We're All In This Together .....

[ahinton]

PAYE that you deduct from employees wages is a liability, of sorts, I would think.

Of course it is; it just wasn't one that I was focusing on here!

Other people not paying bills hardly makes it right for an incredibly wealthy family , does it.

No - but then it doesn't reflect well on anyone who does this.

I thought they went in for duty, responsibility, a good example and so on.

Or is that just a load of old flannel designed to fool the peasants?

Those at the top no doubt do go in for that (at least part of the time!) - the Queen in particular - but what certain of the accountants and other minions on "the firm"'s payroll might do may be quite another matter...

[Serial_Apologist]

Consider Iain Duncan Smith (the £53 a week if he had to man):

"Mr Duncan Smith's 16th-century Tudor house in the Buckinghamshire village of Swanbourne is said to be worth £2m – but technically he is just a tenant. The Grade-II listed property, which includes a swimming pool, tennis courts and three acres of grounds, belongs to the family of his wife, Betsy. Mrs Duncan Smith's father, John Tapling Fremantle, the fifth Baron Cottesloe, moved out of the house with his wife several years ago, and Mr Duncan Smith and his wife and four children moved in." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...3-8556168.html

"The Grade II listed building, complete with swimming pool, tennis court and five acres of gardens, is the ancestral home of his wife Betsy’s multimillionaire aristocratic family.

Not only does the house come free, he doesn’t have to worry about his four children paying inheritance tax on it because he and his wife are not technically the owners of the 16th Century home, in Swanbourne, Buckinghamshire.

He was given use of the mansion by his father-in-law, Baron Cottesloe. It was traditionally the focal point of life in the village where the Cottesloes own 1,300 acres of prime farmland as well as the pub, post office, a private school and many of the houses.

Until 2001 the mansion was home to Mrs Duncan Smith’s father, Commander John Tapling Fremantle, 87, the fifth Baron Cottesloe.

The Baron and his wife then moved to another of their homes in the village and the Duncan Smiths moved in with their children Edward, Alicia, Harry and Rosanna.

The Baron retained ownership of the house until 2005, when it was signed over to be owned jointly by Mrs Duncan Smith’s brother Thomas, her cousin Richard Brooks and Paul Knocker, a millionaire friend of the Baron.

Mrs Duncan Smith’s brother is listed on the electoral roll as living at the house, but is understood to spend most of his time at a property 50 miles away in Hampstead, north London.

Mr Brooks lives in a stately home in Wistow, Leicestershire, and Conservative activist Mr Knocker, 74, lives in a £650,000 country home near Salisbury, Wilts.

According to land registry records, the three men 'paid' £1million for the Duncan Smiths’ house in 2005, but it is unclear how the money changed hands.

Mrs Duncan Smith is the Baron’s eldest child and could stand to inherit the lion’s share of the family wealth.

She is already a major shareholder in the family property firm Thomas Tapling & Co, which has investment assets worth £1.1million and owns farms, shops and businesses across England worth £4.5million."

http://iainduncansmith.com/2013/02/housing-cuts-iain-duncan-smith-gets-his-mansion-free/

"After seven years with GEC, Mr Duncan Smith moved to a property company as its marketing director, but was made redundant after just six months when the housing market crashed.

By now he was married to his wife Betsy, who is a baron’s daughter, with a child and a second on the way.

He once recalled: 'It was a shock – absolutely awful. I felt pathetic. I remember telling my wife. We looked at each other and she said: ‘God, what are we going to do for money?’.'"

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/its-a-stunt-iain-duncan-smith-dismisses-demands-to-live-on-53-a-week-8556985.html

"What are we going to do for money?" :laugh:.


"His claim that he studied at the University of Perugia (founded 1308) was later found to be false after an investigation by the BBC. His office subsequently admitted that he attended the Italian Università per Stranieri (founded 1921) in Perugia for a year but he didn't obtain any qualifications or finish his exams. In 1975 he attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was subsequently commissioned into the Scots Guards. Duncan-Smith's biography, on the Conservative Party website, claimed he was "educated at Dunchurch College of Management" but following questioning by the BBC his office confirmed that he did not get any qualifications there either, stating that he completed six separate courses lasting a few days each, adding up to about a month in total. Dunchurch was the former staff college for GEC Marconi, for whom Duncan-Smith worked in the 1980s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Duncan_Smith

Excellent expose that little lot, Julian. Such a nice fellow is IDS - all that military bearing and that... :erm:

[amateur51]

Excellent expose that little lot, Julian. Such a nice fellow is IDS - all that military bearing and that... :erm:

Just cast your mind back to last Summer's Jubbly celebrations and those unemployed 'volunteers' being bussed in to central London without finding them anywhere to sleep ... it all starts slipping into focus.

