UK Politics Thread (Part 1)

Away End - General Chat
6056

The sausage wars. :rofl:

6057
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6058

This is the type of shit I was going on about, you know losing rights due to BREXIT. This type of shit is backhanded and deliberate. I just hope the EU nation states donā€™t do shit like this!

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6059
6060

I kind of respect the fact that Gove clearly doesnā€™t give a shit of what people think of him dancing. That was always my approach and that of my mates on a night out. But then, we werenā€™t in our 50s. Tugendhat should know better than to encourage him!
What style of dancing even is this? The cocacabana?

6061

Dance of the Vampires

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6062

You have never considered the primary source of your nationā€™s wealth?

The British economy was built on piracy, slavery and looting, and now itā€™s based on money laundering for the most criminally corrupt kleptomaniacs in the world.

Give it some thought.

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6063

Wasnā€™t one alleged reason for Brexit was because the EU are clamping down on tax havens such as the Cayman Islands?

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6064

I was referring specifically to the off shore element, which is far from being the UKā€™s primary source of wealth. It may, however, buy it influence (soft power) and I hadnā€™t really fully considered that.

Certainly Iā€™m uncomfortable with any artificial use of a territoryā€™s loose tax or regulatory regime, particularly where there are concerns about the source of such wealth. That applies to numerous jurisdictions, not just those associated with the UK.

The UK itself though probably scrutinises the flow of money more carefully than most. Unexplained wealth orders are, I think, a significant step forward in steps being taken by the UK to tackle these issues.

6065

Here are some of the stories exposed by the Pandora Papers:

If the UK ā€˜scrutinises the flow of money more carefully than mostā€™, why do these people use London to do their dirty deals?

6066

There are two different issues here, albeit interconnected at a transactional level.

The first is harbouring off shore wealth in opaque jurisdictions.

The revelation is contained in the Pandora Papers, a leak detailing the work of companies offering offshore financial services in the British Virgin Islands, Singapore, Panama, Belize, Switzerland and other countries.

I would be interested to know how many of the UK purchases you mention had UK overseas territories as the source of funds.

The second is what steps the UK is taking to scrutinise the ability to invest off-shore wealth in the UK. Iā€™m not a property lawyer but we have to go through a lot of Anti Money Laundering training (and the Bribery Act). We are specifically obligated to heavily scrutinise the following countries that the UK considers ā€œhigh riskā€:

The 24 high-risk third countries are:

  • Albania
  • Barbados
  • Botswana
  • Burkina Faso
  • Cambodia
  • Cayman Islands
  • Democratic Peopleā€™s Republic of Korea (DPRK)
  • Haiti
  • Iran
  • Jamaica
  • Malta
  • Mauritius
  • Morocco
  • Myanmar
  • Nicaragua
  • Pakistan
  • Panama
  • Philippines
  • Senegal
  • South Sudan
  • Syria
  • Uganda
  • Yemen
  • Zimbabwe

I believe that the EUā€™s equivalent list is:

ā€˜No High-risk third country
1 Afghanistan
2 The Bahamas
3 Barbados
4 Botswana
5 Cambodia
6 Ghana
7 Iraq
8 Jamaica
9 Mauritius
10 Mongolia
11 Myanmar/Burma
12 Nicaragua
13 Pakistan
14 Panama
15 Syria
16 Trinidad and Tobago
17 Uganda
18 Vanuatu
19 Yemen
20 Zimbabweā€™

The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2018 is another significant tool that Parliament has enacted to combat these issues and is expressly directed at the UKā€™s overseas territories, for example:

SAMLA 2018 also takes steps to address concerns about the transparency of ownership of overseas companies:

  • It requires the Secretary of State to publish periodic reports on the progress made towards putting in place a register of beneficial owners of overseas entities (public UBO register), although the concept of ā€œoverseas entitiesā€ and the details of what the register might contain are not further clarified. Section 50 came into force on 23 May 2018.

  • It further requires the Secretary of State to provide ā€œall reasonable assistanceā€ to the governments of the British Overseas Territories (UKOT) to enable them to establish a publicly accessible register of the beneficial ownership of companies in their jurisdictions. A draft Order in Council is to be prepared no later than 31 December 2020 requiring the government of any British Overseas Territory that has not adopted such a register to do so.

6067

Of course there are more corrupt places, but that doesnā€™t alter the fact that London is used by international criminals, dictators, oligarchs and other unsavoury characters to launder their ill-gotten gains. Those discovered in the Pandora Papers are, no doubt, only a small fraction of the total. Therefore the checks and balances are not working, even if we are idealistic enough to believe that they were designed to work in the first place.
Every country has its dark secrets and the UK is no different in that regard.

