Own Goal for the Tories

RideOnTime

http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/we-combed-through-the-signatories-of-this-mornings-antilabour-telegraph-letter-so-you-dont-have-to--g1OyE1I6Ax?utm_source=indy&utm_medium=top5&utm_campaign=i100

A massive vote loser being endorsed by these cronnies...

markhewitt1978

Gotta love how this election seems to be running. Everyone is much more ready to call BS just by doing a bit of research.

bompington

So let me get this right, a significant proportion of the people who are anti-Labour are pro-Tory? Well I never!

solosuperia

On the other hand went a bit wrong for Labour when the bloke who played Watson in Sherlock and has made a mint from the Lord of the Rings films delivers the first Election Party Political broadcast on TV last night.......
The same day
As his partner and mother of his child declares herself bankrupt over a £120,000 tax bill while he has a fortune of £10 million quid.
Oh his child goes to a private school that costs something like 12k a year.

Another member of the North London Champagne Socialists??

I don't trust Labour, er or the Tories, in fact any of them!

Pross

Banning zero hours contracts doesn't seem universally popular with those on zero hours contracts either (and apparently Ed Balls has staff on zero hours!).

MisterMuncher

SoloSuperia wrote:

On the other hand went a bit wrong for Labour when the bloke who played Watson in Sherlock and has made a mint from the Lord of the Rings films delivers the first Election Party Political broadcast on TV last night.......
The same day
As his partner and mother of his child declares herself bankrupt over a £120,000 tax bill while he has a fortune of £10 million quid.
Oh his child goes to a private school that costs something like 12k a year.

Another member of the North London Champagne Socialists??

I don't trust Labour, er or the Tories, in fact any of them!

The same day? Really?

This particular story originated on the Guido Fawkes* blog. They originally had Ms. Abbingdon down as Freeman's wife, too. It was in fact nearly three years ago she filed for bankruptcy, and has since paid her tax debt. Or in short, a massive lie.


*a man who transferred ownership of his car to his wife in order to avoid it being crushed following no less than two drink driving convictions. Well he may talk about social responsibility and respect for partners.

slowmart

Company bosses who have now added their names:
Duncan Cheatle, Prelude Group
Rob Cotton, NCC Group
Michel de Carvalho, Citi Private Bank
John Gildersleeve, British Land
Michael Grade CBE, Pinewood Studios
Olivia Hall, BPVA
Ken Harvey CBE, Pennon Group
Paul Kelly, Selfridges
Julie Meyer, Ariadne Capital
Simon Oliver, Pi Capital
Simon Pryce, BBA Aviation
Dominic Sandivasci, Pirelli UK
Guy Schwinge, Dukes Auctions
Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca
David Suddens, Dr Martens
Holly Tucker, notonthehighstreet.com
Tim Weller, Incisive Media

It came as:
Lord Mandelson, the former business secretary, said that Labour may not win the general election and that whichever government is in power after the election must “promote growth and productivity”.

Labour released its own letter, which was signed mainly by workers on zero-hours contracts as well as a handful of business owners and celebrities

Mr Miliband said a Labour government would outlaw the majority of zero-hours contracts

The Labour leader pledged to abolish fees for taking cases to an employment tribunal, making it easier for workers to take companies to court





If Cameron wins then its down to Milliband & Balls being so damn inept, disjointed and disconnected from the real world.

chris_bass

Slowmart wrote:

David Suddens, Dr Martens

They are really putting the boot in now.

Stevo_666

Slowmart wrote:

If Cameron wins then its down to Milliband & Balls being so damn inept, disjointed and disconnected from the real world.

There is hope then.

Of course, the letter from the 100 business leaders who think that Labour is good for business and investment in the UK will be out any minute now

solosuperia

MisterMuncher wrote:

SoloSuperia wrote:

On the other hand went a bit wrong for Labour when the bloke who played Watson in Sherlock and has made a mint from the Lord of the Rings films delivers the first Election Party Political broadcast on TV last night.......
The same day
As his partner and mother of his child declares herself bankrupt over a £120,000 tax bill while he has a fortune of £10 million quid.
Oh his child goes to a private school that costs something like 12k a year.

