Britain First, the Great British Rip Off

Britain First have had great success on social media, with their Facebook page having gained almost 1.5 million likes in the past few years. Founded by ex BNP chief fundraiser Jim Dowson in 2011, the group started as another of his get-rich-quick schemes. In 2012 they collected money on the streets under the guise of helping ex armed forces, in a true Del and Rodney style complete with folding table that got packed up in seconds if someone called the rozzers. This was recorded by an ex soldier who tracked them down. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mMGG6gNfKm0

In 2014 Britain First registered as an official political party, with Paul Golding as leader. Also in 2014 Golding along with his father and his deputy Jayda Fransen, opened a limited company – Britain First Merchandise Ltd. The company initially used Jim Dowson’s patriot store to sell their products, heavily promoting the link on their now popular Facebook page. These days the online shop is directly accessed from the official party website. Party accounts are registered annually with the Electoral Commission and are available to the public. On checking the available 2014 and 2015 accounts, we noted that there was no revenue declared from any commercial or miscellaneous activities. Obviously we were aware the party promoted and sold their merchandise, so we queried this omission of declared funds with the Electoral Commission. The response was predictably unhelpful. Britain First have confirmed to them the Ltd company and the political party are two separate entities and the proceeds from each activity are completely separate. BUT THEY USE THE SAME WEBSITE! THEY PROMOTE THE GOODS THROUGH THEIR PARTY PAGE!! THEY EMAIL PARTY SUPPORTERS TO ASK THEM TO PURCHASE GOODS!!! Imagine the same thing happening with the Conservatives or Labour. Surely this can’t be legal, we asked? The EC were once again unhelpful and suggested we contact the police ourselves if we believed fraud had been committed.

Of course we have reported this to the police, along with evidence of Mr Golding and Ms Fransen emailing supporters of the party for donations to fund their own criminal legal proceedings and fines. Now we hope they will pursue a case, this time not funded by people who have fallen for their lies.

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You Can’t Live on the National Living Wage. Post post thoughts.

We posted this on our Facebook page this week, and the reactions of many seemed to really reinforce the point we were trying to make. Many people questioned the figures, saying the rent was too expensive (yes, yes it is, but it is what people are paying for private rental of a 2 bedroom home in the south east!), or that the food budget was too low (again, yes it is but a lot of families are trying to feed themselves on this amount or even less). We were told to move somewhere cheaper, or not to have a car, or even that people who couldn’t afford children shouldn’t have them. The responses surprised us, the fact that these were the first reactions people had, rather than anger at exploitative workplaces or the lack of affordable housing. Has the constant media “benefit porn” become so ingrained in our subconscious’ that our first instinct is to judge and criticise people stuck in the poverty trap rather than the issues that put them there?

This is an example of the finances of a working family living in private rented accommodation in the south east. It allows for only the most basic of living costs, not including clothing a family, birthday or Christmas presents, any social events or treats, or even haircuts. With 2 working parents it isn’t possible to live without tax credits. There are many vital jobs that are paid the the national living wage. Social care, childcare, retail, warehouse and factories to name a few. Many of these jobs are also zero hour contracts, providing employees with very little security. The corporations that employ thousands in this manner, such as Sports Direct, Care UK, McDonalds, Amazon and many more, make large profits for owners, shareholders and private equity firms. We need to acknowledge that for a majority of families the living wage is impossible to live on. Tax credits are not a benefit for employees but a subsidy for large profitable organisations that also aggressively avoid tax liabilities. Our system, our laws and our politics are weighted in their favour. We are encouraged by media and politicians to direct our anger at the poor because they claim benefits, or to migrants because they accept low paid work. Why? Because it creates a diversion from the real problem. A 50p per hour increase on low wages in a society that doesn’t provide enough genuine social housing, and that reduces in work benefit thresholds, achieves nothing. The system is fundamentally and deliberately broken. Until that message is received and understood by the majority, we won’t see any real change.

TORY LEADERSHIP RACE HEATS UP

Our sources confirm that Iain Duncan Smith and George Osborne are uniting and joining the battle as an unlikely team. Smith was overheard discussing strategy with a press officer, stating “we are overcoming our Brexit differences and working together for a common goal. Yes, f***ing over the peasants Tom, the party can’t afford to fall apart on this one. Whether from the UK, Europe or further afield, we have an obligation to provide companies with more minimum wage workers on zero protection contracts”.
It has been strongly rumoured that George will run for leader, with IDS in line to become chancellor, because as George himself was overheard confessing, he is “a bit s*** with numbers”. His supporters confirm he is however a fantastic front man, especially after a bathroom break. There are concerns that the man who claimed he could live on £7 a day and then failed miserably is in fact not a lot better with finances, but he has been rumoured to have been practicing at his local Lidl.

