The poor poor rich folk, so oppressed

Yes my heart weeps for them it really does. My sarcasm meter is boiling over. In today’s papers today Boris Johnson champion of the rich and the ruling class's has come out with an astonishing piece today. "The super-rich are a "put-upon minority" like homeless people and Irish travellers and should be protected from any further "bullying" from the public, Boris Johnson claimed today. Johnson called for an end to "bashing" the richest people in Britain and suggested they should instead receive "automatic knighthoods" for their contribution to the UK exchequer. "It is my duty to stick up for every put-upon minority in the city – from the homeless to Irish travellers to ex-gang members to disgraced former MPs," wrote the Conservative mayor of London in the Daily Telegraph. "But there is one minority that I still behold with a benign bewilderment, and that is the very, very rich." He said the public should instead extend their "humble and hearty thanks" to the super-rich who "now pay 29.8 per cent of all the income tax and national insurance received by the Treasury." "We should stop any bashing or moaning or preaching or bitching and simply give thanks for the prodigious sums of money that they are contributing to the tax revenues of this country, and that enable us to look after our sick and our elderly and to build roads, railways and schools," he claimed. Johnson believes the super-rich have been "brow-beaten and bullied and threatened with new taxes, by everyone from the Archbishop of Canterbury to Nick Clegg". He suggested that taxes on the super rich could instead be cut and that the richest people in the country should be automatically awarded honours by the Queen. "Indeed, it is possible, as the American economist Art Laffer pointed out, that they might contribute even more if we cut their rates of tax; but it is time we recognised the heroic contribution they already make. "In fact, we should stop publishing rich lists in favour of an annual list of the top 100 tax heroes, with automatic knighthoods for the top 10." Johnson's comparison between the super-rich and homeless people will enrage campaigners against homelessness. The London Mayor had promised to end rough sleeping in London by the end of 2012. However, research released this year found that the number of rough sleepers had doubled in the capital over the past five years. Johnson has been a long-term advocate of reducing taxes for Britain's wealthiest people. Earlier this year he called for a new "flat tax" which would have reduced the top rate of tax to just 30%. He has sometimes been accused of being too close to the City of London. His first mayoral election campaign was heavily financed by City donors. Donations to his second mayoral election campaign were routed through Conservative central office, meaning that names of individual donors did not have to be revealed. " The poor mites bless them... With extracts and quotes from http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2013/11/18/boris-johnson-super-rich-an-oppressed-minority-like-homeless

13 trillion in tax evaded each year by super rich, time for socialist change ?

Below i re publish a excellent article bpunblished on the CWI website www.socialistworld.net £13 trillion hidden from tax by super-richwww.socialistworld.net, 04/08/2012 website of the committee for a workers' international, CWI Take the wealth off the 1%! Naomi Byron, Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales), first published in the Socialist A sum of money the size of the US and Japanese Gross Domestic Product (GDP) together is being held in offshore tax havens. This enormous hoard could immediately pay off most of the deficits and debt that are being used to justify austerity, and create millions of jobs. Instead it sits in places like the Cayman Islands, making the tax dodgers that put it there even richer. The report by James Henry for the Tax Justice Network, shows that between £13 trillion and £20 trillion has been looted from national economies so that the super-rich can avoid paying tax. It’s no exaggeration to say that we are ruled by the very people that are dodging tax. In Britain ’Lord’ Ashcroft, who was treasurer of the Tory party for years and has donated more than £10 million to its coffers, has most of his wealth offshore so he won’t pay UK tax. The fortune David Cameron inherited comes partly from his father’s use of tax havens. One rule for us... Trust me, I’m a banker - Youth Fight for Jobs Austerity Games, July 2012, photo Paul Mattsson Far from too much money being spent on public services, it is the banksters, speculators, profiteers and tax dodgers who are the cause of the massive debt burden being used to enforce austerity on the 99%. But when Barclays and Bob Diamond are caught fiddling millions, or HSBC seems to be using their massive finances to help gun-running, money laundering and terrorism, they hardly receive a rap over the knuckles. Henry points out that with the sums looted from sub-Saharan Africa, many of the countries there could have paid off their debts entirely. However in this respect the report misses the point - most "highly indebted poor countries" have already paid off their "debts" many times over. But because of the economic power of imperialism and the legalised robbery of the finance industry, the interest alone has now ballooned to sums that would make a loan shark proud. Not a penny more should go to pay for these fake debts. We have always been told that capitalism may be unfair, but it is the best system available because it creates jobs and wealth. This report exposes the big lie that private profits will be ploughed into creating more wealth. The money sitting in tax havens dwarfs even figures like the £750 billion currently sitting un-invested in the banks of big business in the UK. Capitalism is not only creating misery for billions, it is a bankrupt system, incapable of maintaining current living standards let alone taking society forwards. As long as the banking and finance industries remain under the control of the looters, we have no chance of even enforcing the existing puny laws on the super-rich. Public ownership The banks must be taken into public ownership, and run under democratic workers’ control, in the interests of the 99%. Free personal banking, with cheap loans for small businesses and cheap mortgages. The banking system, like health and education, should be run in the benefits of society as a whole, not a minority of super-rich speculators.

