Zahawi

[BillyStubbsTears]

This is so depressing to witness. The Govt is like a terminally ill dog that has lost the will to go on. There should be some mechanism whereby it could be put out of its misery.

[SydneyRover]

Philp only had to say 'well lots of others do it' to turn the car crash into a total write off.

[ravenrover]

If only he and others could be up front about things instead of trying to cover tracks it is happening time and time again the don't seem to learn.
If he had just said at the beginning something along the lines of
I had some bad advice and am now sorting things out with HMRC to pay the due tax.
He would possibly have quashed it all back then but  no denials and threatening letters from Lawyers are the 1st defence, they just can't bring themselves to do it

[BillyStubbsTears]

Astonishing how every generation of politicians forgets the Golden Rule.

It's not the original crime that gets you. It's the cover up.

A stream of people including ex-Tory ministers rushing in to stick the knife in. Not over the tax fiddle (which is telling). Over the fact that Zahawi tried to bully an investigator by sending threatening legal letters from a solicitor, which turn out to have been full of lies.

Sunak is showing awful judgement in letting this string out.

[Donnywolf]

Amen to that but ....


When you get 3 names Shapps doing it and rising to be Chairman of Conservatives there is an incentive to "cover up" surely especially if the PM of the day gets a final say on the "Independent" Reviewers Report , especially whether he or she agrees with it and whether he or she accepts the findings

Lately we have had a string of " x , y or z has apologised and I have accepted that apology and we have moved on",  so tough it out and let events overtake your personal "difficulties" seems to be the order of the day

[mugnapper]

Re Zahawi. Why would a man worth 'up to £100 million' (quote  Daily Express); bother with a job that pays him £100k a year? It's like King Charles getting a paper round.
Is it :-
A) An overwhelming desire to improve the living standards of all UK citizens or
B) Be in a position to influence decisions that will make himself and his kind, even richer?

[Donnywolf]

You should have done a Poll

B for me.

There can't be any other reason although you could maybe split B into 2 (making himself richer or making himself and others like him richer)

Personally I think helping the others is a lucky by product for the rest like him !

[Filo]

The good thing is, the longer this drags on, the more damaging it is for the Tory party

[Donnywolf]

.... agreed but the Country is going to the dogs while they have and will continue to behave like they have been doing.

They may be voted out (who knows at this range) but if they are what a mess for the incoming Party

Personally and nobody will be surprised I would really welcome PR of some sort and a chance to leave extremism ( wherever it comes from ) behind us forever


And yes I hope the new Govt introduces a fixed 30 minutes for each half of first class Footy matches ( 2 in 1 ) 

[SydneyRover]

Zahawi gone before question time, that is the question?

[SydneyRover]

Beth Rigby twitter

''Ahead of #PMQs source close to Zahawi tells me he “100% is not resigning”. More on @skynews with MP panel @JayneSeckerSky and me imminently''

good for labour, bad for the country

[Filo]

Beth Rigby twitter

''Ahead of #PMQs source close to Zahawi tells me he “100% is not resigning”. More on @skynews with MP panel @JayneSeckerSky and me imminently''

good for labour, bad for the country

Doesn’t want to step off the gravy train

[MachoMadness]

Beth Rigby twitter

''Ahead of #PMQs source close to Zahawi tells me he “100% is not resigning”. More on @skynews with MP panel @JayneSeckerSky and me imminently''

good for labour, bad for the country

He'll be out by the weekend then.

[Donnywolf]

Zahawi gone before question time, that is the question?

Not a chance imo

[Ldr]

Re Zahawi. Why would a man worth 'up to £100 million' (quote  Daily Express); bother with a job that pays him £100k a year? It's like King Charles getting a paper round.
Is it :-
A) An overwhelming desire to improve the living standards of all UK citizens or
B) Be in a position to influence decisions that will make himself and his kind, even richer?

You don’t get into politics at that level unless you are on the take would be my opinion

[ravenrover]

Zahawi gone before question time, that is the question?

Not a chance imo

Bit late making that comment Wolfie PMQT was at 12.00 :-]]

[BillyStubbsTears]

Re Zahawi. Why would a man worth 'up to £100 million' (quote  Daily Express); bother with a job that pays him £100k a year? It's like King Charles getting a paper round.
Is it :-
A) An overwhelming desire to improve the living standards of all UK citizens or
B) Be in a position to influence decisions that will make himself and his kind, even richer?

You don’t get into politics at that level unless you are on the take would be my opinion

Absolute nonsense.

The vast majority of senior ministers on both sides, throughout recent history haven't been "on the take".

The problem is, so many basic standards have slipped in recent years (and I mean just the last few) that it's become normalised to think they are all crooks, spivs or liars.

