I have repeatedly commented to the effect that MesLords Laidlaw (pictured) and Ashcroft, the foreign based billionaires who have bought the Tory Party, do not live here, even share our concerns for homeland security, and are not satisfying the requirements made for them to be ennobled, nor those to be permitted to make party political donations. (From http://enemiesofthepeople.wordpress.com/?s=Lord+Laidlaw):
An announcement was made from Monaco about a tax exile peer who has stopped bankrolling the Tories to “spare David Cameron embarrassment.”
Lord Laidlaw of Rothiemay has lent or donated around £5 million to the party, even though he is based in Monaco to avoid paying tax in Britain. Now the 66-year-old peer — caught taking part in an orgy with prostitutes last year — has decided to end his financial backing “until he has sorted out his tax issues.”
The multi-millionaire tycoon has been rebuked by the watchdog Lords Appointments Commission for failing to keep his promise when he was ennobled in 2004 to register as a UK resident. Faced with an estimated tax bill of £50 million, he chose to suspend his membership of the Lords in 2007.
The affair has been a running sore for the Tories because Lord Laidlaw, who almost single-handedly bankrolled the party in Scotland, was seen as having been given a peerage because of his financial support.
Electoral Commission figures show the Tories continued to accept donations from him last year, including £25,000 to Boris Johnson’s campaign to become London mayor.
Funny how little currency this matter has had since february - eh?
No bad Publicity, we're billionaires' conservatives . . .
Oh dear me, where did you dig this lot up from?
ReplyDeletePentonville . .
ReplyDeleteOooops i daisy, not yet . . .
Pentonville should be filling up, sometime after 4th June 2010, doncha think?
ReplyDeleteDepends on the scrutiny of the billionaires and whether they return from Jersey, Monaco, Belize etc. to Uk jurisdictions.
ReplyDeleteThe separation of powers means that HMG has rather less influence on who is charged with what than Johnson B has it seems, as he effectively sacked the Met's Chief Commissioner Sir Iain Blair, while the Home Secretary did not have a corresponding power to keep him in post.
So June 4 may well be irrelevant, whatever the result of the election which may well be held before then.
Lord Ashcroft, who has a bigger office at Tory HQ than Cameron, may have spent a rather illegal amount of money in lots of marginal constituencies well before November, the first month when an election may be held.
We shall see, but don't rule out the possibility that scunners will be caught and have to pay the price for their attempts to buy a Brit election.