Let us be clear about this.
On the day most of us learned that billionaire Conservative donors have been squirrelling away trillions of pounds in tax havens rather than paying their fair share…
$11.3 trillion in wealth is held offshore while billions of people across the world have been plunged deeper into poverty during the pandemic.
It’s obscene.
Trickle down economics = wealth streaming offshore.
— Nadia Whittome MP (@NadiaWhittomeMP) October 3, 2021
12 million leaked documents known as the Pandora Papers reveal that world leaders are engaging in widespread tax avoidance and money laundering with the UK at the epicentre. This will come as a huge shock to anyone with the memory of goldfish…https://t.co/g1XDqB84NO
— Council Estate Media (@CEMEDlA) October 4, 2021
£3.1 million of Tory Donations linked to 36 Tory MPs have now been from people named in the Pandora Papers.
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) October 4, 2021
Rishi Sunak denies that UK Tax Avoidance is a "source of shame"
Now, why would that be I wonder?— sue#NHSLove💙💙💙#FBNHS (@SueSuezep) October 4, 2021
… Conservative Chancellor Rishi Sunak has apologetically told them he cannot cut taxes for rich people like them…
Rishi Sunak defends tax rises in Tory conference speech – listen to how it went from @EveningStandard broadcast guru @DJBond6873 https://t.co/sPppSzc2oB
— Nicholas Cecil (@nicholascecil) October 4, 2021
… until poor people like This Writer (and, no doubt, yourself) have paid off the costs racked up by his government in coping with Covid-19…
In Tory Britain, working people face an unfair tax hike of hundreds of pounds a year, but a landlord renting out dozens of properties won’t pay a penny more.
How is that fair Rishi Sunak? #CPC21 pic.twitter.com/Rhwh0sguBn
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) October 4, 2021
… nonexistent costs, let’s not forget (the money was created by the government, not borrowed)…
MPs plan to make us spend decades paying the NONEXISTENT cost of Covid-19 https://t.co/gcYvAFAp61 https://t.co/53ntC1ZzO4
— Vox Political (@VoxPolitical) July 25, 2021
… most of which went to Conservative donors who, after avoiding the tendering process by using a fast-track system for friends of the Tories, then provided absolutely nothing in return.
Covid-19: their policies don't work and neither do the chums the Tories have given all our money https://t.co/Bmz9UsOsNS https://t.co/81Rpy1i4G4
— Vox Political (@VoxPolitical) October 10, 2020
So, after the billionaires have kept public tax money for themselves and taken public cash under false pretences, they now say they’re paying too much tax and want the poor to cover any costs they have incurred. And Sunak is apologising to them for not doing this.
This looks like misappropriation of funds on a global scale.
And Sunak’s offer to cut taxes after the nonexistent bill is paid makes no sense at all, for an obvious reason:
The money of the rich disappears into offshore accounts – cut their taxes and more money disappears it does not trickle down.
Tax the rich and the money received can be invested in young people, climate justice, tackling inequality, health and poverty.
— Claudia Webbe MP (@ClaudiaWebbe) October 3, 2021
Sunak and his forerunners should have closed all tax avoidance loopholes in the 11 years since they have been in office but they haven’t. Is that because they have benefited from millions of pounds in donations from the people we now see have avoided paying trillions of pounds in tax?
£3.1 million of Tory Donations linked to 36 Tory MPs have now been from people named in the Pandora Papers.
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) October 4, 2021
That looks like a “yes” to This Writer!
He tried to cover it up by focusing on Brexit, saying that we’ll see the mythical benefits of leaving the European Union in the long term.
Rishi Sunak – "I was proud to back brexit… because in the long term the agility, flexibility & freedom provided by brexit would be more valuable… than proximity to a market"
I don't remember brexiteers telling us that the sunny uplands would be in the "long term" pic.twitter.com/XjuU9cTTDW
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) October 4, 2021
I think we all know what Brexit was really about – don’t we?
We probably shouldn't forget the reason we had Brexit was to enable the level of tax avoidance we're seeing in the Pandora Papers x
— Laura Kuenssberg Translator (@BBCPropagandist) October 4, 2021
Weirdly, the same Chancellor who has immorally handed billions to Tory donors via failed Covid schemes, and trillions to them by allowing tax avoidance, thinks such actions are perfectly reasonable.
To him, it would be immoral to take cash from them – that they want to lend – in order to fund, say, an anti-poverty strategy:
Rishi Sunak says it would be immoral to borrow to pay to keep children out of poverty. The first problem is he needs some lessons in what morality. Second, he needs to realise people (the wealthy) are queuing up to lend money to the government. Why is he refusing them the chance?
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) October 4, 2021
No – he thinks poorly-paid workers should simply get better jobs, as though that is the easiest thing in the world. Clearly he has never had to try to do it himself. And he conveniently forgets an enormous hole in his own logic:
If as Rishi Sunak suggests , a care worker who can’t manage on her wages simply retrain and get a better paid job , who is taking her place in an already short staffed care sector ?
— Carole Johnson (@CaroleJ84660310) October 4, 2021
Oh but – he said – the UK economy is recovering faster than anywhere else in the world!
But there’s a reason for that, isn’t there?
We have faster recovery than anyone else in the world for just one reason – we went lower than anyone else. If I was Sunak I would not be shouting about that.
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) October 4, 2021
Sunak’s speech was not that of a man putting forward a sensible policy – because it isn’t sensible.
So what was he doing? I think Clare Hepworth has it right:
Listened to Rishi Sunak delivering his speech to the Tory conference..
Or should I say, pitching to fill a vacancy which may occur.— Clare Hepworth OBE (@Hepworthclare) October 4, 2021
Sunak wasn’t discussing serious plans to deal with current economic issues – he was auditioning to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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