Tagged: politics
PM’s Tax return
A few numbers from Rishi Sunak’s Tax return for 2022-2023
£2.23m – Rishi Sunak’s overall earnings and gains for the last financial year.
£508,308 – paid in tax
23% – the effective tax rate Sunak paid in the UK
45% – the top rate of income tax paid in UK by the highest earners.
That does not make any sense, I smell a rat. What is going on?
Our Prime Minister has a lot of shares in the US wrapped up in an investment fund.
£1.8m – The profit paid out from this US based fund.
20% – the capital gains tax rate in the US.
So has he done anything wrong?
He has not broken any rules in paying a lot of his tax at source. It just happens that he conveniently holds a lot of his wealth in the US rather than in the UK and consequently he makes a financial gain.
One last thought that yanks my chain. The UK Prime Minister pays taxes that pay for public services in the US.
All at the expense of paying capital gains taxes that could be used to fund things like the NHS.
Cronyism by definition
This time last year Grayson Perry was on the New Years honours list. Something I applauded at the time.
This year there were two New Years honours lists. The extra one was a drawn up by Liz Truss. This “Prime Minister’s resignation list” was used to reward friends and party donors with knighthoods, dame hoods and peerages.
Liz Truss was Prime Minister for only 49 days. The photo is provided in case you blinked and missed her.
The awarding of three life peerages is most galling. The recipients are allowed to sit in the House of Lords as un-elected lawmakers. The only reason that they have a seat in the upper chamber of the House is because their mate gave the nod.
I suppose that is the way of the world these days, but talk about having a brass neck.
What a state visit.
I have been giving Rishi Sunak some stick for flying around the UK using private jets and helicopters at the tax payers expense.
The Prime Minister does not pretend to have any real green credentials and he is consistent in his travel choices. We all know that he has no shame about the environmental damage he is causing.
King Charles on the other hand is well known for his environmental campaigning. So his decision to fly rather than take the train to Paris for his recent state visit raised a few eyebrows.
The Eurostar was good enough for his Mum when she traveled to France on state visits in the past.
To top it all the King had his Bentley transported over to Paris in order to pick him and the Queen up from Orly airport. Not sure how you measure the carbon footprint for that trip.
The King did plant a tree during his visit. Maybe this was part of the carbon offsetting for his travel plan.
Laugh or cry
Talk about a blast from the past. I give you my first boss in the teaching profession. Former Secretary of State for Education, Kenneth Baker.
The now, Lord Baker of Dorking has been in the House of Lords for the past 26 years. Yesterday he got wheeled out onto Newsnight for his opinion on the teachers’ strike and the current batch of Tory ministers who break their own code of behaviour.
Compare and Contrast.
A picture says more than 1000 words
Last week Rishi Sunak flew on a private jet to Leeds and back. He also did a quick trip to Scotland for lunch meeting with Nicola Sturgeon using the same method of transport. The taxpayer picked the tab for these two trips.
The “PM” clearly is doing his “green credentials” no good at all. Flying in private jets is not recommended by climate change experts
Meanwhile Greta Tuneberg was protesting in Germany against the expansion of a huge, lignite (brown coal), opencast mine.
Greta got arrested, but she was later released. Sunak got back home in time for tea.
Update – The UK prime minister has continued to use a private jet at the taxpayers’ expense. Trips to Indonesia, Egypt, Latvia and Estonia have clocked up a bill over £500,000.
Meanwhile at the same time Sunak has been tearing round the globe his Government has halved Air Passenger Duty (APD) a decision which encouraged Ryanair to add an extra 9 domestic routes to its flight schedule.
It makes you want to weep.
It just goes on and on. Today the press is reporting that Sunak has used a private helicopter to fly from London to Southampton and guess who pays the tab. A journey that takes just over an hour by train and costs about 30 quid for a ticket.
Sir Grayson Perry.
Well done Grayson Perry. He is to be knighted for services to the arts.
His Art Club tv series on Channel 4 was a real tonic during lock down. It kept us all sane.
He is an artist who also makes a point of not charging admission to his exhibitions and visitors turn up in droves as a result.
It is a shame that a knighthood these days can be had by a Tory party donor for a bag of cash.
So it somewhat devalues the honour given to likes of Grayson Perry who earned it, rather than paid for it.
Sir Greyson’s knighthood is richly deserved and it also gives him the excuse to buy a brand new frock for when he goes to the Palace to get his gong.
Good on him!
My days, it cannot be happening, can it?
The press reports about Boris Johnson has been given summaries of sensitive material via WhatsApp for administrative ease raises the question as to what the prime minister uses his red boxes for.
Somewhere to keep his colouring book and crayons?
Do they double up as his lunch box, or maybe somewhere to stash his party snacks?
Boris Johnson gets summaries of sensitive government material via WhatsApp
Pinch me.
In the week that fires still rage in Australia. Matt Hancock comes out with this on Radio 5.
I must be dreaming, did the really say this when asked if we should all be flying less?
This was posted 3 years ago time before the current PM was using a private jet like an Uber.
12 months ago
A year ago I was recovering in a neurosurgical ward with strict orders to stay calm and relaxed, avoiding unnecessary stress at all costs.
Doing so would keep my systolic blood pressure as low as possible and minimise any post op-complications. Without being overdramatic about it, there was a risk of internal bleeding, which could cause a stroke or worse.
So what happens?
Donald Trump gets elected as President of the USA on that very same day,
I can laugh at it now and enjoy the irony of it all, but at the time it was not helpful to put it mildly.
Doug Stanhope made me laugh about the same time when I watched his take on Nationalism back on the ward and now this reminds of that stay in hospital rather than the Trump election.
Laughter always helps and heals.
Classic one liners……7
Dennis Skinner was at it yet again today. Unfortunately the State Opening of Parliament clashes with Day 2 of the Royal Ascot Race meeting and it is no secret as to where the Queen would rather be. It is a perfect opportunity for Dennis to just do what he does best.
Even in what was a shortened ceremony Black Rod still came knocking on the door of the House of Commons to summon MPs through to the so called Upper Chamber in order to hear the Queen’s Speech. This is the way things work in our Parliamentary Democracy. The Queen sits in the House of Lords and tells someone to fetch the Commoners to hear what she has to say.
Not for the first time and hopefully not the last Dennis Skinner delivered yet another classic one liner.
Maybe we will not have to wait 2 years to hear the next one.
Even at the start of the clip you can see the thumbs up greeting from the MP for Bolsover to the man sent down from the Lords, so we could all see it coming.
Next goal wins laaaaaaads! 