The partnership came into creation after an unfortunate incident at the Carlton Club late on Friday afternoon. Smith popped in to have a gloat, and discovered George stuck in the bathroom. His head was wedged between the toilet cistern and cubicle wall as a result of a freak mishap involving a wet floor and some talcum powder. An unnamed source said he had been missing from his seat for several hours, but nobody had wanted to go and check because “you never know with George”. After taking stock of the situation, IDS allegedly pulled Osborne free and hoisted him into a fireman’s lift to carry him discreetly through the kitchens to the rear exit.

Smith made the snap decision to return to his own home with the semi-comatose chancellor because it is well known in certain circles that Mrs O “has had enough of this shit”. According to member of Smith’s household staff, it was actually his wife Betsy who formulated the plan. She allegedly told her husband he is so repugnant even she has to call George’s man for something “a little heavier” prior to going to bed with him. She allegedly told her husband “if people find Boris amusing enough to vote for, George after a couple of g’s of the Columbian stuff should knock ‘em dead”.

The chancellor confirmed in his speech this morning he would be announcing his intentions in the coming days.

Brexit – The truth behind the Leave campaign leaflet’s claims.

“The EU costs us £350m per week – we could spend that on the NHS instead”Actual NET spend is £163m per week. For open trade, that’s a drop in the ocean.

Source: https://fullfact.org/europe/our-eu-membership-fee-55-million/

“There are risks in voting either way – but we think the safer option is to Vote Leave”

This is nothing more than uneducated opinion. As this pamphlet demonstrates perfectly, there is nothing to back this up.

If we vote to stay in the EU

“The EU will continue to grow. The next countries set to join are: Albania: 2.8m, Macedonia: 2.1m, Montenegro: 0.6m, Serbia: 7.2m, Turkey: 76m”

– This has no bearing on anything. These are not people that are going to move to the UK. In a recent survey of Turkish people, 86% said they ‘wouldn’t even consider’ moving to the UK.

– Despite the right wing media LIES, we are not about to see 70,000,000 Turkish people move to the UK.

Source: http://www.economic-truth.co.uk/?p=545

– Which goes without saying, Turkey have only completed 1 of 35 chapters required for their membership to be considered, and that has taken 29 years to achieve.

– The supporting graphic suggests the entire populations of these five countries are going to move to the UK. This is scaremongering, aimed at curtain twitchers and people with blinkered vision, and a life of failure.

“The next countries the EU wants to ‘let in’ include Turkey, which has a population of over 76 million and has borders with Syria and Iraq”

– More scaremongering. If you think having a country with borders against an unstable country is bad for the security of the EU, consider that the British & US activity in Iraq is responsible for the deaths of over 461,000 civilians. That’s against 3,108 killed in the UK and US, from (including) 9/11 to the current day. 2,996 people died on 9/11, and 54 people have been killed in UK terror attacks in the same period (15 years)

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24547256

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Islamist_terrorist_attacks

– In fact, bees have caused as many deaths in the UK as terrorism.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/28/terrorism-bees_n_1633308.html

– And, Islamic terrorists only account for 6% of terror deaths in the US between 1980 and 2005.

– Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/non-muslims-carried-out-more-than-90-of-all-terrorist-attacks-in-america/5333619

– And, between 82% and 97% of victims of terror attacks are Muslim. SO if Islam is trying to take over the world, you would have to believe they’re ‘doing it wrong’.

Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/muslims-are-the-victims-of-between-82-and-97-of-terrorism-related-fatalities-us-government/5516565

– Not to mention there are currently around 53,000 Turkish born people living in the UK. And 40,000 British born people living in Turkey. It isn’t one way traffic, it’s reasonably even.

“The EU will cost us more and more (with assisted source-lacking graphic). The EU already costs us £350m a week – enough to build a new NHS hospital every week. We get less than half of this back, and have no say over how it is spent”

– Where to start? Actual NET spend is £163m per week. For open trade, that’s a drop in the ocean.

Source: https://fullfact.org/europe/our-eu-membership-fee-55-million/

– And would you trust a woefully inadequate conservative government to invest in hospitals, given their reluctance to do so since 2010, and their lack of acknowledgement of the NHS deficit at present…

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35062121

“Millions spent on limos and expenses for Euro MPs”

– This is no different to the UK government, regardless of which party is in power. A limousine by definition is “a luxury sedan or saloon car generally driven by a chauffeur”. Basically a taxi, not the stretch limo shown in the graphic.

“Immigration will continue to be out of control. Nearly 2 million people came to the UK from the EU over the last ten years. Imagine what it will be like in future decades when new, poorer countries join.”

