A multi-millionairess like all the Tory elite, Amber Rudd truly is every bit as horrible as the persona she exhibited on the BBC Leaders’ Debate this evening. A former banker with J P Morgan, she was also a director of two offshore tax avoidance asset management firms in the Bahamas. She never declared this and the information came out in a leak.
The refined journalists of the Financial Times are of course much more her choice for public engagement than having to stoop to discuss policy in front of the great unwashed, for whom she has a profound contempt. This is what she thinks of her constituents in Hastings:
“You get people who are on benefits, who prefer to be on benefits by the seaside. They’re not moving down here to get a job, they’re moving down here to have easier access to friends and drugs and drink.”
So why did she go to Hastings to represent such awful plebs? She explained that to her friends at the Financial Times as well:
“I wanted to be within two hours of London and I could see we were going to win it.”
According to the normally reliable CompanyCheck, as an MP Amber Rudd has constituted herself as a company, presumably for purposes of tax avoidance. That would of course give her a personal interest in low levels of corporation tax. But strangely Companies House itself has no company with the registration number given by CompanyCheck.
What Company House does have, however, are the records of Monticello PLC, a short lived company of which Rudd was a Director. It attracted many hundreds of investors who put money in, despite never appearing actually to do anything except pay its directors – presumably including Rudd. Trawling through its documents at Companies House, I find it difficult to conclude that it was ever anything other than a share ramping scheme designed to rip off its investors. After just over a year of existence it went bankrupt with over £1.2 million of debts and no important assets. I should be very interested if anybody can go through those records and come up with any different conclusion to mine.
Interestingly Amber Rudd’s father Tony, who died this week, had been debarred as a company director after being found to have asset stripped another investor vehicle, Greenbank Trust, and misused its assets to personal benefit. As with Emma Barnett, we again come across a wealthy Tory whose privileged upbringing was financed by the criminal behaviour of the wealthy.
It is a bit of a stretch to imagine that, nationally, Labour will get the 4.7% swing that would be needed to oust Rudd from Hastings. But perhaps it is not too much to hope that there may be a local revolt from the people she despises.
This is awful. Isn’t it all illegal and if so why have Rudd and her criminal father not been charged with anything? Tragically for all of us she isn’t that different from many of het Tory clleagues is she? Why are the doings of all these MPs not published? I simply don’t understand how they’re getting away with it.
Perhaps, since the Tories are promising to yolk us to the American ‘war economy’ model, something resembling the eternal war of Oceania, we should recall Orwell’s review of Mein Kampf. It continued to create eerie echoes in the inadequately named “post war” period, no less in the last fifteen years. Indeed his diagnosis of Hitlers appeal has rarely been more relevant to our present and future since he wrote it in 1940. Some might justifiably argue that for decades, the architects of capital have been mining Orwell for ideas but it is probably the other way around. Orwell capably identified the ways that power and in particular capital masks it’s goals while bending a society toward serving the drive and ambition of those who wield both.
‘yolk’
An egg-regious error…’yoke’ is the implement you were looking for.
Egg on my face all round.
🙂
But many thanks for the link to Orwell, whose conclusion is frighteningly true.
I think Orwell saw that most of what he wrote in 1984 was already going on he just exaggerated it, knowing that given a chance that’s what power mongers would do.
In Orwell’s review of Mein Kampf, he imagines Hitler’s vision:
“….a horrible brainless empire in which, essentially, nothing ever happens except the training of young men for war and the endless breeding of fresh cannon-fodder.”
Sounds strangely familiar to me.
‘Trust in me’ said Kaa in the Jungle Book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1ILPl5FQaM
Have faith in me: Theresa May fights back with Brexit
• National deal ‘more important than television debate’ • New poll sees Labour close gap to three points
Francis Elliott, Political Editor | Sam Coates, Deputy Political Editor
June 1 2017, 9:00am,
Theresa May visits a factory in Bath yesterday. She is aiming to court former Labour voters with her EU exit strategy
LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES
Theresa May will pitch herself today as the unifying leader of a “great national mission” as she seeks to rise above accusations of political cowardice after refusing to take part in a debate with the other party leaders.
