Lord Ashcroft. Getting a straight answer

Getting a straight answer to a straight question can be difficult, but getting the answer to the question put ages ago to Lord Ashcroft has been far worse than extracting teeth. Now he has said what we thought anyway. The reason he didn't give an answer was that he did not pay tax to the UK government on his estimable riches. Yet he has been allowed to stay inside British politics playing a leading role and influence in the Tory Party.

"Ashcroft today confirmed that he will comply with cross-party moves to prevent people who do not pay full tax on all their earnings from sitting in either house of parliament and will relinquish his non-dom status.

Ashcroft has funded and masterminded a £5m campaign in marginal seats, which is widely expected to strongly influence the outcome of the election.

Ashcroft also published a letter he wrote to Hague, dated 23 March 2000, in which he gives the undertakings conditional to his peerage. It says: 'I hereby give you my clear and unequivocal assurance that I have decided to take up permanent residence in the UK again before the end of this calendar year. I have given my advisers instructions to make arrangements to give effect to this decision and I will instruct them forthwith to do so within this calendar year.

'I hereby firmly agree that I will not seek to be introduced to the House of Lords until I have taken up residency in the United Kingdom within the timescale mentioned.' He also promises to resign as the Belize representative to the UN on March 31st that year." (Source The Guardian 1/3/2010).

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Blogged by John Tyrrell at 11:13 AM, March 1, 2010 | Comments (0)

Towards a Fifth Socialist International

Communism and communists were famously targets of McCarthy in the USA. Today Socialism is also a taboo word, not only in North America but across Europe. New Labour threw it out after Clause 4 was banished so now it is excluded from political discourse. Even at a conference organised by Compass, which puts itself on the left of New Labour attempts to refer to Socialism or its language (Common ownership) was taboo in the sessions I attended.

Now in Latin America there is a resurgence of socialism, and the reviled (in Western media) Hugo Chavez calls for a Fifth Socialist International

To illustrate the problem states like Venezuela face, criticism of Venezuela's efforts to help Haiti was made in the Huffington Post. Why? It seems that Venezuela has not allied itself with a group effort because it was felt that much aid effort had the aim of landing lucrative contracts to rebuild this shattered nation. Already Haiti is the subject of continuing colonialisation. This is not what the socialist states of Venezuela and Cuba see themselves joining with.

Blogged by John Tyrrell at 10:53 AM, February 28, 2010 | Comments (0)

Cuban Medical Care in Haiti

Cuban medical care has been extended in Haiti and includes volunteers from across Latin America who are currently training, or have been trained in Cuba. There have been systematic vaccinations to combat the danger of disease spreading in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.

The help is not seen as short term as permanent hospitals are being set up in outlying regions short on doctors, and often supply of essentials such as water.

Blogged by John Tyrrell at 11:51 AM, February 23, 2010 | Comments (0)