Thread 20 Sunak and the Winter of Discontent

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4672210-thread-19-from-trussterfuck-to-sunakered

The lack of seat belt was such an odd mistake to make. Even stranger that it wasn't spotted by a SPAD before posting the video. But it has served as an excellent distraction from who got what "levelling up" payments.
Almost makes me wonder if it was deliberate.

He had a penalty notice for partygate and now this!

Surprise!

A Guardian analysis found that Conservative marginal seats, those with majorities of fewer than 8,000 votes, have received 1.5 times the amount of funding per person than all other constituencies under the £4bn budget – £76 a head compared with £53 a head.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/19/tory-seats-gain-more-4bn-levelling-up-fund-finds-analysis

More non surprises!

www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/20/hmrc-names-three-schemes-linked-to-michelle-mone-husband-as-tax-avoidance?
Three payment programmes operated by a company linked to the husband of the Conservative peer Michelle Mone have been named as tax avoidance schemes by HM Revenue and Customs.

and

🚨 Last week Christopher Harborne gave £1m to Boris Johnson.

This week QinetiQ - the UK defence company whose biggest shareholder is Harborne - won an £80m government contract...

Great scoop from @jimfitznews (also in morning's Politico London playbook)

twitter.com/PeterKGeoghegan/status/1616343084345745414?t=ui15KS4T2SbCkXw87q7rHA&s=19

And yet Mone still holds the Tory Whip. Yes i know she's not attending the Lords whilst she "clears her name" but the party should distance themselves from tax avoiders - I guess that would look pretty hypocritcal though given Zahawi's mysterious change of heart.

Oh what a tangled web we weave

Meh no big deal, he has said sorry, he only did it for a few minutes, it was in a limited and specific way, oh and Keir had a beer

Do I win bingo?

You forgot teachers and nurses were all having parties at work.

Oh look, another surprise

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/20/nadhim-zahawi-agreed-on-penalty-to-settle-tax-bill-worth-millions

Westminster Voting Intention:

LAB: 50% (+2)
CON: 24% (-4)
LDM: 8% (+1)
GRN: 5% (-2)
RFM: 5% (+2)
SNP: 4% (=)

Via @Omnisis, 19 Jan.
Changes w/ 12 Jan.

twitter.com/electionmapsuk/status/1616473287160172545?s=46&t=6uiDdUzcLYFbHFywyUmBxQ

Excellent news @Notonthestairs. Marina’s on form today. 😂

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/20/levelling-up-rishi-sunak-prime-minister-policy

Thanks for that Blossom - Hyde is absolutely spot on.

Levelling up funds as Squid Game -
"Arguably there’s an ironic wit to the format – a sort of handout for the anti-handout party, designed solely to inadequately mitigate the effects of cuts made largely by that same party."

I am VERY amused to read that Sunak's Californian pad has a pet spa and that JRM is lowering himself to be a GB news presenter.

BREAKING: Junior doctors in @HCSANews have voted to strike. 97% voted yes on a turnout of almost 75%. The HCSA is a smaller union than the @TheBMA but this could indicate what many have suspected - the vote for strike feels almost inevitable.

twitter.com/shaunlintern/status/1616499269514543104?s=46&t=6uiDdUzcLYFbHFywyUmBxQ

HCSA is a small union (less than 5,000 members I think) as opposed to the BMA's 170,000+ members (includes GPS as well as hospital doctors and medical students unlike HCSA) but it's still a good indicator of how the BMA vote will go.

Good evening

You will be aware that a video has been circulating on social media showing an individual failing to wear a seat belt while a passenger in a moving car in Lancashire.

After looking into this matter, we have today (Friday, January 20th) issued a 42-year-old man from London with a conditional offer of fixed penalty.

Statement from Lancashire Police on their FB page. ^^

He is just another Johnson

And all that for his video collection

Maybe Hunt can play with coffee cups a bit more

news.sky.com/story/retail-sales-unexpectedly-fell-by-1-over-christmas-period-12790747

Retail sales unexpectedly fell by 1% in December, the second month of decline, according to the Office for National Statistics.

It was far worse than the 0.5% rise predicted by economists.

Compared with December 2021, sales were down 5.8% - the biggest fall since 1997

"Compared with December 2021, sales were down 5.8% - the biggest fall since 1997"

That is pretty horrendous.

Anyone who has been rl shopping prior to Xmas could have told you how quiet it was.
Our local high street was almost eerie.

Yes it shouldn't really be a surprise, you hardly get anything for your money at the moment.

The Christmas sales were quiet too and rubbish

I can't see how some of the local shops here will be able to stay open.
Lots of gift shops/beauty therapists/hairdressers etc

Some friends of ours like going out to the pub at Christmas / New Years in our local town and they said it was dead as a dodo.

I am pleased to see that the Zahawi story was to story on BBC Breakfast this morning. About time!

And they got a tax specialist on who said that if you are hit with a fine (30%) it means you have not made a genuine mistake (which can mean you just pay back the tax without a fine) but it means you have deliberately not paid the tax owed. He owed £3.7M Capital gains tax. He didn't pay it. The penalty took it up to £4.8M plus interest charges taking it to over £5M. A wealthy man like this would have Tax Advisers working for him because his tax affairs will be very complicated, so this means he has purposely chosen not to pay tax that he owes.

I know a Tax Specialist very well, and this sort of penalty is literally because of tax dodging. How Zahawi can survive I do not know, but nothing surprises me with this shitshow of a Government.

Oh well, never mind. He can pay £10 to visit his GP and that'll sort us all out.

And yet 6 months ago he swore blind there wasn't an issue with his tax payments. Given the system is quite slow it would be more than fair to say that he knew there was a problem and lied through his teeth to persuade MOs to vote for him.

The Javid "pay for GP and A&E"
is absolute rubbish - the transaction cost alone wouldn't make it worthwhile- they just don't have anything to say.

It's worth your time reading Dan Neidle's investigation time line

There’s a very lengthy backstory to Nadhim Zahawi’s HMRC settlement, and lots of people have been asking me to summarise it. Here goes:
twitter.com/DanNeidle/status/1616030741225246720?t=0xZJGulVqwx1BTWfA2h8Aw&s=19

and added today
Quick note to people reporting on Zahawi. If he did fail to pay £3.7m capital gains tax, that likely means he failed to report receiving £27m.

He presumably claimed this was merely “careless” (and so not tax fraud). How plausible is that?