Zac Goldsmith

[ItsGrimUpNorth]

I'm sorry but how can anyone vote for someone who only gave up their non dom status during the election campaign? How does someone like that contribute to Britain? He only became a tax payer because of the election. To me, that is a scum person.

And whilst he roundly won his seat, why did he have that gurning hooray behind him during the announcements? That, I have to say, was one of my favourite moments of the election, watching that berk's face. Could you get any more Tory?

Expat you scoundrel, I have only ONCE had a post deleted. It was for calling an esteemed ex-MNer a cunt I was quoting someone else, mind you. And I was hysterical at the time.

My dad's in Richmond Park and he's very unhappy about ZG's elevation. He (my dad) lives near the local Cons Party HQ which has enormous posters of Mr Sexy in the windows, and my dad reckons that his teeth follow you around the room.

like this?

That's the one! My dad does a great impression of it (enhanced by the fact that my dad doesn't have great teeth and looks like Eric Morecambe)

agree entirely with the OP.

Agree with OP. The term "millionaire environmentalist" is also an oxymoron in my opinion... bit like "Progressive Conservative"

Acksherly, I think claig and Zeph are right on this point - AFAIK greenies do think that ZG talks the talk on environmentalism. Environmental/climate change issues aren't, at their core, about personal choices made by rich ppl in developed countries; they're about global governance. Haven't read anything ZG has written on green issues, but his personal financial status - much as I agree with others about the hypocrisy of the non-dom stuff - doesn't have a lot of bearing on whether he's really green or not IMO. (As Expat has said though, he'd be more convincing if he joined the Green party and directed some of his lucre their way.)

policy.

'teeth would follow you around the room'.

i'm going to save that one for my personal files, right next to when Whoopi Goldberg said you could stand Pamela Anderson next to a radiator and she'd probably melt.

It's not illegal to claim benefits, either, but we need a 'strong government' to 'tackle' them but not the billions of pounds worth of taxes non-doms get out of paying?

The fist-waving twat beside him at the count (his agent, I gather) looked as if he'd been snorting something decidedly un-green very recently.

Didn't you lot all give Shazza Goldsmith a hard time when she came on to lecture everyone take questions about how to be green on a millionaire's salary?

lol at the teeth following you around the room.

Way too much inverted snobbery here, when you start criticising someone's teeth.

No one has said what ZG actually did wrong, which is very telling in itself.

Just admit, you don't like rich people or tories. It's easy to do. You don't have to justify your opinions, and we can all judge you without qualification.

'No one has said what ZG actually did wrong, which is very telling in itself.'

I DID. Over and over. Others did as well, like poshsinglemum. Edam and ItsGrim and RLB tried to explain why felt as they did.

He cheated on his wife and walked out on his family. That makes a person a prat IMO, no matter what their financial circumstances.

You either chose to ignore all those posts so that you could conclude it was because of his having money.

Or you have some problems intellectually comprehending things.

Tom Cruise has teeth that could follow you around the room, too.

Does it make for inverted snobbery to say so?

Meh.

Weak, Mme, weak.

Thank you for playing. Please try again.

And again, the expenses scandal. What those MPs did was, in many cases, not illegal.

But it was wrong nonetheless.

You can do wrong and it's not illegal. That doesn't make you any less morally bankrupt.

And that's no crime.

But it's hypocritical when you seek to hold an office to decide and dictate how other people live their lives.

To me the only real surprise is that Richmond Park survived being Lib Dem as long as it did.
Richmond Council has just gone back to Tory control as well.

Glad that Twickenham is still LibDem though - good ol' Vince Cable still there.

Apparently Lord Ashcroft is quite disappointed that the Tories didn't win outright, given how much money he threw at the election - but then that's what my Dad said and he is a staunch LibDem in that area, so he might not be completely unbiased.

thumbwitch. Richmond council went Tory, in the main, because the LibDem council became unpopular and appeared pretty complacent. The Tory council have made some big promises - so we'll see what happens.

It appears that even Vince had a nervous moment on election night (according to his D mail column). Certainly his majority was due in part to Labour switchers - as the Tory candidate increased her votes too!

EiS - those high standards of yours are never going to be met in the real world. Are there any politicans good enough for you?

'EiS - those high standards of yours are never going to be met in the real world. Are there any politicans good enough for you? '

Goodnight, I hadn't realised the vast majority of 'the real world' cheats on their spouse, walks out on their family and tax dodges.

And then presumes to take on a role to play a deciding factor in how people live their lives, in particular, their tax levels.

oh sorry, only aboutr 40% rate for married infidelity in the general population, can assume something similar for politicians.
not a majority but still narrows the choices when ticking a box. (if you even can vote in this country, that is.)
reminder that we are talking about someone whose father set up the "tax dodge" - after earning his money and paying tax on it the first time, and not wanting his family to have to be taxed a second time, partly in vain it would appear.

'if you even can vote in this country, that is.)'

I'm a British national. Thanks for the interest.

'reminder that we are talking about someone whose father set up the "tax dodge" - after earning his money and paying tax on it the first time, and not wanting his family to have to be taxed a second time, partly in vain it would appear.'

Reminder that he had his entire adult life to reverse that. He only did so to stand for MP.

He's 35.

oh well. It (the tax thing) just doesn't bother me. I dislike him more on a superficial level for leaving his wife, though I know nothing of the backstory.

I actually have Shezza's Xmas book. I got it for £2 in Oxfam and it's worth that for the gingerbread recipe. Mmmm, gingerbread men.

how topical and funny (for me) expat

just finished reading DS Mr Gum and the Biscuit Billionaire ( who is a gingerbread man called Alan Taylor )

According to MmeBB, ZG said (I presume she is quoting him):
'In fact I have always been resident in the UK, and have always chosen to be tax resident in the UK. I therefore haven?t merely paid tax on UK income ? but on income generally ? at the full rate. Non-dom status can mean many things. Through my choices, it offered me little benefit, a fact that has been confirmed in writing by PricewaterhouseCoopers.'

Utter tosh. This is what the BBC has to say about what non-dom status means:

"At the moment people with links abroad, but living in the UK can declare another country as their real home, or "domicile", regardless of where they actually reside.

As a result they pay no UK tax on their earnings or capital gains outside the UK.

This has encouraged many rich foreign businesspeople to live in the UK.

Greek shipping tycoons, Saudi princes and American bankers have all taken advantage of the laws.

Few other countries have such a loophole.

Most, like the United States, insist that if you live in the country you have to pay taxes on your worldwide earnings."

So if you are going to be a British MP, then your domicile should surely be the UK?

And I think the bit about the US is relevant to the OP too. You wouldn't get away with it in your country so why the hell do you want people to get away with that kind of crappy tax evasion in ours?

"Just admit, you don't like rich people or tories. It's easy to do. You don't have to justify your opinions, and we can all judge you without qualification."

What utter lame bollox. Any dislike of Tories is always justified on MN because one cannot get away with just plain old "dislike".

Unfortunately for Tories, their party policy is always pretty revolting.

Talking of policy, spiel about Big Society and Broken Britain has been pretty quiet recently. Perhaps the Tories realised everyone saw was cobblers they were spouting. Perhaps that's why they didn't win the election...And that's right, they didn't win.

And as for rich people, as long as they pay their way like everyone else, then that's just dandy by me. Zac Goldsmith didn't for a long time. If you're going to represent the people of Britain, make sure you behave.

But who he shags doesn't bother me in the slightest. Wouldn't touch him with a ten foot cattle prod myself. Brrrrr.