– Net migration from the EU in the last ten years stands 1.073m

Source: http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/

– Imagine what our lives would be like if we exaggerated everything by 200%? The point is null as it’s a speculation based on an incorrect figure.

“We’ll have to keep bailing out the Euro. The countries the use the Euro have a built-in majority, meaning they can always outvote us. You will be paying the bill for the EU’s failure”.

– Total spending on EU bailouts in the last 8 years: ZERO. Euro Bailouts have come from EU quantitative easing, whereby the EU government ‘create’ €60bn EACH MONTH – more than the total contributions of member states.

– But – Quantitative Easing in the UK has seen the UK government print £375bn since 2008. That’s almost £47bn per year, knocked off the value of the sterling, thus reducing the value of everything you own and the actual worth of the money in your bank account.

Are you starting to see the arguments about EU membership fees are petty and worthless yet, when quantitative easing is paying the NET EU membership rate six times over?

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15198789

“The European Court will be in charge of our laws. It already overrules us on everything from how much tax we pay, to who we can let in and out of the country, and on what terms.”

– The laws – the UK’s MEPs get to vote on all EU laws. Most UKIP MEPs don’t bother to turn up to vote though.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ukip-meps-attend-the-fewest-european-parliament-votes-of-any-party-in-the-eus-28-countries-10316962.html

– The laws that the EU overrule us on are very few and far between. Boris Johnson will tell you about how the EU have overruled us on 56 laws, but he fails to mention the 2466 laws we have either proposed or agreed with. That’s 2.2% of laws the MEPs that don’t even bother turning up to vote on have failed to agree.

Source: http://infacts.org/mythbusts/britain-hasnt-lost-72-0-eu-council/

– This isn’t even mentioning the times the UKIP MEPs voted against the interests of the UK on several issues.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/these-are-the-british-meps-who-voted-against-plans-to-crack-down-on-corporate-tax-evasion-a6982271.html

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-vote-against-eu-law-that-could-have-helped-british-steel-a6964476.html

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04/23/ukip-vote-against-ivory-trade_n_5197278.html

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/11956504/Ukip-oppose-EU-deal-to-end-mobile-roaming-charges-for-British-tourists.html

Source: https://next.ft.com/content/85563e82-8f44-11e3-be85-00144feab7de

If we Vote Leave and take back control

“We’ll be in charge of our own borders. In a world with so many new threats it’s safer to control our own borders and decide for ourselves who can come into this country, not be overruled by EU judges.”

– We already have control of our borders.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control/overview

– We do not face a realistic terrorist threat on our shores. There have been two terrorist murders in the UK in the last ten years, both committed by British nationals.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_Great_Britain

– In fact, the current terror threat is as high from NI sectarian terrorism as it is from Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.

Source: https://www.mi5.gov.uk/terrorism

– EU judges do not have control over UK migration policy – however, to trade with the EU open market, we would most likely have to accept free movement of people within the EU. A block on immigration would also see a block on emigration. With almost 4 million British nationals already living abroad, what should be done with these people?

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/so-many-brits-now-live-abroad-that-theyre-causing-immigration-debates-oh-the-irony-a6723006.html

“We can control immigration – and have a fairer system which welcomes people to the UK based on the skills they have, not the passport they hold.”

– This comment is based on nothing but an idea, but Nigel Farage has often suggested we should adopt a system similar to the Australian model. Unfortunately for Nigel, the maths don’t add up. Australia ‘have twice as many migrants per head as the UK’.

– Norway and Switzerland are also heralded by the Leave campaign as model states, but their immigration policies are no different to the policy the UK has at present.

– Free movement of people applies to countries not in the EU but in the European Economic Area (EEA), like Norway, as it does to Switzerland. Norway and Switzerland both have higher immigration per head of population from the EU than the UK, as of 2013.

– If we want to trade within the European Economic Area (EEA) we have to accept the EU free movement policy.

Source: https://fullfact.org/immigration/what-would-australian-style-points-system-mean-uk-immigration/

“We will be able to save £350 million per week. We can spend our money on our priorities like the NHS, schools and housing”

– The £350 million figure is a myth, as previously stated. The actual NET figure is £163 million.

Source: https://fullfact.org/europe/our-eu-membership-fee-55-million/

– Of the money we get back from the EU at present, a significant percentage is already spent on education. We’re already getting this money through the EU, so this point is null.

Source: https://fullfact.org/education/how-much-money-do-british-universities-get-eu/

– UK governments have increased tuition fees at universities from £1000 per year in 1998 to £9000 per year in 2012.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11677862

– Even when the UK government have made university education unaffordable to most of the population, their 300% hike in tuition fees generated no extra income.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/mar/21/explained-triple-tuition-fees-no-extra-cash

– They’re not going to spend money on education. History demonstrates this remarkably well.