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6068

Iā€™m not saying that illicit off-shore money isnā€™t financing asset acquisition in the UK, Iā€™m just making the point that the UK is not complicit in this. It may well have been historically (or at least turned a blind eye) but it is not anymore. It is actively taking measures to counter this precise activity. Measures that go further than most other jurisdictions.

Transparency International monitors and ranks countries on a corruption index.

The UK fares pretty well here, ranking 11th out of 180 (level with Canada, Australia and Hong Kong).

Rank Country 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
1 New Zealand 88 87 87 89 90 91 91 91 90
1 Denmark 88 87 88 88 90 91 92 91 90
3 Finland 85 86 85 85 89 90 89 89 90
3 Switzerland 85 85 85 85 86 86 86 85 86
3 Singapore 85 85 85 84 84 85 84 86 87
3 Sweden 85 85 85 84 88 89 87 89 88
7 Norway 84 84 84 85 85 88 86 86 85
8 Netherlands 82 82 82 82 83 84 83 83 84
9 Luxembourg 80 80 81 82 81 85 82 80 80
9 Germany 80 80 80 81 81 81 79 78 79
11 Canada 77 77 81 82 82 83 81 81 84
11 United Kingdom 77 77 80 82 81 81 78 76 74
11 Australia 77 77 77 77 79 79 80 81 85
11 Hong Kong 77 76 76 77 77 75 74 75 77
15 Austria 76 77 76 75 75 76 72 69 69
15 Belgium 76 75 75 75 77 77 76 75 75
17 Iceland 75 78 76 77 78 79 79 78 82
17 Estonia 75 74 73 71 70 70 69 68 64
19 Japan 74 73 73 73 72 75 76 74 74
20 Ireland 72 74 73 74 73 75 74 72 69
21 United Arab Emirates 71 71 70 71 66 70 70 69 68
21 Uruguay 71 71 70 70 71 74 73 73 72
23 France 69 69 72 70 69 70 69 71 71
24 Bhutan 68 68 68 67 65 65 65 63 63
25 United States of America 67 69 71 75 74 76 74 73 73
25 Chile 67 67 67 67 66 70 73 71 72
27 Seychelles 66 66 66 60 N/A 55 55 54 52
28 Taiwan 65 65 63 63 61 62 61 61 61
29 Barbados 64 62 68 68 61 N/A 74 75 76
30 Bahamas 63 64 65 65 66 N/A 71 71 71
30 Qatar 63 62 62 63 61 71 69 68 68
32 Spain 62 62 58 57 58 58 60 59 65
33 Portugal 61 62 64 63 62 64 63 62 63
33 Korea, South 61 59 57 54 53 54 55 55 56
35 Botswana 60 61 61 61 60 63 63 64 65
35 Brunei Darussalam 60 60 63 62 58 N/A N/A 60 55
35 Israel 60 60 61 62 64 61 60 61 60
35 Slovenia 60 60 60 61 61 60 58 57 61
35 Lithuania 60 60 59 59 59 59 58 57 54
40 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 59 59 58 58 60 N/A 62 62 62
41 Cabo Verde 58 58 57 55 59 55 57 58 60
42 Cyprus 57 58 59 57 55 61 63 63 66
42 Costa Rica 57 56 56 59 58 55 54 53 54
42 Latvia 57 56 58 58 57 56 55 53 49
45 Poland 56 58 60 60 62 63 61 60 58
45 Georgia 56 56 58 56 57 52 52 49 52
45 Saint Lucia 56 55 55 55 60 N/A 71 71 71
48 Dominica 55 55 57 57 59 N/A 58 58 58
49 Czech Republic 54 56 59 57 55 56 51 48 49
49 Rwanda 54 53 56 55 54 54 49 53 53
49 Oman 54 52 52 44 45 45 45 47 47
52 Malta 53 54 54 56 55 60 55 56 57
52 Grenada 53 53 52 52 56 N/A N/A N/A N/A
52 Italy 53 53 52 50 47 44 43 43 42
52 Saudi Arabia 53 53 49 49 46 52 49 46 44
52 Mauritius 53 52 51 50 54 53 54 52 57
57 Malaysia 51 53 47 47 49 50 52 50 49
57 Namibia 51 52 53 51 52 53 49 48 48
59 Greece 50 48 45 48 44 46 43 40 36
60 Slovakia 49 50 50 50 51 51 50 47 46
60 Jordan 49 48 49 48 48 53 49 45 48
60 Armenia 49 42 35 35 33 35 37 36 34
63 Cuba 47 48 47 47 47 47 46 46 48
63 Croatia 47 47 48 49 49 51 48 48 46
63 Sao Tome and Principe 47 46 46 46 46 42 42 42 42
63 Belarus 47 45 44 44 40 32 31 29 31
67 Montenegro 45 45 45 46 45 44 42 44 41
67 Senegal 45 45 45 45 45 44 43 41 36
69 Romania 44 44 47 48 48 46 43 43 44
69 Hungary 44 44 46 45 48 51 54 54 55
69 South Africa 44 44 43 43 45 44 44 42 43
69 Jamaica 44 43 44 44 39 41 38 38 38
69 Bulgaria 44 43 42 43 41 41 43 41 41
69 Tunisia 44 43 43 42 41 38 40 41 41
75 Vanuatu 43 46 46 43 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
75 Ghana 43 41 41 40 43 47 48 46 45
75 Maldives 43 29 31 33 36 N/A N/A N/A N/A
78 Argentina 42 45 40 39 36 32 34 34 35
78 Solomon Islands 42 42 44 39 42 N/A N/A N/A N/A
78 Bahrain 42 42 36 36 43 51 49 48 51
78 China 42 41 39 41 40 37 36 40 39
