Cameron: "I could have handled the tax row better"

"I could have handled the tax row better," David Cameron told a Tory party forum today. Actually no Prime Minister you could have told the truth instead. Even now Cameron is being less than candid as it is revealed that his father was responsible for not one, not two, but at least three tax dodging wheezes that kept him and his family out of any tax bracket for the last 30 years. While the PM, his wife and his children might not benefit from any such scheme "in the future" it remains pretty well certain that he and they profited mightily from them in the past. What is immoral for the goose is immoral for the gander as Jimmy Carr might well observe. It remains difficult, however, to shame a Tory Prime Minister since Tories have no sense of shame and measure everything by what they can get away with. What this does reveal is how rotten the whole financial structure of Britain has become. We should not be surprised that sleaze still exudes from every financial orifice considering that the whole stinking pile was first heaped up by the Thatcher government, was patiently tilled by the Blairite Labour party and has continued to fester under Cameron. You would need a very bad sense of smell today not to notice it.

Benefit Cheats To Get 10 Years As Corporate Tax Dodgers Get Kinghthoods.

The Tory junta, with the eager support of the turncoat Lib Dems, has announced that prison sentences for benefit cheats will be extended to 10 years. In the meantime corporate tax dodgers such as Lord Ashcroft and Lord Freud will continue to get away with it as the Chancellor resolutely refuses to close loopholes in the tax laws. We asked the Chancellor why this is; "Benefit cheats are ordinary people and their crimes are minor compared to those of corporations. It is fitting then that punishments for benefit cheats should be Draconian while those for Tory party donators should be non-existent. After all it is unreasonable to suppose that a benefit cheat will donate to the Tory party isn't it? We have to be fair about this and it is only fair that those who bribe us should be given the advantages that they want. We have proven, to our satisfaction at least, that it was benefits cheats that brought down the world economic system and that all unemployed people and cripples are actually benefit cheats. It's quite simple - all benefit cheats are unemployed, therefore all the unemployed are benefit cheats. On the other hand all tax dodgers are Tory supporters, therefore all Tory supporters should be able to dodge tax as a right."

Want To Know A Tax Dodging Secret?

David Gauke from the Treasury has been telling us all that is "morally repugnant" for tradesmen to be paid "cash-in-hand." Meanwhile moves are afoot for betting shops to be allowed to operate more gambling machines. Yet betting shop chains are some of the biggest tax dodgers in the country and actually operate a scam that reduces their tax bill by millions every year. The scam is quite difficult to understand so, if you're a tax inspector or MP, pay close attention. It involves an apparent confidence trick known as the "slow count." The conman waits until a dog race is about to begin and hands in a slip with an ambiguous stake making unclear whether he is betting £2 or £200. The hapless betting shop employee rings into the till £200 and then waits a few seconds as the conman apparently struggles to count his money, all the while keeping one eye on the race to see if his dog is going to win. If it looks as if it will he happily hands over £200 confident that he's about to scoop several hundred pounds in return. If it looks as if his dog is about to lose he feigns surprise and tells the cashier that the bet was only for £2. These conmen are well known and their pictures adorn various areas out of sight of the customers while cashiers are warned every day as to where these people are operating. But, in a busy shop when ordinary customers are thrusting betting slips into the cashiers face from all directions it is easy to be caught out and accept the bet. Not that that matters much since it quickly becomes obvious what is going on and it is highly unlikely that the manager will allow the bet to be paid out. And, even if the conman manages to pull off the trick, he is no more likely to pick a winner than anyone else. Despite these obvious drawbacks the conmen continue to criss-cross the country, spending huge amounts of money for transport, overnight accomodation and eating out. Why? Because the conmen are actually paid by the betting shop chains to pull the con. You see if the bet is rung into the till the betting shops record a loss not for the lesser stake of say £2 but for the greater stake of £200. This despite the fact that the bet is voided and no money has actually changed hands. And, because it is recorded as a loss, no tax is payable on that amount. It is a tax dodge pure and simple and is happening up and down the country seven days a week, 365 days a year, saving the gambling industry millions in tax every year. As an added bonus any cashier who inadvertantly accepts such a bet is formally warned for his or her transgression, making it easier to sack them if business demands it. Lovely isn't it?

Global Elite No Better Than Criminals.

Thirty years ago a group of greedy people managed to sell the idea that allowing them to steal the world's wealth was a really, really good idea. The idea was diseminated by people like Margaret Thatcher with a few simple nostrums such as national economies being like household budgets and a whole raft of incredible assumptions such as "trickle down." The result of this confidence trick is now evident after thirty years of sheer criminality by the global elite. Something bewteen 21 and 32 trillion dollars has been hidden away by a bunch of madmen who collect wealth like some people collect beer mats. They are clearly insane since this money has no real function and only exists for the greedy to gloat over. They have all but destroyed the world economy in their quest for more and more and have created a society that is so unequal that it threatens to collapse into revilution. Caught out and exposed for all to see their first reaction was to pretend it wasn't true, then they urged us to punish ourselves for their crimes and now they're urging us all to move on and forget what happened in the past as if it isn't still going on. These people are destroying our future and the future of our childfren. They are criminals pure and simple driven insane by greed and, despite their claims to world leadership, they suffer from a devastating lack of character. People like Cameron and George Osborne in Britain and Mitt Romney in the USA are the standard bearers for more of the same while opposition to it is all too often shackled by a need to appease the very criminals who caused the problem in the first place. The system is broken and cannot be repaired and we need to sweep it away and start again.

Yes Minister, Senior Civil Servants Are Crooks As Well.

More than 2,000 public servants, paid by the taxpayer, don't actually pay income tax themselves - nor National Insurance for that matter. Danny Alexander, jumping on the "You could have knocked me over with a feather" defence favoured by his mates in the Tory party, has said he is "shocked" at this level of tax avoidance. We've become used to the idea that our banks, political parties and news media are run by a bunch of crooks so why not the civil service? Still, the ginger rodent has said that he's determined to do something about it within three months - well as far as contracts of employment allow of course. You and I might have contracts of employment that are not worth the paper they're written on, but rich people's contracts are another thing entirely - apparently. According to the BBC "The government, as employer, could potentially have to meet the extra costs of National Insurance and pension payments, as well as various statutory employee rights." In other words you and I, as taxpayers who can't dodge our liabilities, will end up paying their bill for them. While "any compensation payments would reduce the amount of lost tax revenue that could be recovered." So there you have it. The government would love to stop this abuse but their hands - conveniently - are tied. "It's what I've always said," George Osborne told our reporter, "the more you tax rich people the less money you get, especially when you consider all those pesky loopholes that, try as I might, I just can't seem to close."