– The Leave campaign claim they will be able to spend an extra £5.5bn annually on the NHS – but most leading economists consider this to be incorrect – ‘Most economists think it’s unlikely to be the case. Most predict that leaving the EU would probably put additional strain on the UK public finances overall, making it harder to pay for public services out of tax revenue.’

Source: https://fullfact.org/europe/nhs-eu-funding-and-vat-possible-effects-leaving-eu/

– And housing. How are we going to build affordable housing when the conservative led media claim it is not required?

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/12112878/The-UK-doesnt-need-more-social-housing-but-we-do-need-to-build-more-homes.html

– And we need to build new homes. By our own government’s estimates, up to 400,000 per year. How many are getting built? 143,560 last year, quite short of the target.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/25/uk-housebuilding-new-homes-construction-high-2008

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30776306

– And what is the biggest problem with building new houses? Most people don’t want the housing near them. The selfish attitude towards much needed building projects strangles a lot of projects before they even have a chance to begin.

Source: http://www.cornishguardian.co.uk/north-cornwall-mp-urges-council-refuse-permission/story-29334226-detail/story.html

Source: http://www.dartmouth-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=103927&headline=SHDC%20refuses%20K4%20planning%20application&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2016

Source: http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/northeast/controversial-housing-scheme-refused

Source: http://www.torquayheraldexpress.co.uk/torquay-s-abbey-sands-holiday-flats-refused/story-29398369-detail/story.html

– In fact, it’s easier to find out how to object to other people’s building projects than it is to get planning permission to build much needed housing.

Source: http://planninglawblog.blogspot.co.uk/p/how-to-object.html

“We will be free to trade with the whole world. The EU stops us signing our own trade deals with key allies like Australia or New Zealand, and growing economies like India, China and Brazil. We’ll be free to seize new opportunities which means more jobs.”

– We can already trade with all the countries listed.

– ‘China’s Xi Jinping urges UK to stay in EU’

Source: https://next.ft.com/content/df78cae4-797e-11e5-933d-efcdc3c11c89

– ‘Britain remaining in EU is ‘better for the world’, says Japanese prime minister’

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/05/japan-prime-minister-britain-eu-shinzo-abe

– ‘Indian prime minister hints that Britain should stay in EU because it is a gateway to Europe’

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11989740/David-Cameron-and-Narendra-Modi-have-big-ambitions-for-UK-India-relations-live.html

– ‘Australia would welcome In vote, says PM Turnbull’

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36183444

– ‘UK stronger in EU, says New Zealand PM’

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35943388

– And Brazil’s economy is in ‘turmoil’.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-19/brazil-s-financial-chief-says-economy-worse-off-than-he-imagined

– So all the countries listed by the Leave campaign, the head of each country has recommended we stay in the EU. Not so sure leaving is a good idea, Mr Gove.

“We can make our own laws. Our laws should be made by people we can elect and kick out – that’s more democratic.”

– We do make our own laws. Only 2% of laws implemented in the UK are imposed by the EU.

Source: http://infacts.org/mythbusts/britain-hasnt-lost-72-0-eu-council/

– The EU is a democratically elected government, of which almost 10% of MEPs are representatives of the UK.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament

– While we can elect MEPs and we can also elect MPs in a UK government, the conservative party will do anything they can to retain control in parliament. In fact, they’re being investigated by 18 police forces across the country for ELECTORAL FRAUD, with 29 seats potentially won by fraudulent means.

Source: http://www.channel4.com/news/election-expenses-exposed

– The conservative party have a majority of just 12.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015/results

– While they claim they are democratically elected, they only won 24.3% of the vote.

Source: http://www.conservativehome.com/highlights/2015/05/lets-not-get-carried-away-the-conservatives-only-won-over-a-quarter-of-all-potential-voters.html

– Think you can vote them out? Think again. A Brexit would almost certainly guarantee another Scottish independence referendum. The Scottish are clever, they want to remain in the EU.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/20/salmond-brexit-could-trigger-scottish-independence-in-two-years/

– Without Scotland contributing to a UK general election, the number of seats in parliament would be reduced by 59. This would effectively give the conservatives a majority of 71. Vote out of the EU and we’re most likely stuck with conservatives.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Scotland

– And they also want to redraw constituency lines to increase their majority further.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/11593496/New-Commons-boundaries-top-Conservative-government-agenda.html

– Leaving the EU would therefore practically GUARANTEE decades of conservative rule, decades of austerity, recession and a growing divide between the rich and poor.

