill's private jet to fly to holiday home in Cornwall
Q: How many times did you use Greensill plans to fly to your home in Cornwall? Is this a taxable benefit?

Cameron says he used the plane quite a lot on business visits, and “a handful of times” on other visits. All proper taxes will be dealt with, he says.

His tax return for 2019-20 was due at the end of this January. Assuming some of the flights were before this date, he's basically saying he didn't declare them, isn't he?

Cameron says the UK must continue to be a financial innovator.

There are lots of thinks that banks used to do badly, that other companies are doing better. For example, remittances - money sent abroad

I'm not sure banks are sat there waiting for advice from you, Dave.

Q: What would you do differently?

Cameron says, if you work for a company that goes into administration, you ask if you made the right choice. He did due diligence, he says. But he thinks about that.

With regard to contacting the Treasury, he has said a formal letter would be better, coming from a former PM. But they were in special circumstances.

A formal letter that you chucked in the bin would have been better.

Cameron says Gordon Brown has said former PMs should not have any contact at all with government.

He does not agree, he says. He says he can imagine someone like Brown or John Major running a bank. He says as PM he used to talk to the head of BP. Companies like that should be able to talk to government, he says.

Did Gordo actually say that?

Good bait and switch there. Nobody is saying big companies shouldn't be able to talk to the government. It's using the likes of you to jump ahead of other people who also want to speak to the government that's the issue.

Of course he spoke to the heads of BP. From the moment DC took the helm, BP's Deep Water Horizon spill had wide, international ramifications and, in May 2013, the European Commission had the company in its sights regarding price distortions. If the worst had come to the worst at BP, a huge slug of the UK's pension pot would have gone with it.

Any comparisons with what Greensill was up to are, at best, utter bollocks.

Rushanara Ali: "You were the future, once."

(Burn...)

My MP when I lived in London.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 4:23 pm

Cameron says Gordon Brown has said former PMs should not have any contact at all with government.

He does not agree, he says. He says he can imagine someone like Brown or John Major running a bank. He says as PM he used to talk to the head of BP. Companies like that should be able to talk to government, he says.

Did Gordo actually say that?

Good bait and switch there. Nobody is saying big companies shouldn't be able to talk to the government. It's using the likes of you to jump ahead of other people who also want to speak to the government that's the issue.

Gordo said former PMs should not have contact with the government as paid lobbyists for business. I now see.

Might have been the Guardian paraphrase leaving the last bit out, in fairness to Cameron. More fairness than he deserves.

Remember when we thought that he night not be the brightest but at least he was basically honest?

To be frank, no. I always thought he was dodgy. AF.