Lord Ashcroft, Tax Avoidance And Pretending He's More Than A Conman.

Lord Ashcroft likes to pretend he's not simply the greedy conman we all think he is. Of late he's gone to great lengths to persuade us that he's some sort of historian after getting one of his publishing mates to print his boy's own history of British heroes. Now the BBC are trying to make out that he's a "widely respected pollster and internet politics magnate". Despite this he remains a grubby and greedy individual whose only interest in life is himself. Listening to Ed Miliband's speech yesterday he saw that the jig might be up for the selfish and self-serving. He decided, therefore, that his only course of action was to try an elevate his greed and avarice to a higher level. "I'm proud to be a tax avoider" he told Labour delegates as if this makes him noble in some way. "I give away the equivalent of my tax bill to charity," he asserted, though he neglected to say that his favourite charity is the Tory party. So what does this add to our knowledge of Lord Ashcroft? First that his arrogance knows no bounds - only he knows what is good for society and how money should be distributed - and two, that he is desperate to show people that he's more than just a conman. He has the sheer brass neck then to lecture the Labour party and darkly suggest that the election is "Ed Miliband's to lose". Presumably this will come about if we fail to heed to his self-serving drivel. What Ashcroft is trying to do is highjack what he sees as a powerful political message, to surf a new wave that otherwise threatens to sweep him and his kind away. He remains, however, nothing more than a greedy, selfish crook and should be given all the attention that such people deserve - none.

The BBC Steps Up Propaganda Against Labour

The BBC have been almost as eager to tear into Ed Miliband's speech at the Labour party conference today as the energy companies. Their reporting has so far literally dripped with loaded language as they have "analysed" Ed's speech. "Is this a backward step towards socialism?" they asked, as if the untrammelled capitalism that has propelled us backwards towards the mid-19th century is somehow a better idea. "Will the lights go out as they did in the 1970's during the "Winter of Discontent?" they asked, though they have never been heard to speculate as to whether the bedroom tax is Cameron's equivalent of Thatcher's disastrous poll tax. "How will they freeze energy prices if the energy companies won't let them?" they ask, as if the energy companies and not a democratically elected government actually runs the country. The BBC's reporting so far resembles a member of the blue-rinse set hiking up her skirt and screaming hysterically because she thinks she sees a mouse. "My God," the BBC are whimpering, "is that socialism I can see? What will become of us all if we have to live in a fairer society?" They have ignored the scandalous dependence on food banks for a growing number of people in Britain. They have refused to report the rising death rate amongst the elderly poor. They have turned a blind eye to the number of people under threat of eviction because of the bedroom tax. They have no time for stories about the growth of hate crimes against the disabled. They only have time to reiterate the Tory line that there is "no alternative." Now there is.