“Does the EU keep us safe? (Sir Richard Dearlove, former chief of MI5) Brexit would bring two potentially important security gains: the ability to dump the European Convention on Human Rights and, more importantly, greater control over immigration from the European Union”

– Dumping the European Convention on Human Rights, a policy introduced by Britain after the second world war would be a phenomenally stupid idea. People should read it and understand what it does for them before they think it’s a good idea to bin it.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/oct/03/what-is-european-convention-on-human-rights-echr

– It’s also not possible.

Source: https://next.ft.com/content/8f3c08f8-f2a9-11e5-9f20-c3a047354386

– Immigration has already been covered.

“Would jobs be at risk? Toyota, Nissan, Vauxhall, General Electric, Unilever, Airbus cited) EU Regulations make it harder for British firms to hire staff. Major employers like Toyota, Nissan, Vauxhall, Honda, Unilever, GE and Airbus have all said they will stay in the UK whatever the result of the referendum.”

– Toyota support EU membership. They’re not happy about Leave using their logo either. Things may not be rosy going forward for UK employees if we leave the EU.

Source: http://blog.toyota.co.uk/statement-from-toyota-in-regards-to-the-uk-eu-referendum-june-23rd-2016

Source: http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/vauxhall-toyota-unilever-unhappy-vote-11457293

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/mar/03/uk-motor-industry-backs-uk-remaining-in-europe-survey-eu-positive-impacy

– Nissan support EU membership. Nissan are also suing Leave over their inclusion on this pamphlet.

Source: http://nissaninsider.co.uk/nissan-it-makes-sense-for-uk-to-remain-in-eu/

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/20/nissan-vote-leave-campaign-eu-referendum-flyer

– Vauxhall support EU membership. They’re not happy about Leave using their logo either.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-referendum-car-industry-leaders-back-remain-campaign-a7090976.html

Source: http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/vauxhall-toyota-unilever-unhappy-vote-11457293

– GE support EU membership. They’re not happy about Leave using their logo either.

Source: https://next.ft.com/content/cee23c96-1cfe-11e6-a7bc-ee846770ec15

Source: http://www.worldipreview.com/news/eu-referendum-unilever-airbus-and-ge-attack-vote-leave-over-logo-use-10289

– Unilever support EU membership. They’re not happy about Leave using their logo either.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36544875

Source: http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/vauxhall-toyota-unilever-unhappy-vote-11457293

Source: http://www.worldipreview.com/news/eu-referendum-unilever-airbus-and-ge-attack-vote-leave-over-logo-use-10289

– Honda support EU membership.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/9796813/Hondas-UK-boss-warns-Britain-must-stay-at-heart-of-EU-as-it-cuts-800-jobs.html

– Airbus support EU membership. They’re not happy about Leave using their logo either.

Source: https://next.ft.com/content/cee23c96-1cfe-11e6-a7bc-ee846770ec15

Source: http://www.worldipreview.com/news/eu-referendum-unilever-airbus-and-ge-attack-vote-leave-over-logo-use-10289

– All the companies listed support EU membership. Who signed off on this? The Leave campaign has no support from major manufacturers.

“Does the EU mean lower prices? (Tim Martin, Chairman of Wetherspoons) The EU places tariffs on goods from outside of the EU, which is bad for British shoppers and the developing world. And the EU forces us to charge VAT on goods, pushing up bills for working families.”

– ‘If the UK and the EU can’t agree on a specific trade agreement, then trade would take place under World Trade Organisation rules.’

Source: https://fullfact.org/europe/tariffs-and-barriers-trade-between-britain-and-eu/

– The EU set VAT rates at a minimum of 15%. The conservative government put that up to 20% in the UK. Leaving the EU is not likely to see VAT decrease – null point.

Source: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/topics/rates_en.htm

“Will we be better or worse off? (Nigel Lawson, former Chancellor of the Exchequer) As Chancellor I became increasingly aware that, in economic terms, membership of the EU did us more harm than good. Outside the EU, we would prosper, we would be free, and we would stand tall.”

– The vast majority of economists disagree with Lamont, who left the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer over 27 years ago. The rest of his statement is pure fantasy.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/19/eu-referendum-nobel-prize-winning-economists-warn-of-long-term-brexit-damage 

Source: https://next.ft.com/content/e66852f0-3249-11e6-ad39-3fee5ffe5b5b 

Source: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/economists-warn-against-brexit-vote-bh07fdx0t 
“What’s best for business? (John Longworth, Director General, British Chamber of Commerce, 2011-16) The EU interferes with UK firms and stacks the rules in favour of a select number of big businesses. If we Vote Leave, jobs will be safer. We can have faster growth and greater prosperity in the future.”

– A lack of detail into how the ‘EU interferes with UK firms’ makes this one difficult to pin down. Although all the firms highlighted above are vehemently against the Leave campaign, as documented.

