Rishi Sunak’s wife is NOT elected OR in a public role but she is a woman

[BigGreenSpacehopper]

Have you noticed that Zac Goldsmith (elected), Mark Carney (role of significance to all of us as Govenor of the Bank of England), 4th Viscount Rothmere (controlling shareholder and Chair of the Daily Mail) all have non Dom status but no mention is really made. However, a woman, who has no public role, has never said anything public, is being criticised for her non Dom status?

And yes she’s getting massive dividends but I imagine as it’s family money there is a massive pre-nup in place so it’s not like Rishi will be able to run off with it!

@StormzyinaTCup

Yes. I look at Pandemic risk in the life insurance side for a living.

Fair enough, just asked in case you were straddling atop two totem poles!

The UK has fantastic life sciences people, but totally inept politicians.

Yes we do and inept spans all political parties.

There are inept individual in any walk of life this is true. But the entire leadership of the Tory party is currently inept. That is a significant difference to any time in the passed or in any other political party and no amount of what about Jeremy Corbyn will change that.

Any debt can be paid back over 100 years if you want

Actually it could be even over 180 years. Eg it was only in 2015 that British taxpayers finished ‘paying off’ the debt which the British government incurred in order to compensate British slave owners in 1835….

@DrBlackbird

Any debt can be paid back over 100 years if you want

Actually it could be even over 180 years. Eg it was only in 2015 that British taxpayers finished ‘paying off’ the debt which the British government incurred in order to compensate British slave owners in 1835….

I think that was one thing I hated paying my taxes for. I'm happy to pay my whack for policing, education, NhS etc but repaying the debt that was paid to slave owners was something else.

I didn’t even realise I was paying it. I didn’t know I was paying for WWll either.

Re debt - Isn’t the masses of interest an issue though? Especially as rates go up

And I’m not that keen to pass it all down to dc / next generations. I found watching the spending go up so high for Covid a bit stressful

@Blossomtoes

I didn’t even realise I was paying it. I didn’t know I was paying for WWll either.

I don't know why I knew but I paid income tax for 47 years when some of it was going to that slave owners debt. I have paid tax for 54 years and still paying and as I said I'm happy to pay my share but that particular bit doesn't feel right particularly when I was teaching my children about their slave ancestors (someone in the family had done alot of research and we had quite alot of information they'd got from a couple of plantations) and thinking those slaves got nothing but the people who owned them got all that money.

I don't lose sleep about it but it still doesn't feel right.

@MarshaBradyo

Re debt - Isn’t the masses of interest an issue though? Especially as rates go up

And I’m not that keen to pass it all down to dc / next generations. I found watching the spending go up so high for Covid a bit stressful

I suppose we have to consider the benefits. We have all benefitted from the defeat of the Nazis and the people who were living through it paid a higher price than taxation in many cases.

Some of the covid debts are dubious but some will have ongoing positives I hope, like what has been learned about vaccines and possibly studying long covid will benefit people who suffer after other viruses.

It is all scary though and now lots being spent to help Ukraine which is obviously a good thing but it is more debt.

@MarshaBradyo

Re debt - Isn’t the masses of interest an issue though? Especially as rates go up

And I’m not that keen to pass it all down to dc / next generations. I found watching the spending go up so high for Covid a bit stressful

To put it in perspective, the 372 billion of CV spending equates to around 2 fully equipped Trident replacement programs... or just over 3 HS2's

The wealth of the UK's 171 billionaires is approx 600 billion..... the number increased by 24 during the pandemic and their wealth improved too... mine didn't, maybe yours did?

cansu
He has the power to take measures against people trying to avoid paying tax with non domestic status.

When are the current Labour Party going to propose doing that? They refused to commit either way at the weekend. Are Labour expecting some non-dom donations in readiness for the next general election?

jgw1
@ Clavinova You missed.
Jeremy Corbyn is the former Labour leader.

Indeed I did.
I also missed another connection between Helle Thorning Schmidt/Stephen Kinnock and Rishi Sunak/Akshata Murty which is very relevant to previous comments and staring me in the face now.