78 Kuwait 42 40 41 39 41 49 44 43 44
83 Benin 41 41 40 39 36 37 39 36 36
83 Lesotho 41 40 41 42 39 44 49 49 45
83 Guyana 41 40 37 38 34 29 30 27 28
86 Morocco 40 41 43 40 37 36 39 37 37
86 India 40 41 41 40 40 38 38 36 36
86 Burkina Faso 40 40 41 42 42 38 38 38 38
86 Trinidad and Tobago 40 40 41 41 35 39 38 38 39
86 Turkey 40 39 41 40 41 42 45 50 49
86 Timor-Leste 40 38 35 38 35 28 28 30 33
92 Ecuador 39 38 34 32 31 32 33 35 32
92 Colombia 39 37 36 37 37 37 37 36 36
94 Suriname 38 44 43 41 45 36 36 36 37
94 Serbia 38 39 39 41 42 40 41 42 39
94 Sri Lanka 38 38 38 38 36 37 38 37 40
94 Tanzania 38 37 36 36 32 30 31 33 35
94 Ethiopia 38 37 34 35 34 33 33 33 33
94 Peru 38 36 35 37 35 36 38 38 38
94 Brazil 38 35 35 37 40 38 43 42 43
94 Kazakhstan 38 34 31 31 29 28 29 26 28
102 Indonesia 37 40 38 37 37 36 34 32 32
102 Gambia 37 37 37 30 26 28 29 28 34
104 Vietnam 36 37 33 35 33 31 31 31 31
104 Kosovo 36 36 37 39 36 33 33 33 34
104 Thailand 36 36 36 37 35 38 38 35 37
104 Albania 36 35 36 38 39 36 33 31 33
104 Cote dā€™Ivoire 36 35 35 36 34 32 32 27 29
104 Algeria 36 35 35 33 34 36 36 36 34
104 El Salvador 36 34 35 33 36 39 39 38 38
111 Bosnia and Herzegovina 35 36 38 38 39 38 39 42 42
111 Panama 35 36 37 37 38 39 37 35 38
111 Mongolia 35 35 37 36 38 39 39 38 36
111 North Macedonia 35 35 37 35 37 42 45 44 43
115 Philippines 34 34 36 34 35 35 38 36 34
115 Moldova 34 32 33 31 30 33 35 35 36
117 Egypt 33 35 35 32 34 36 37 32 32
117 Eswatini 33 34 38 39 N/A N/A 43 39 37
117 Zambia 33 34 35 37 38 38 38 38 37
117 Nepal 33 34 31 31 29 27 29 31 27
117 Sierra Leone 33 33 30 30 30 29 31 30 31
117 Ukraine 33 30 32 30 29 27 26 25 26
123 Niger 32 32 34 33 35 34 35 34 33
124 Pakistan 31 32 33 32 32 30 29 28 27
124 Bolivia 31 31 29 33 33 34 35 34 34
124 Kyrgyzstan 31 30 29 29 28 28 27 24 24
124 Mexico 31 29 28 29 30 31 35 34 34
124 Kenya 31 28 27 28 26 25 25 27 27
129 Gabon 30 31 31 32 35 34 37 34 35
129 Malawi 30 31 32 31 31 31 33 37 37
129 Azerbaijan 30 30 25 31 30 29 29 28 27
129 Mali 30 29 32 31 32 35 32 28 34
129 Russia 30 28 28 29 29 29 27 28 28
134 Togo 29 29 30 32 32 32 29 29 30
134 Laos 29 29 29 29 30 25 25 26 21
134 Mauritania 29 28 27 28 27 31 30 30 31
137 Myanmar 28 29 29 30 28 22 21 21 15
137 Guinea 28 29 28 27 27 25 25 24 24
137 Liberia 28 28 32 31 37 37 37 38 41
137 Dominican Republic 28 28 30 29 31 33 32 29 32
137 Paraguay 28 28 29 29 30 27 24 24 25
142 Djibouti 27 30 31 31 30 34 34 36 36
142 Papua New Guinea 27 28 28 29 28 25 25 25 25
142 Uganda 27 28 26 26 25 25 26 26 29
142 Angola 27 26 19 19 18 15 19 23 22
146 Bangladesh 26 26 26 28 26 25 25 27 26
146 Central African Republic 26 25 26 23 20 24 24 25 26
146 Uzbekistan 26 25 23 22 21 19 18 17 17
149 Lebanon 25 28 28 28 28 28 27 28 30
149 Iran 25 26 28 30 29 27 27 25 28
149 Guatemala 25 26 27 28 28 28 32 29 33
149 Nigeria 25 26 27 27 28 26 27 25 27
149 Mozambique 25 26 23 25 27 31 31 30 31
149 Cameroon 25 25 25 25 26 27 27 25 26
149 Tajikistan 25 25 25 21 25 26 23 22 22
149 Madagascar 25 24 25 24 26 28 28 28 32
157 Honduras 24 26 29 29 30 31 29 26 28
157 Zimbabwe 24 24 22 22 22 21 21 21 20
159 Nicaragua 22 22 25 26 26 27 28 28 29
160 Comoros 21 25 27 27 24 26 26 28 28
160 Eritrea 21 23 24 20 18 18 18 20 25
160 Cambodia 21 20 20 21 21 21 21 20 22
160 Chad 21 20 19 20 20 22 22 19 19
160 Iraq 21 20 18 18 17 16 16 16 18
165 Burundi 19 19 17 22 20 21 20 21 19
165 Congo 19 19 19 21 20 23 23 22 26
165 Turkmenistan 19 19 20 19 22 18 17 17 17
165 Guinea Bissau 19 18 16 17 16 17 19 19 25
165 Afghanistan 19 16 16 15 15 11 12 8 8
170 Haiti 18 18 20 22 20 17 19 19 19
170 Democratic Republic of the Congo 18 18 20 21 21 22 22 22 21
170 Korea, North 18 17 14 17 12 8 8 8 8
173 Libya 17 18 17 17 14 16 18 15 21
174 Equatorial Guinea 16 16 16 17 N/A N/A N/A 19 20
174 Sudan 16 16 16 16 14 12 11 11 13
176 Venezuela 15 16 18 18 17 17 19 20 19
176 Yemen 15 15 14 16 14 18 19 18 23
178 Syria 14 13 13 14 13 18 20 17 26
179 South Sudan 12 12 13 12 11 15 15 14 N/A
179 Somalia 12 9 10 9 10 8 8 8 8