– It is well documented that the government favours a select number of big businesses, but this is not a EU problem, it’s quite the opposite. The government are missing out on collecting anywhere from £25-75bn annually by allowing large corporations tax breaks. Companies getting these tax breaks include Starbucks, Google and Amazon, all of whom have paid little or no corporation tax in recent years.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20560359 

– The EU has tried to crack down on tax avoidance, at corporate level.

Source: https://next.ft.com/content/e7c430d6-c5c2-11e5-808f-8231cd71622e 

– But much to our disappointment, British MEPs voted against investigating and closing down corporate tax loopholes. Think the UK are going to do anything about corporate tax avoidance? Think again.

– Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/these-are-the-british-meps-who-voted-against-plans-to-crack-down-on-corporate-tax-evasion-a6982271.html 

– John Longworth offers no insight into how the UK will make jobs ‘safer’, ‘faster growth’ and ‘greater future prosperity’, so this is a null point.  

Does the EU protect workers rights? (Gisela Stuart, Labour MP and Chair of Vote Leave) The rights we have won for British workers came from our Parliament, not the EU. The EU is run in the interests of big corporations who spend billions lobbying to make it work for them.”

– Workers rights in the UK devolve directly from the EU.

Source: https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/UK%20employment%20rights%20and%20the%20EU.pdf 

– The rest of her comment can just as easily be attributed to the British government, as demonstrated with John Longworth above.

Still think the Leave campaign has anything to offer?

Rupert Murdoch- The man who runs the world?

 

Newscorp international. The far reaching Murdoch Empire, owning vast swathes of the English speaking media.

Sky. 21st Century Fox. Telstra. The Sun. The Australian Telegraph. The Times. Sunday Times. Press Association. New York Times. Dow Jones & Company. Wall Street Journal. The Australian. HarperCollins.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of companies and publications owned by Rupert Murdoch, it purely illustrates the power he holds over the political and social narrative stretching over three continents. You don’t hear that much about Murdoch in the media because he IS the media.

I could talk about phone hacking, I could talk about “king making”, I could talk about controlling governments by controlling the electorate. All very worthwhile topics regarding Murdoch, but there is one particular subject I want to cover here today.

Murdoch’s heavy involvement in Genie Oil and Gas. A subsidiary of IDT energy, spun off in 2011. Afek Oil and Gas is an Israeli subsidiary of Genie. Rupert Murdoch holds shares in Genie, as well as sitting on their Strategic Advisory Board, alongside a stellar cast:

Michael Steinhardt (SAB Chairman) – Noted Wall Street investor and Principal Manager, Steinhardt Management LLC.

Richard Cheney – 46th Vice President of the United States.

Marry Landrieu – United States Senator from Louisiana from 1996 to 2014. Senator Landrieu served as chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. In her capacity as chair, she sponsored and passed the U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperation Bill.

Rupert Murdoch – Founder and Executive Chairman of News Corporation, one of the world’s largest diversified media companies. News Corporation’s holdings include significant media assets on six continents.

Bill Richardson – Governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. Mr. Richardson served as Energy Secretary in the Clinton administration (1998-2001).

Jacob Rothschild, OM, GBE – Chairman of the J. Rothschild group of companies and of RIT Capital Partners plc. Chairman of Five Arrows Limited. Lord Rothschold is a noted philanthropist and Chairman of the Rothschild Foundation.

Dr. Lawrence Summers – Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard University. Dr. Summers served as the 71st Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton and as Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama.

R. James Woolsey – Director of Central Intelligence from 1993 to 1995. Mr. Woolsey is co-founder of the United States Energy Security Council.

This board reads like a who’s who of Washington, and there’s a good reason for that. Genie Oil was a company set up for the purpose of extracting oil from Golan Heights.

The Golan Heights is a 700 square mile stretch of land on the Syrian / Israeli border. Formally recognised by the UN as Syrian land, the Israeli government seized Golan during the 6 day war of 1967.  Israel began constructing settlements in the 1970s and extended Isreali law across the area in 1981. Isreal’s occupation is internationally recognised as illegal.

Back to Genie. Their subsidiary Afek was awarded exploratory drilling rights in Golan in February 2013 by the Israeli government. In October 2015 the company announced a significant find, with WorldOil reporting a 350m oil depth, which is up to 10 times the average oil field.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has even asked President Obama to formally recognise Golan as a part of Israel, citing the Syrian war as justification.

In November 2015, at the first meeting between Netanyahu and Obama in over a year, the Israeli leader allegedly said as Syria was no longer a fully functioning state, this allowed “for different thinking”.

An article from October 2015 in The Jewish Press stated:

Syrian rebels, the Islamic State (ISIS) and the Assad regime, and today that means Russia, now have another reason to capture the Golan Heights – oil.