And what happened to the recommendations of the inquiry into the 2011 riots?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/29/2011-riots-panel-proposals-unimplemented

Focus getting better?

And if/when there are bedroom tax riots, what will happen then? :erm::grr:

[ahinton]

Just cast your mind back to last Summer's Jubbly celebrations and those unemployed 'volunteers' being bussed in to central London without finding them anywhere to sleep ... it all starts slipping into focus.

And what happened to the recommendations of the inquiry into the 2011 riots?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/29/2011-riots-panel-proposals-unimplemented

Focus getting better?

And if/when there are bedroom tax riots, what will happen then? :erm::grr:

A General Election, perhaps? If that is the outcome, however, I imagine that the manipulative behind-closed-doors shenanegotiations that follow it in order finally to ascertain which group of three or more parties might agree to form a coalition will go on for a good deal longer than happened last time around; the Queen will have her work cut out with that, I daresay...

[amateur51]

A General Election, perhaps? If that is the outcome, however, I imagine that the manipulative behind-closed-doors shenanegotiations that follow it in order finally to ascertain which group of three or more parties might agree to form a coalition will go on for a good deal longer than happened last time around; the Queen will have her work cut out with that, I daresay...

What's the betting on televised leader debates this time around, I wonder? :erm:

[ahinton]

What's the betting on televised leader debates this time around, I wonder? :erm:

Dunno, guv. There were only the three last time around, but that was before (some might even say helped to result in) a coalition; to do this properly next time around, it might be argued - especially if some kind of coalition would be the only likely outcome - that there would ideally need to be televised debates not only with all the party leaders but also with every conceivable (and perhaps even inconceivable) combination of two, three or more thereof so that people could still not be able to make up their minds about this, that or the other possible three-way coalition. Mind you, such a situation would render the entire business of tactical voting incredibly complex!

[teamsaint]

across the pond, the banks keep the cash pouring in. $85 Bn per month, thats PER MONTH to buy assets.(and prop up balance sheets?).

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b726cac2-b258-11e2-a388-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=published_links/rss/googlenews/feed//product&google_editors_picks=true#axzz2S9UxSkL9

[amateur51]

Research by Joseph Rowntree Foundation and New Policy Institute shows that for the first time more working households were living in poverty in the UK last year than non-working ones.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25288856

Meanwhile in the parallel universe that is Westminster, the MPs' independent pay review body is proposing that MPs are to receive an 11% pay increase after the next Geberal Election in 2015, despite all three major party leaders being against it, apparently.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25287108

[ahinton]

Meanwhile in the parallel universe that is Westminsterhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25287108

Are you sure that it's even parallel?...

[amateur51]

Are you sure that it's even parallel?...

Remember, parallel lines meet only at infinity.

[ahinton]

Remember, parallel lines meet only at infinity.

Sure - but what makes you think that these particular lines might stand the remotest chance of meeting even there?(!)...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

more from the NEF on the working poor ams

[amateur51]

more from the NEF on the working poor ams

Many thanks Caum.

[amateur51]

There's a new jobs crisis, writes Ha-Joon Chang – we need to focus on the quality of life at work
British workers face low wages, but are also being hurt by job insecurity, stress and the demand of long hours.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/22/jobs-crisis-quality-of-life-at-work

He concludes: "if we are to deal with the "general living crisis" we need to radically change our perspectives on what is a good life. We need to accept that consumption is not the end goal of our life, and stop measuring our wellbeing simply on the basis of earnings. We need to explicitly take the quality of our work-related life into account in judging our wellbeing. Let's start taking work seriously."

[Serial_Apologist]

He concludes: "if we are to deal with the "general living crisis" we need to radically change our perspectives on what is a good life. We need to accept that consumption is not the end goal of our life, and stop measuring our wellbeing simply on the basis of earnings. We need to explicitly take the quality of our work-related life into account in judging our wellbeing. Let's start taking work seriously."

Working class people in this country were persuaded capitalism could only produce higher and higher living standards if they knuckled under and stopped listening to "agitators", and thus in a faustian pact with the rich and powerful owners of industry and business came to have sold their common birthright for a mess of pottage.