When Helle Thorning Schmidt became Prime Minister of Denmark in 2011 (2011-2015) her husband was living and working in Switzerland - spending fewer than 33 weekends per year in Denmark. He moved back to the UK for work in 2012. What commitment did Stephen Kinnock show to Denmark as the spouse of the Danish Prime Minister? None as far as I can see. Why can't Akshata Murty live in a similar fashion to Stephen Kinnock when her children start boarding school? It was reported yesterday that their eldest child starts boarding school in September. Likewise, what are Helle Thorning Schmidt's long term commitments to Denmark and the UK? She apparently lives in the UK now. What are Stephen Kinnock's long term commitments to the UK? Both have lived and worked overseas in several countries and may do so again. One rule for them - one for everyone else.

I have come to the conclusion that this non-dom business was probably leaked by Sunak.
He surely isn't daft enough to think it wouldn't come out at some point, so do it now, when the news is full of Ukraine and then his skeleton is out of the closet ready for his bid to be Prime Minister in the autumn.

The wealth of the UK's 171 billionaires is approx 600 billion..... the number increased by 24 during the pandemic and their wealth improved too... mine didn't, maybe yours did?

As much as I’d like to be a billionaire sadly not so.

But right at the beginning I knew the costs of Covid would unlikely to be borne by super rich. It was part of what made me post as I did. We were storing up the hit for everyone else.

Ancient yes good to think of some positives eg advances in science as the negatives were a lot at times

Re Ukraine I agree we have to pay and it will impact us, but it’s worth it. I’m just reminded of the phrase cheap debt - and how inflation plus interest rises will now strain this too.

Anyway you’re right to think more positively, I think of huge suffering in Ukraine and it’s a good reminder.

@Comedycook

I don't think having a chancellor who is so rich is a good idea....how can he have any concept or idea of what life is like for a person on minimum or even average wage, let alone benefits?

Well he clearly did understand as he came up with a very generous furlough system .

Not at all - let me know if Rishi Sunak is found to have broken any tax laws

He's broken US laws governing eligibility for Green Cards.

But it's rather sad that your bar is set so low, @Clavinova. So long as the Chancellor of the Exchequer has managed to keep within the letter of the law, it apparently doesn't matter to you that he kept quiet about the green card, and that he has been happily living off the benefits of his wife's tax evasion whilst putting hundreds of thousands of people into dire poverty.

Clearly Sunak understands the problems better than you do, hence this wife's about turn and his desperate attempts to find the source of the leak. If he really thought there was nothing wrong, his wife would still be claiming non dom tax relief and he would be telling all and sundry to publish and be damned.

Well he clearly did understand as he came up with a very generous furlough system

Not that generous, if you look at the terms and exclusions. And he was simply implementing a long-standing plan and doing the same as the majority of other countries.

When are the current Labour Party going to propose doing that? They refused to commit either way at the weekend. Are Labour expecting some non-dom donations in readiness for the next general election?

Interesting question.
Rachel is undertaking a review right now on this very issue. Leads me to wonder, for the party that has always stated in their manifestos they would do away with this loophole, what exactly could there be to 'review'?!? 🧐🧐🧐.

Also Yvette Cooper isn't able to give her own opinion on non doms until Rachel's review is out.

@DrBlackbird

Any debt can be paid back over 100 years if you want

Actually it could be even over 180 years. Eg it was only in 2015 that British taxpayers finished ‘paying off’ the debt which the British government incurred in order to compensate British slave owners in 1835….

Interesting. Did not know about that historical debt.

We can treat it similar to war debt (WWII). No real reason not to given the 1 in 100 year pandemic event.

Destroying the economy in the short-term will just make the long-run even worse due to the effects of poverty and lack of healthcare access.

We are close to a lost decade in the UK (2012 - 2022). At this rate, it could be a lost two decades if we continue down this path.

@Fulmine

Not at all - let me know if Rishi Sunak is found to have broken any tax laws

He's broken US laws governing eligibility for Green Cards.

But it's rather sad that your bar is set so low, @Clavinova. So long as the Chancellor of the Exchequer has managed to keep within the letter of the law, it apparently doesn't matter to you that he kept quiet about the green card, and that he has been happily living off the benefits of his wife's tax evasion whilst putting hundreds of thousands of people into dire poverty.

Clearly Sunak understands the problems better than you do, hence this wife's about turn and his desperate attempts to find the source of the leak. If he really thought there was nothing wrong, his wife would still be claiming non dom tax relief and he would be telling all and sundry to publish and be damned.

Yes.

The green card bit is actually quite serious.

Not many UK people focus on it because they don't understand the immigration rules there (not knocking them it just isn't all that relevant to most).

