Daily Archives: 20 October 2013

Tax Special Investigation: Firms running NHS care services avoiding millions in tax

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tax-special-investigation-firms-running-nhs-care-services-avoiding-millions-in-tax-8892925.html

Companies running care services are among many avoiding millions in tax through a legal loophole. In the first of a series, Emily Dugan and Richard Whittell report

NHS sign

Companies receiving lucrative government contracts to run care services looking after tens of thousands of vulnerable people are avoiding millions of pounds in tax through a legal loophole.

The firms are cutting their taxable UK profits by taking high-interest loans from their owners through the Channel Islands Stock Exchange, an investigation by Corporate Watch and The Independent has found. By racking up large interest payments to their parent companies, they are able to reduce their bottom line and cut their tax bills.

The news will increase concern about NHS reforms that are seeing private companies take more responsibility for services. It also raises questions about the Government’s commitment to tackling corporate tax avoidance, which David Cameron has said “corrodes public trust”.

Over the course of this week, The Independent will reveal how more than 30 UK companies, including some of the UK’s most recognisable brands, are benefiting from this legal tax loophole, known as the quoted Eurobond exemption. HMRC considered restricting the use of the loophole in 2012 but never took action.

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27/11/13 Having received a takedown notice from the Independent newspaper for a different posting, I have reviewed this article which links to an article at the Independent’s website in order to attempt to ensure conformance with copyright laws.

I consider this posting to comply with copyright laws since
a. Only a small portion of the original article has been quoted satisfying the fair use criteria, and / or
b. This posting satisfies the requirements of a derivative work.

Please be assured that this blog is a non-commercial blog (weblog) which does not feature advertising and has not ever produced any income.

dizzy

 

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Libyan politician to fight UK attempt to keep role in his rendition secret

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/libyan-politician-uk-role-rendition-secret

Lawyers for Abdel Hakim Belhaj to challenge government’s efforts to have his case thrown out or tried in secret

Image of Abdel Hakim Belhaj

Lawyers acting for a Libyan politician who accuses MI6 and the CIA of secretly sending him and his pregnant wife to be tortured by Muammar Gaddafi will on Monday fight a UK government attempt to prevent those responsible from being brought to justice.

Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima accuse the government, MI6 and the former foreign secretary Jack Straw of false imprisonment, conspiracy to cause injury, abuse of public office and negligence.

Belhaj’s abduction in 2004 with the help of MI6 came to light when documents were found in Tripoli after Gaddafi’s fall two years ago. They revealed that MI6’s Sir Mark Allen congratulated the Libyan intelligence chief Moussa Koussa on the safe arrival of the “air cargo”, and noted that “the intelligence [on Belhaj] was British”.

The government is expected to argue that the case should be thrown out because it would damage UK-US relations. It is also expected to argue the case is beyond British courts’ jurisdiction given the alleged unlawful acts took place with other states’ help, notably the US and Libya.

Government lawyers have indicated that if necessary they will seek to have the case heard in secret courts set up this year by the Justice and Security Act.

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How I disagree with Greg Dyke on Tony Bliar

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Image of Tony Blair and Ed MilibandInspired by this article about Greg Dyke on Tony Blair.

Tony Blair has been called “a shady figure” and a “very sad man” by former BBC director-general Greg Dyke.

In an explosive interview with the Financial Times, he also said the former Prime Minister had betrayed the very ethos of the Labour Party.

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In his 2004 autobiography, Inside Story, Mr Dyke, 66, condemned the former PM as “a man without real principle.”

He wrote: “He was either incompetent and took Britain to war on a misunderstanding or he lied.”

“We were all duped. What is really frightening is that Blair still doesn’t believe or understand that what he did was fundamentally wrong.”

Dyke is correct in stating that Tony Blair betrayed the very ethos of the Labour Party. That was intentional: Blair hijacked the Labour Party and used it to pursue his own NeoCon policies. I also agree that Blair is a man without real principle.

Dyke’s analysis of Blair over the dodgy dossier being “sexed up” is too simplistic and depends on an incorrect binary oposition when the truth is more complex.

We were not all misled (‘duped’). There were many people who appreciated Blair & Co fully well by then and realised that he would do anything to go to war. There were also whole sections of society – subcultures if you like – that were fully aware of Blair’s actions.

Similarly it’s not either he was incompetent and had made a mistake or he lied. He was and continues to be amoral, insane and a Neo-Conservative.

I’m not sure that he’s sad although I am certain that he’s insecure. That much is certain from the absolute nonsense peddled out at the time. It is clear that spin doctors massaged his ego repeatedly.

While there are suggestions that Blair provided boys to paedos at Selby Wright’s summer school that he helped organise, he is most definitely not the straight kinda guy he liked to portray.

Traitor Tony Blair receives the Congressional Gold Medal of Honour from George 'Dubya' Bush
Tony Blair receives the Congressional Gold Medal of Honour from George ‘Dubya’ Bush

Blair is a NeoCon through and through. That’s what drives him. That’s why – actually combined with not being … – he was so closely-coupled to Dubya Bush.

Image of Mutley getting a medalHe’s also absolutely barking mad – a part of that is being able to rationalise all of the atrocious things that he’s done.

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Lib Dem MPs targeted by campaign group over lobbying bill

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http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/20/lobbying-bill-liberal-democrats-targeted-campaign-group-38-degrees

Image of a rally against the lobbying bill in London on 8 October.

With the controversial lobbying bill having moved from the Commons to the Lords this month MPs might have hoped they would now be spared the protests of those worried the new law will curb the campaigning ability of charities and voluntary groups.

One organisation has redoubled its efforts, however, organising a rush of public meetings with Liberal Democrat MPs to remind them, it says, that their traditionally grassroots-based party should know better than to back such a measure.

The group, 38 Degrees, has set up 11 public meetings over little more than a week with MPs, 10 of them with Lib Dems and one with the Tory Chloe Smith, to demand continued attention over what is officially called the transparency of lobbying, non-party campaigning and trade union administration bill. Concentrating the MPs’ minds still further is the fact that several of them have distinctly slim majorities, several hovering around 1,000 and in the case of Simon Wright in Norwich South, a mere 310.

All the MPs at some point either supported or abstained on votes for the bill, which seeks to impose financial limits on spending “for election purposes”. A number of charities and campaign groups have warned this could affect even non-party political activities despite a series of amendments, said David Babbs, the executive director of 38 Degrees.

“We want to give the MPs a strong reminder that the lobbying bill threatens very popular institutions like charities and community groups, things that are generally held in much higher regard than they are, and their constituents will take a keen interest in how they voted on this,” he said. “Secondly, we want to remind MPs about what’s good about grassroots community campaigning, which this bill threatens to constrain. Most MPs at some point thought this stuff was important.”

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