Super rich increase their wealth by 18% whilst the poor suffer

The UK's wealthiest people have rebounded from the recession increasing their worth by 18% in the past year, the Sunday Times Rich List says.

The economic crisis wiped £155bn from collective wealth of the 1,000 richest people in 2009, but they are now worth £395.8bn, according to the survey.

The number of billionaires in the UK now stands at 73 - up from 53.

It includes its first self-made woman billionaire, Specsavers' Dame Mary Perkins.

The 67-year-old is worth - along with husband Douglas and their family - £1.15bn, a 42% increase from last year.

There are now 108 women among the 1,000 richest - the first time the proportion has surpassed 10%.


"Music has had a really, really good year. Sir Paul McCartney is still the richest performing musician in Britain - he has an extra £20m this year, up to £495m," Tristan Davies, executive editor of the Sunday Times told the BBC.

"All the other golden oldies that you'd expect - Elton John, [Mick] Jagger, Sting and Keith Richards - have also done well," he added.

A fortune of at least £70m is needed to get into the 2011 list, compared to £63m in 2010 and £55m in 2008.


Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal continues to top the list, but his fortune has fallen by nearly £5bn (22%) in the past year, now standing at £17.5bn.

The drop in share price of his business AcelorMittal made him the highest faller in the list in terms of total wealth.

The biggest increase in wealth was seen by another steel magnate, Alisher Usmanov, moving up six places to number two after adding £7.7bn to his fortune.

The Duke of Westminster has increased his wealth by £250m but falls out of the top three for the first time since 1999.

Another new billionaire is Tory peer Lord Kirkham, 66, with his family, after selling sofa business DFS to private equity group Advent International. The Kirkham family's wealth stands at £1bn, up from £430m last year.

There are 40 British-born billionaires including Charles Dunstone, 46, the chairman of Carphone Warehouse and Talk Talk.

His fortune has risen by £396m to £1bn in a year, after the demerger of Carphone Warehouse, which he co-founded in 1989, and Talk Talk.

The highest new entry among the 100 women is Xiuli Hawken, 48, worth £1.066bn.

Married to a London teacher, she made her property fortune converting air raid shelters in China into underground shopping malls.

The list, compiled by Philip Beresford, is based on identifiable wealth, such as land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies, and excludes bank accounts.


I think this explains where our wealth has been going. Alot of the wealth these people make could be brought back into the country via tighter tax laws and tightening up these offshore banking storages.

It is a disgrace that apparently we are in times of austerity yet news like this does nothing to convince people we are all in this together. We anything but all in this together.

This furthers our point even more that the top 150 or so monopolies in this country - the heights of the economy need to be brought into public ownership and their profits brought back to the national purse.

It is not on that people can be getting richer whilst the poor suffer having benifits taking off t hem and jobs cut which in reality will have little difference for clearing our debt. If anything it'll only add to it as redundancy paymentsa nd benifits will need to be paid to the unemployed.

But it also doesnt surprise me that on that list published there is a conservative lord. The party who supposably knows what it is like for us all and they know how tough things are. But these decisions to cut back public spending are nessesary they tell us. Well howcomes the rich are getting richer still if those with the broadest shoulders are shouldering the burden. Fact is they are not and we have been sold a lie. A big lie from the ruling class.

It is time for socialist ideas to flow through peoples minds and people to say enough is enough. We will not bail out your broken corrupt system of gambling and ruthless money making at the expense of humanity and the environment.

Only a socialist planned economy lead by the workers leading the economy can provide for everyone and not just the super rich in society.

Is football not living in the real world ?

Taking this blog on a different direction now. As some of you may or may not know i'm a big football fan but i think this recent story of Darren Bent a average premiership striker at best is set to move to Aston villa from Sunderland for 18 million pounds.

Outrageous sums of money this is. When will football join the real world while people aer struggling to get by with paying their bills these super rich sports stars are getting paid silly amounts of money.

Take Manchester City for e xample Carlos tevez gets paid roughly 200,000 pounds a week and if any new player joins the club on a higher salary his wages will match that. I just think it sets a really bad example to the rest of the country in times of hardship.

I know alot of this money coming into the game has been though various sources like Sky Television money and selling the rights to show live games around the planet. But also foreign ownership with rich benifactors buying up english clubs pumping huge sums of money into the top teams. That money rarely trickles down to the lower league teams forcing many to go out of business.

Football is a cruel game which must look at its actions if it wants to continue to be a well respected sport on the national and world stage. As was shown with FIFA over their decision for the world cup in 2018 and 2022 there is a hell of a lot of corruptin involved in the game still.

Speaking of corruption it hasnt erally been touched on but is sure to attract attention from groups like UKuncut in next few months and years is the fact alot of rich footballers avoid paying large sums of their tax. Wayne Rooney, one of Englands best players and best paid players earns an estimated 250 thousand pounds but dodges paying tax on a large amount of that. What UKuncut ask is that money better spent on the NHS rather than being in your back pocket.

more and more questions will be asked like this if fotball continues to live in this rich fantasy world turning into a game no longer for the working class who already find it hard to afford to attend games turning into a game and a play thing for the very rich.