The prime minister will seek to counter accusations of hubris and arrogance after her climbdown on social care, saying: “I have said many times in the past — people can have faith in me because I have faith in them.”
Mrs May was mocked by Jeremy Corbyn for ducking a last-minute challenge to join him for the 90-minute BBC debate last night. The Tories were represented by Amber Rudd, the home secretary, whose 93-year-old father died at the weekend.
Mr Corbyn revealed that a Labour government would… paywall
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/have-faith-in-me-may-fights-back-with-brexit-r9h0305kw
What a joke. Surely they’ve torn the curtain down now. I get a real sense thevpublic have been given a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B4wSxDuIQAAKzoT.jpg
Should JC win it will be the first time Murdoch has had no access to number 10 in 38 years.
Amber Rudd and all her associates are a disgrace,
Make the rich richer and the poor poorer, take money from the disabled , AN UTTER DISGRACE. May will not get my vote
The audience was a fair cross-section of Momentum.
That you found yourself out of step with the audience reveals rather more about you than the audience. Tory lead now down to 3%: the audience’s fault of course, nothing to do with May or her party.
“I should be very interested if anybody can go through those records and come up with any different conclusion to mine.” Give Richard Murphy a shout.
“It is a bit of a stretch to imagine that, nationally, Labour will get the 4.7% swing that would be needed to oust Rudd from Hastings.”
IIRC she has a 4000 majority in Hastings. The Greens have very kindly stood down, so *hopefully* that’s 2000+ votes heading to Peter Chowney (our Labour candidate). So the chance is there, we just have to grab it.
I am surprised you have not picked up on her earlier. There has been lads about her dodgy dealings recently in Private Eye and over the years many articles about Rowe Dudd as the Eye called her father’s firm.
And she was married to that restaurant critic wasn’t she ? The one that conked it .He was also a director of one or other of her dodgy companies.
And a son called Alasdair – a BBC journo I read? and a daughter Flora who tweeted about her late father being honoured by some award for food writing by Fortnum and Mason. These people live in a different world to the rest of us.
https://twitter.com/floraegill?lang=en
In an old E Standard piece about AA Gill, he is quoted as saying he still adored Amber and that she was a wonderful mother to their two children. Pity those qualities of maternal love and kindness cannot be discerned these days.
http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/aa-gills-sober-truths-the-critic-on-his-lost-years-his-missing-brother-and-why-hes-a-fan-of-jeremy-a3129021.html
Nice article, and, in relation to last nights’ debate, there is no need for a “magic money tree” if wealthy Tory slime-bags stop taking tax payers’ money and reinvesting it off-shore for their own benefit. The whole idea of “living within your means” is premised upon the idea that “our means” are what is left over after the wealthy have stolen half of the cake.
You don’t seem to mention the exact mechanism by which “wealthy Tory slime bags” are able to access taxpayers money and re-invest it offshore for their own benefit.
One way they are able to do this is via the circa £25 billion annual spend on housing benefit. A lot of this money finds its way to the wealthy with the poor simply being used as a conduit through which to funnel taxpayers money to the rich.
The most obvious way in which this scam could be ended is by not paying any housing benefit to anyone. This would put possibly millions of people onto the street and would almost certainly crash the UK real estate market. Driving real estate prices down would ultimately benefit all of society – it would allow the young to aspire to home ownership and would ultimately free up £’s trillions that could be directed into productive public investment. It would also put an end to this particular mechanism by which the poor subsidize the rich.
The price to be paid would be making millions of people homeless for a few years and within this group it is to be expected that there would be a marked elevated mortality rate.
Is this a price you feel it reasonable to pay in order to prevent the poor subsidizing the rich?
Any non loony person would start with rent controls and increased taxation of BTL activity then work on cutting housing benefit.
You are just describing a mechanism – the outcome would be the same, millions of homeless.
It is a complex business and all solutions creates new problems. As such it lends itself well to the theories enunciated by Joseph Tainter.
Probably easier to just accept that the benefits system disproportionately benefits the wealthy and to recognize that if you argue for more or higher benefits then you are arguing for accelerating wealth inequality
Spot on. We have to be radical to end this madness.