They aren't. Most of them are decent, honest and hard working, even the ones I think are talentless.

It's this attitude that beds in the chance of chancers running the country. If people believe that all politicians are bent, what's the incentive for a politician to stay straight?

[danumdon]

Re Zahawi. Why would a man worth 'up to £100 million' (quote  Daily Express); bother with a job that pays him £100k a year? It's like King Charles getting a paper round.
Is it :-
A) An overwhelming desire to improve the living standards of all UK citizens or
B) Be in a position to influence decisions that will make himself and his kind, even richer?

You don’t get into politics at that level unless you are on the take would be my opinion

Absolute nonsense.

The vast majority of senior ministers on both sides, throughout recent history haven't been "on the take".

The problem is, so many basic standards have slipped in recent years (and I mean just the last few) that it's become normalised to think they are all crooks, spivs or liars.

They aren't. Most of them are decent, honest and hard working, even the ones I think are talentless.

It's this attitude that beds in the chance of chancers running the country. If people believe that all politicians are bent, what's the incentive for a politician to stay straight?

You kepp telling yourself this BST and people will still think the other way because these clowns keep proving them right and you wrong by their very actions.

The incentive for politicians should be to be decent, honest and hardworking and root out and expose these charlatans for what they are, instead they provide cover and allow the rotten core to continue to defraud the country. Its happening on a steady basis just from the snippets we get to hear about, we should be more concerned with the section we don't get to hear about because you could bet your house on it that its there and permeating.

[SydneyRover]

Name and shame DD that's always a good start.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Name and shame DD that's always a good start.

Exactly.

DD, you keep telling us they are all the same.

Tell me who the last senior Labour politician was who got fingered for tax evasion.

Tell me who was the last senior Labour politician was who tried to frighten off members of the public who tried to expose their cheating by threatening to destroy them with legal action. Like Zahawi and Shapps.

Tell me who was the last Labour PM who built his career on lies on matters of Objective Truth. Like Johnson.

Tell me who was the last Labour Cabinet Minister who drove a member of staff to attempt suicide because of constant bullying. Like Patel.

You WANT them all to be the same. So you assume they are. But you never give any evidence to back that up.

[danumdon]

I stand by my last sentence.

[SydneyRover]

you don't know of any at all do you dd? yet more secret knowledge?

[BillyStubbsTears]

Let me try a slightly different tack DD.

1) If there's no penalty for MPs being bent, what is there to stop more bent people being attracted into politics?

2) If people like you and Ldr are lazily going to accuse ALL successful politicians of being bent, what incentive is there for good, honest people to go into politics?

3) If there's no penalty for MPs who lie and cheat to their own advantage (and clearly there isn't, because the country elected a pathological liar as PM, last time it had a choice) then what incentive is there for others to be honest and lose?

This is the bit that people who complain about politicians don't get. If our politics is bent and corrupt and rewards cheats, it is YOUR fault. YOU can vote them out.

[ncRover]

I agree with BST on this one. If enough people have this sort of attitude towards politicians it paves the way for populists like Farage and Trump.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Exactly Nc. The only way to stop liars and frauds winning out is to identify and punish liars and frauds.

[ravenrover]

Bombshell dropped by Head of HMRC you don't get penalised for an innocent error and he will publish the tax affairs to the review chappy if Zahawi approves
Over to you Nadz ball in your court

[i_ateallthepies]

He's on borrowed time and must have known it from the off.  Why do these people insist on gritting it out whilst every toe-curling detail is drip fed to the world until the inevitable destruction of any reputation they may have had?

[Filo]

He's on borrowed time and must have known it from the off.  Why do these people insist on gritting it out whilst every toe-curling detail is drip fed to the world until the inevitable destruction of any reputation they may have had?

His credibility is trashed, the longer he strings it out the more Damage he’s doing to the weak Sunak

[BillyStubbsTears]

I just do not understand what Sunak is doing.

He's been misled by Zahawi. When they discussed this last week, Zahawi didn't tell Sunak that he'd been issued with a penalty. So Sunak went to PMQs last week and defended Zahawi to the hilt.

That's as stonecold a stackable offence as you'll ever see in politics. Sunak could draw a line under this, show who is in control and massively enhance his reputation with the public. It's an open goal and he's dithering over exactly how to tie his laces.

Zahawi is going to get the sack. That's inevitable. But Sunak is going to get zero credit for it. He's going to look like a kid in a grown-up's job. He doesn't need an investigation to know that Zahawi lied to him.

[ravenrover]

He's agreed for his tax affairs to be made available to the enquiry chappy, must be confident of a cover up from Richie. As someone has said he.must know more about Richies tax affairs than we do