If Genie manage to extract this oil it would leave Israel independent of its Arab neighbours for fuel for decades, as well as providing a friendly source for the USA. The political ramifications of oil in the Golan are complex and far reaching.

Murdoch is no stranger to using his media control to manipulate voters. He helped Thatcher in the 80s,  Blair to power in 1997 and Bush in 2000. He uses his power to influence public opinion. His outlets were all in staunch support of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The war in Syria has been incredibly complicated by the actions of other nation states each supporting their favoured factions. As can be seen from the Jewish Press article, the belief that Russia is supporting Assad for its own gains is a theory considered by Israeli media. From Murdoch’s point of view, continued instability in the region is necessary for business. Genie need Golan Heights to be internationally acknowledged as part of Israel prior to extracting billions of barrels of oil from it. A master of manipulation, a well publicised control freak, and quite likely a narcissist; is Murdoch once again using his control of public opinion and of government heads to suit his own agenda?

The Reality for Syrian Refugees

I have been visiting the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq for 7 years now. Married to a Kurd, it’s a necessary, albeit rather dangerous and adventurous part of our family life. We take an annual trip there, which usually involves months of preparations, consular advice, vaccines, and a suitcase full of meds “just in case”.

In April 2014, on the drive up to the family village, we noticed a huge refugee camp had sprung up in Arbat, known locally as Scorpion Town due to the hundreds of thousands of deadly scorpions that live there. We’ve never stopped there before for that very reason!

We asked our driver to pull over, so we could have a better look at the camp, and I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like it. Row upon row of white UNHCR tents, as far as you could see, a tall barbed wire fence keeping the refugees in, armed guards every few meters, and grubby, tiny, children playing in the dust.. I’ve lived a very comfortable life here in the UK, and even though visiting family in Iraq is a bit of a culture shock, it was nothing like seeing this huge camp.

We were very fortunate that the guard in charge of the camp was a relative and was delighted that “The Westerners” were wanting to visit and have a look around.

The camp was hot, dusty and smelly, as you would expect. The sanitation was horrendous, we had to step over rivers of sewage flowing between tents. This was the best they could do, the overly stretched camp director told us sadly. “They don’t mind really, they never complain, they know they are safe, they are just waiting to go back home”.

We were followed around by groups of kids, some of whom were too young to remember a life outside the camp, they had no television or internet and so the sight of strange, white people was quite a talking point.

On our first visit , there were around 3,500 refugees, Syrian Kurds, who make up around 15% of Syria’s population, who had fled the fighting. There was one part time Doctor’s clinic (tent). There was a school, which consisted of a few big tents under a makeshift barn-type structure. The tents had no heating or cooling (bear in mind in the winter the temperatures gets as low as -15, and in summer can reach 50 degrees). These people had the clothes they stood up in, a few blankets to sleep on, and some pots and pans. None of them wanted to be there, and none of them wanted anything else but to go home. No-one wanted to come to Europe, no one even knew what a benefit system was, never mind planning to milk it. They were trapped inside the camp, no one was allowed in or out, except for emergency medical care. Despite having had houses, job, cars, normal lives back home, they were now treated a prisoners.

We came back determined to help out in whatever way we could and started to fundraise, via family, friends and our business. The issue of refugees was by now being highlighted all over western media and thankfully, lots of people wanted to help out. We collected clothes, toiletries and medicines and managed a huge truckload of items which we arranged to be driven to the camp. We then did further fundraising and managed to buy every child a winter coat. My brother in law who helped distribute them said he had never felt so humbled. The children patiently waiting in line for their coats, the mothers weeping with gratitude, the fathers weeping with shame at not being able to provide basic warmth for their children.

In April this year, we again set off to visit the camp. My whole outlook had changed since my last visit. I had become, sadly, acutely aware of the racism and hatred that was emerging towards refugees. The constant media coverage of hordes of rampaging, raping, refugees, the hidden Isis members, the benefit seekers and the job stealers, none of it remotely accurate, I knew. I was on a personal mission, supported by, thankfully, a lot of like-minded folk, to educate people and set the record straight. Refugees were people, humans, just like me. They’d just ended up in a crappy situation.

There are 5million registered Syrian refugees, of which 2.5 million are children. That’s more than the populations of Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Cardiff put together, just kids. Those figures are astounding, and should make every stop and think. They are most certainly not “all young males” as mass media would have you believe. They are also the kindest, most gentle people. Never once, on wither visit, did I feel uncomfortable or threatened, I had my young children with me who were free to wander round the camp, who joined in an impromptu game of football, regardless of the language barrier.

In 2014, the Arbat camp housed. It was meant to be a temporary camp, set up in 2013, but sadly, on our last visit this month, 3 years on, the camp has now grown and extended to three separate camps.