I suggest capping private rents in line with local authority council rents, and bring in a law protecting tenants from eviction.
If the private landlords don’t like it, set up a fund and buy the properties back and hand them to housing associations or the local council.
Might cost a bit but i’m sure some tax on multiple home ownership could help.
I’m sick and tired of these people making millions just so someone can have a roof over their head.
All benefits that subside firms that employ workers on wages that they cannot live on subsidise the rich with tax payer money. If pence paid in VAT subsidises tax cuts for the wealthiest. Hows that for starters?
Loony
I agree with what you say about housing benefit – although the solution you postulate might be less than workable.
What I find rather puzzling is that Messrs Corbyn and McDonnell and the Labour Party seem to be proposing little if anything to get to grips with the rent problem.
I’ve heard that back in the sixties or seventies there was a system of rent tribunals and fair rents which worked reasonably well. Or one might have imagined that the Labour Party would have done a bit of research on what certain Continental countries do to deal with the problem and have come up with some ideas or even stabs at remedies based on best practice.
(I discount all promises to build X hundred thousand new homes every year as, unfortunately, they are illusionary and unrealisable – certainly as long as the Green and Green Belt brigades etc continue to oppose from their comfortable vantage points).
I must have missed May’s solution to the problem somewhere along the line. As it’s entirely possible she’ll be in charge for the next few years – at least until Rudd poisons her wormwood ‘n gall nightcap – it might be more useful to enquire what her plans are. If she knows what ‘rented housing’ means at all.
Peter Stefanovic on top form nailing it on May’s Vile war on Pensioners –
https://www.thecanary.co/2017/05/31/viral-video-exposed-reality-theresa-mays-twisted-campaign-elderly-people-video/
And Chunky Mark Laughs at the Tory Media –
Jeremy Corbyn hated by the media hated by the elite “Loved” by the people –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3OxSwSDtgs
But Of course..In Scotland Vote SNP.
This woman is far more dangerous than Theresa May! I can imagine the Tories choosing her as their next leader – very soon!
I thought the audience had been carefully selected to be as equally balanced as possible. This is certainly what was claimed by the presenter and I see no reason not to believe this claim.
I certainly saw no evidence of ‘Momentum’ or any other pressure group. What I DID see was ordinary British voters responding to good well-made points and being repelled by nastiness. That this came mainly from Ms Rudd is nobody’s fault but hers
Well she seems nice….
Well Theresa May couldn’t be bothered to show up for last nights debate. However she has visited Teeside today, and will visit Derbyshire later on today.
Her war cry is a stonger more prosperous nation. The PM’s well worn platitudes, ring loudly of nothing more than hollow rhetoric.
Meanwhile Corbyn is in Basildon right now, his slogan, for the many not the few. Is it easier to make enticing promises in your manifesto, when the odds of winning the election are against you?
However, a Labour victory, would surely put the brakes on Tory mega austerity among other things.
Corbyn has just begun to speak.
I have just received an election address from my local Conservative candidate who is ‘standing with Theresa May’.
He does not say whether this goes as far as to back her readiness to start a nuclear war. Presumably, it does.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-nuclear-weapons-first-strike-michael-fallon-general-election-jeremy-corbyn-trident-a7698621.html
But the voters of Argyll and Bute have had this confirmed by their Conservative candidate, Gary Mulvaney. He says:
“If we needed to launch (a) Trident (nuclear missile) I would be very comfortable with Theresa May taking that decision.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-40012838?intlink_from_url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/S14000005&link_location=live-reporting-story
The insane party as well as the nasty party.
Re Mulvaney:
Here’s the Battle of the Banners in the seat he’s contesting:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/snp-trump-tories-hilarious-battle-10541081
There’s one lot of Tories who are no longer pro-hanging.
A week is a long time in politics, said Harold Wilson in the 1960’s. Well a week today Britain will go to the polls. In England, the Tories are in the eyes of the bookies odds on to win.
https://m.oddschecker.com/t/politics/british-politics/next-uk-general-election/most-seats
However as Wilson pointed out things can change in a short space of time. Corbyn and Labour require that swing, over the next seven days, if they are to be successful.
it difficult, especially when I see people get going. I just fundamentally don’t believe in punishment. Accountability and recompense sure.