Whilst warning that there remain significant challenges, even for the top 25

6069

I think I actually despise this cunt more than I despise Johnson. And only slightly less than Kelvin McKenzie.

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6070

The amazing thing about that list is that Canada would be at least 4th but for one company - the one that Trudeau fired his Minister of Justice for prosecuting. The dip down to 77 is a direct function of that incident, but their activities have been a weight for years longer than that.

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6071

Imagine how much higher the UK would be if it wasnā€™t for the Conservatives though, eh?

6072

image
image1242Ɨ699 160 KB

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6073

I heard parts of it and quite clever in some ways as the main message of leveling up is basically stealing Labours thunder. Basically the message is moving towards a high skilled high pay economy.

That raises plenty of questions from me.

a) He announces this after basically giving nurses, nurses who saved his life, a pay cut.
b) Heā€™s also basically given everyone a pay cut and nailed businesses at the same time. How can that create the land of opportunity he speaks of?
c) There was no real suggestion on how this would be achieved. So how?
d) Who will do the unskilled jobs if everyone in the UK is skilled?
e) Who is going to pay for all the training?

6074

I agree that article 50 should have only been triggered once proper planning had been carried out , but we saw that the two years wasnā€™t really the big problem - it was effectively wasted anyway with little genuine effort to resolve issues. When extensions were available they were also pushed away.

6075

Oh, I dunno. Labour had their share too back in the Cool Britannia days.

Many Brits have an odd mentality about the status of laws in their former colonies, like they donā€™t entirely apply, not quite as real law as ā€˜back homeā€™. So they wind up doing things they likely never would at home.

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