The camp we visited this year at least had people housed in shelters, not tents, which could be heated in winter and were waterproof and windproof. However, sadly, the population had now doubled to almost 7,500. The realisation that these camps weren’t temporary had clearly sunk in.

The conditions have improved slightly, with the accommodation and sanitation, however, the food shortages were a real problem. We arrived when the food rations were being handed out. There wasn’t enough to go round. I asked the lovely camp director, a tiny slip of a woman, who was clearly utterly respected and revered by the refugees in the camp, what about those families who didn’t get anything? “They queue until tomorrow”. Simple, yet heart breaking.

We visited the school and were so warmly welcomed by all the children and the teachers (all volunteers, refugees in the camp themselves), they were fascinated to know where we had come from, why we there. We met with the director of the school, a Kurd who was employed by UNCHR to lead the school. Still turning up for work everyday from 6am until 6pm, despite all government employee wages in Kurdistan having been stopped for 5 months due to the funding being reallocated to the fight against Isis.

“The children come, every day. Except for washday. They have one set of clothes, for sleeping, for daytime, for winter and summer. They wash them once a week, They can’t come to school that day. They cry, because they love the school. They can forget about where they are, they learn about other lands, about other cultures, they want to travel, they dream about what job they will do. Some of them have been born in the camp, they don’t know anything about the world. Some of them have never been to a shop, never been to a park, never been in a car. They are hungry, and we cannot keep them from falling asleep. They come all day and we only have water to give them for lunch. Some of the children don’t speak. They have seen too much. Children shouldn’t see those things. We try out best, but we aren’t professionals, they need real help some of them. Every night I go home and I cry for them.”

There is so much these people need, as the school director said, of course, they need the war to stop, and they need to go back home, but what they also don’t need is to be vilified, to be labelled, to be feared.

They are people, they hurt, they get sick, they get traumatised, they need our help and understanding. These words are the real refugee crisis, the hatred spread by Britain First, EDL, The Daily Mail and of course my personal favourites Refugees Not Welcome In Devon, are not.

.

Osborne & Little, and a Crash Course in Accountancy

When George Osborne released the rather shortened version of his latest tax return this week I cast it a quick glance, not expecting for a moment it would lead me on a down the rabbit hole type journey that would consume every spare minute I had. Surely nobody really finds this stuff interesting, not even accountants? How hard can it be to do a few sums, it must be a short exercise when armed with PC and trusty calculator?
Here I am 4 days later, having not done nearly as much of my real day job work as I should have. What I am left with is questions. A whole jumbled-up mess of the bloody things. I’m sat thinking how to present these questions, how to sex up the world of company accounts enough to keep your interest until the end. Here goes…

£44,647. The figure on Gideon’s tax return as dividend earnings. The register of MPs interests confirms this must all have been from the family business, Osborne & Little. I had read an article previously that had mentioned a dividend payment of around £1,200 on the Chancellor’s shareholding, so this piqued my interest enough to have a look on Companies House. The company paid out dividends of £335,000 in their 2014/2015 financial year. The annual return confirmed George Gideon Osborne holds 6,833 shares out of a total of 1,989,029, or 0.034% of the business. The calculator is holding up well at this point.

0.034% of £335,000 = £1,150.84

Oh bugger. I’m £43,496.16 short. Trying again didn’t solve it. More maths.

£335,000 / 1,989,029 = £0.16842 per share

£43,496.16 / £0.16842 = 258,260 shares. He must have another 258,260 shares in this Family Trust he makes passing mention to. Hold on, so he’s got 265,093 shares really. That’s (presses buttons furiously on calculator) 13.3% of the business! Quite an interest then.

Having also seen in recent news articles Osborne & Little hadn’t paid corporation tax in 7 years, I wondered how they had managed to pay dividends. Now I’m no accountant but I know dividends are based on profit. It turned out that they did pay £179,000 corporation tax in 2014/15. What has baffled me is the apparent refund in tax in 2013/14. A whopping £599,000, made up of £158,000 fixed asset timing differences and £440,000 tax losses. Cue frantic googling.

Thanks to a rather convoluted tax system combined with a lack of explanation on the company accounts, I’m still not sure on the how or why, but I do have a shocking headache and some sympathy for anyone who works in accountancy.

What I have achieved so far are some questions for our Chancellor.

Dear Gideon,
How exactly is your shareholding in Osborne & Little made up?
Why are the majority of your shares not in your own name?
Have Osborne & Little been in receipt of any government grants, subsidies or tax breaks in the past five years?
What does the £599,000 relate to; in detail and in layman’s terms? (We’re not daft, but we’re not forensic accountants.)
Yours neither sincerely nor faithfully
The Peasants.