I don’t know how many have been victim to people who’ve been through prison. But it makes it kinda like punishing yourself in the face, or voting Tory I guess.
Im also for prevention.
But you can’t go around saying look, you contribute to the environment terrorism thrives in then say “other” people can be wholly responsible for their action in other areas. And prisons are violent breeding cells. And your dam right they are also terrorists. Using fear and violence. As fear and violence was used on them.
Not like you can say these thing don’t effect people.
Rape Clause Ruth-less Davidson’s popularity (if she ever had any in the first place) has taken a steep nose dive.
Maybe some folk have come to their senses.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-personality-crisis/
Ros
Her popularity has tanked.
But still 9 points ahead of Nicola Sturgeon.
I’m using the same Ipsos MORI poll ar RoS and reel guid. Polled in Scotland for STV.
https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/2017-05/scotland-pom-may-2017-topline.pdf
For some reason the graphic on WoS didn’t include the 18% drop in Nicola Sturgeon’s satisfaction ratings.
Yes but the SNP will still be in government with a larger majority that Ruth Davidson could ever hope for.
SNP ten years in power and still going strong.
The SNP don’t have a majority.
So Fred pray tell, which party at Holyrood has the largest majority of MSP seats if not the SNP?
No party has a majority at Holyrood.
You’re being obtuse as usual Fred.
The SNP has the largest majority of MSP’s which is a majority, (63) though not a overall majority as opposing parties (plural Fred) have 65 MSP’s.
Tories 31.
Labour 23.
Greens 6.
Libdems 5.
SNP 63.
“Theresa May has defended a Conservative parliamentary candidate who made “shocking” comments about rape and homosexuality.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-defends-tory-candidate-rape-comments-general-election-2017-peter-cuthbertson-a7767046.html
Is anyone surprised by this? The nasty party indeed.
Let’s hope the local people do the right thing; Hastings is covered in AMBER RUDD SHAME ON YOU posters and graffitti.
This is the home of the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists! Surely there must be an end to this corruption and exploitation.
They are all the same ….They have the audacity to say they are in touch with the ordinary people to gain votes , so they can support their millionaire cronies with tax havens and tax avoidance !
Not in the least surprised. She came across as a nasty piece of work with absolutely no conscience or empathy. Why in the world she sees herself as above others defeats me, given the known bankruptcy and dodgy dealings. In normal circumstances this would be seen as an embarrassment, however in her circles only the making of money is seen as worthy, regardless of how this was done.
The latest You Govv poll has Labour four points ahead in Hastings
“I should be very interested if anybody can go through those records and come up with any different conclusion to mine.”
I haven’t got time to check this out. And I have not yet read other comments or speculative alternatives. But another possible alternative to the ripping off of investors is that the company was set up to deliberately launder money in the directors direction. That could be checked out by determining whether any investors have actually challenged the company over its bankruptcy – probably the first thing I guess an investor would do if they felt cheated.
People of Hastings should vote her out as she thinks they are the dirt on her shoes
Think this personal lthread is counter productive to most of our hopes.
Better to have one about the US Spacelaunch to fire assorted missiles from space which makes national boundaries and NATO irrelevant in case of war, and counter measures against it increasingly difficult.
We are told too little, too late about what are covert governments are up to.
Keep up the crazy obfuscation Trowbridge.
Let’s discuss the corruption of the Home secretary…….. No let’s discuss secret space missiles
The Home Secretary’s “corruption” has been known about for years and years see the Eye ad infinitum. She was involved with her one time husband the restaurant critic A.A. Gill at one stage.
She was also a prominent Remainer .
Amber Rudd started the day at 1/50 with William Hill to win in Hastings & Rye. She’s still favourite, but her odds have drifted to 1/10.
It would appear her haughty performance hasn’t gone down too well.
She should be dubbed as Amber Rude. Rude about her constituents and sensible politics. A rich xxxxx who does not give a damn about ordinary folk but her rich friends and climbing up the greasy pole to maintain her grip on the future of the challenged millions
Tory arrogance exposed for all to see, and it’s not a pretty sight either.