@BambinaJAS

The treasury tweeted about this in 2015 prompting a RSC play that we saw ‘The Whip’. It was on the politics of abolition of slavery. Fascinating and depressing in equal measures.

The British government borrowed £20 million to compensate slave owners, which amounted to a massive 40 percent of the Treasury’s annual income or about 5 percent of British GDP. The loan was one of the largest in history.

The treasury’s cheery tweet about taxpayers finally paying it off after 180 years didn't go down well with the tax paying public but does indicate if there’s political will, anything is possible.

But right at the beginning I knew the costs of Covid would unlikely to be borne by super rich. It was part of what made me post as I did. We were storing up the hit for everyone else

...but why are you happy or perhaps content is a better word, for the poor, the w/c and m/c to carry the cost and not the super rich who have seen their wealth increase in the last two years and not just the billionaires, UK has even more millionaires than before.

Sunak has done zilch to spread the load, his recent spring statement will put another 1.3m into absolute poverty inc 300,000 children (this is based on current definitions)

I really do struggle with why people still defend him/BJ... folk need to realise that crime rises exponentially in very unequal societies (i used live in S/Africa) so whilst you may keep more of your money, someone will try to take it from you, often violently.

@Alexandra2001

But right at the beginning I knew the costs of Covid would unlikely to be borne by super rich. It was part of what made me post as I did. We were storing up the hit for everyone else

...but why are you happy or perhaps content is a better word, for the poor, the w/c and m/c to carry the cost and not the super rich who have seen their wealth increase in the last two years and not just the billionaires, UK has even more millionaires than before.

Sunak has done zilch to spread the load, his recent spring statement will put another 1.3m into absolute poverty inc 300,000 children (this is based on current definitions)

I really do struggle with why people still defend him/BJ... folk need to realise that crime rises exponentially in very unequal societies (i used live in S/Africa) so whilst you may keep more of your money, someone will try to take it from you, often violently.

I thought the messaging was hugely effective ie by publishing rates every day people would demand more restrictions and lockdowns but in the end it wouldn’t be the super rich who would feel it as much.

Labour were generally on the side of restrictions and closures so not great as a solution

Furlough was huge btw. I remember it was meant to be just 8 weeks initially but then millions on it for over a year. Massive support pumped in, to every sector, also to alleviate fear re omicron all adding up. People seem not to worry about passing debt down to younger generations but I find that tough.

People seem not to worry about passing debt down to younger generations but I find that tough

Maybe we’re just used to it. After all, when your tax for most of your life has paid for events that happened before you were born - two centuries before you were born in the case of the slavery compensation - it seems fairly reasonable.

Furlough was never the real problem. It was necessary to preserve the productive capacity of the UK economy.

The largest scandal was around:

1. PPE contracts (major fraud and corruption here)
2. Covid bounce-back loans (major major fraud here)

Almost £30 Billion evaporated due to corruption and fraud in those two areas.

Think about what we could do right now with £30 Billion.

@MarshaBradyo I'm not arguing that restrictions were wrong, reality is we locked down later but for longer.

My point is the Super Rich should be taxed to pay for it all, as we all are.... not given special treatment because Sunak happens to be one of them.
i.e health levy rises, it was reported that Sunak will pay an extra 8k p.a in NI, for someone with a £200m fortune and billionaire wife, thats completely meaningless but £250 for Nurse or a carer is a punishing fortune.... and this is long before we get to energy costs.....

but why are you happy or perhaps content is a better word, for the poor, the w/c and m/c to carry the cost and not the super rich who have seen their wealth increase in the last two years and not just the billionaires, UK has even more millionaires than before.

There is a good argument for wealth tax but it might be a case of be careful what you wish for. I have seen figures and recommendations bandied about of this kicking in (on a sliding scale) with a starting point of wealth valued at £1m for an individual and £2m per couple. Whilst it may sound a lot, it's as it says, wealth not income, so will include property (after mortgage deductions), pensions, savings, shares etc. With property prices as high as they are this will catch a lot of m/c w/c people who have saved like mad and overpaid to clear their mortgages or inherited properties from their parents (and paid inheritance tax on it already). In that scenario it's certainly not going to be just the super rich who will pay even more tax.

A starting point of £2 million per couple sounds all right to me. It’s double the IHT threshold and only 4% of estates pay that.