Wouldn’t we all spend every weekend arguing with the rest of the community over who pays for what? We’d also miss out on being able to negotiate National contracts not that I have any faith in government procurement skills.
Judging how these things normally work - I'm assuming he'll be gone before I've finished typing this: Nadhim Zahawi tax row: Conservative Party chairman determined to stay on, say allies
Probably not by much though if the Tories think this is the end of their current time in power? Major went the full 5 years between 1992-97 (I think to the day) and likewise Brown did the same in seeing out the term Blair started in 2005. I suspect Sunak will want to eek it out until the bitter end unless the polls take a turn in the meantime.
Does Zahawi really expect the country to believe that he ended up owing the inland revenue 5 million quid because he was 'careless' when filling in his tax return?! It's laughable! Self-employed window cleaners who do their own self assessment returns can be excused for making 'careless' errors but not the bloody Chancellor of the Exchequer. A 'careless error' that cut your tax bill by millions? Come off it, mate
And yet, sadly, many will nod along and go "yep, could happen to anyone" or "oh they're all the same". Meanwhile, the Mail is doing its finest distraction today with a front page that will be like catnip for a certain type of Tory voter. Middle income Tories who imagine that they're on the same team as the top few percent. Funny how the likes of Poundshop intellect Lee Anderson, who believes that nurses could avoid using foodbanks if they budgeted better, or cooked from scratch, and didn't buy avocados, never seem too upset at things like Zahawi's tax 'error' or Johnson and his dubious 800k loan. Tories don't seem quite as keen to suggest Johnson ought to budget better, live within his means and make do on his six-figure salary as they do suggest that poor people should live without smartphones or flatscreen TVs.
They're trying to make it sound like Zahawi sat down one evening with a cup of tea and a big bag receipts when it came to doing his tax return. Isn't it obvious that a team of highly qualified accountants would have advised him to make his 'careless mistake'
Of course! But the grift goes deep. Rachel Johnson on Laura Kuenssberg's show yesterday suggested that the tax forms are very complicated and loads of people will think: "Oh yeah, tax forms are really complicated." I saw another Tory MP trying to blame the accountants when everyone knows that the individual is responsible for their tax forms and has to sign them off.
Bunch of crooks. Shameless crooks. If he had any decency he would do the decent thing and resign. No chance of Sunak and his focus on standards and integrity coming into play. Telling is all to tighten our belts after squandering billions and billions. Biggest bunch of clueless, self obsessed **** wits ever to set foot in Number Ten.
For a long time, the Tories were **** at governing the country but still quite good at politics. Not anymore, this is proper death throes of a regime stuff and Sunak looks like a clueless little school boy. There was only ever one correct response to this from Sunak - fire him immediately, get him to do a grovelling apology and use it as evidence of the new higher standard of ethical behaviour in his government. Now he looks weak whatever happens - if he stays on after he's cleared by Sunak's "independent" advisor (not a slight on the person doing the job, more that the PM always sets the terms of reference for any inquiry), people will think that it's multi millionaires looking after each other and playing by different rules at a time when their living standards are plummeting. If he does get rid of him after the advisor reports back, then he looks indecisive for not taking the obvious step straightaway.
Further details in the Guardian: UK government ‘let lawyers bypass sanctions’ to help Putin ally sue journalist Documents seen by Open Democracy show UK firm got approval to engage with Wagner group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin
So, now we can't afford to run HS2 into London and it'll stop in a field next to the M4. What a joke! Presumably the time that travelling to the new start point will add to the London-Birmingham journey will mean it's quicker to jump on the rattler at Euston! What a shame this latest national embarrassment cost acres of ancient woodlands plus many long-established badger setts (not to mention the billions of pounds spaffed on the project so far).
A) Hunt has confirmed it wont. B) Even if it did terminate at OOC, it takes 31 minutes from Birmingham, a wait of up to 3 minutes, then ~7 minutes to Paddington (41 mins), 10 to Bond Street (43 mins), and 12 to Tottenham Court Road (45 minutes) etc. Even on the rare occasion you needed to go directly to Euston (61 mins) it is still faster than what we have now (76 mins), albeit less convenient. C) Despite the above, speed isn't the actual real point of HS2, despite politicians pitching it this way. Really it is about capacity. Specifically, moving the high speed intercity services onto different tracks (like they do in most parts of the developed world), they will enable significantly more local stopping services and freight to get cars and lorries off roads.
Yeah, the big selling point is the fact the West Coast Mainline is already full to bursting and will probably grind to a complete halt in 15-20 years unless extra capacity is opened elsewhere.
Gove defending Zahawi on Sophy Ridge, to find out minutes later on Laura Kuenssberg he’d been given the sack.
I'm old enough to remember when Ministers just resigned from Government if they had done something wrong. Now it appears that they have to cling on for their lives, with the PM's support, until their position becomes untenable. Do they really not understand how damaging this approach is to the reputation of the Tory party and politics in general?
Think James O'Brien is spot on here....as is the first reply: https://twitter.com/mrjamesob/status/1619633784655335425?t=FkF-TRHaWtzwJ4Q_40ETHw&s=19
The words below are from a longer piece by Nigel Jones. Read it and weep Nadhim Zahawi, who has been sacked by Rishi Sunak after days of headlines over his tax affairs, could learn a lot from the example of one of his predecessors as chancellor. Labour chancellor Hugh Dalton entered the House of Commons to deliver his autumn Budget on 10 November 1947. On his way in, he was accosted by a journalist who jocularly asked him what he was about to say. Equally jovially, Dalton confided a couple of sentences on the changes in taxation he would announce within minutes. Before he finished his speech, the tidbits he had disclosed to the nosy hack were in the evening papers and the London stock market was reacting. Dalton’s indiscretion – it was hardly an offence – cost him his front bench career. Within hours he had offered his resignation to prime minister Clement Attlee and the offer had been accepted. Though he returned to office as a minister without portfolio the following year, Dalton‘s political career was effectively over. Comparing Dalton’s honourable and swift exit to the stonewalling stance of Nadhim Zahawi over his dealings with the tax authorities – and Zahawi’s refusal to jump before he was pushed – gives us an insight into how standards in public life have slipped in the decades since Dalton’s day. Time was when the merest hint of a ministerial mistake or slip, whether accidental or deliberate, spelled the swift end to political ambitions. No longer.