Another member of the North London Champagne Socialists??

I don't trust Labour, er or the Tories, in fact any of them!

The same day? Really?

This particular story originated on the Guido Fawkes* blog. They originally had Ms. Abbingdon down as Freeman's wife, too. It was in fact nearly three years ago she filed for bankruptcy, and has since paid her tax debt. Or in short, a massive lie.


*a man who transferred ownership of his car to his wife in order to avoid it being crushed following no less than two drink driving convictions. Well he may talk about social responsibility and respect for partners.

How naive of me........... I must admit can't remember where I read it but I must have inferred that it was the same day and indeed from somewhere that assumed had a bit of legitimacy.

ballysmate

Stevo 666 wrote:

Slowmart wrote:

If Cameron wins then its down to Milliband & Balls being so damn inept, disjointed and disconnected from the real world.

There is hope then.

Of course, the letter from the 100 Greek financiers who think that Labour is good for business and investment in the UK will be out any minute now

There you go Stevo, fixed.

ballysmate

Embarrassingly for Labour, the list of business leaders features several who supported the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
They include Sir Charles Dunstone, chairman of Dixons Carphone and Talk Talk, who signed a letter backing Labour in 2005.
Yo! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe appeared in a 2004 Labour broadcast. He said: ‘To change now, half way through a recovery from the worst recession we have had in my lifetime seems to be a madness. You need to get behind the people doing the job.’
Other former Labour supporters who signed the letter included: Surinder Arora, described as a ‘big fan’ of Tony Blair in 2007; Dragons’ Den star Duncan Bannatyne, who unveiled a ‘seaside manifesto’ with Gordon Brown before the 2010 election; Sir Cameron Mackintosh, who made a donation to Labour in 1998’; and Moni Varma, who signed a letter to the Financial Times before the 2005 election backing Labour.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... dgers.html

rick_chasey

Stevo 666 wrote:

Slowmart wrote:

If Cameron wins then its down to Milliband & Balls being so damn inept, disjointed and disconnected from the real world.

There is hope then.

Of course, the letter from the 100 business leaders who think that Labour is good for business and investment in the UK will be out any minute now

Because so few businesses made money during their last tenure...

bompington

Rick Chasey wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Slowmart wrote:

If Cameron wins then its down to Milliband & Balls being so damn inept, disjointed and disconnected from the real world.

There is hope then.

Of course, the letter from the 100 business leaders who think that Labour is good for business and investment in the UK will be out any minute now

Because so few businesses made money during their last tenure...

I think we all know that the credit-fuelled boom was hardly a plus point on Labour's record. And, to be fair, they can't escape the blame for the bust (especially as they claimed to have abolished busts!) but it's not clear the Tories would have done any better .
But that was the last Labour government, who were immensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich. I'm not sure that's true about the current mob, even if most of them are filthy rich (by any reasonable standards) themselves - Martin Freeman for instance: and as for Mr Muncher's rather pathetic ad hom attack on the journalist (scurrilous journalist is shown to be scurrilous! who'd have thought it) who dared to expose the hypocrisy, I'm not sure the time lapse makes a lot of difference - she was still his de facto wife, although perhaps he was only worth a couple of million back then, a state of poverty and oppression that would clearly explain why he was so keen on Arthur Scargill's party at the time.

rick_chasey

Yeah global crahses that eminate from us sub prime that affects the rest of the western world are definitely the result of Labour, especially for their handling of the financial services sector that the Tory govt accused Labour of not being 'hands off enough' at the time.

ballysmate

bompington wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Slowmart wrote:

If Cameron wins then its down to Milliband & Balls being so damn inept, disjointed and disconnected from the real world.

There is hope then.

Of course, the letter from the 100 business leaders who think that Labour is good for business and investment in the UK will be out any minute now

Because so few businesses made money during their last tenure...

I think we all know that the credit-fuelled boom was hardly a plus point on Labour's record. And, to be fair, they can't escape the blame for the bust (especially as they claimed to have abolished busts!) but it's not clear the Tories would have done any better .
But that was the last Labour government, who were immensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich. I'm not sure that's true about the current mob, even if most of them are filthy rich (by any reasonable standards) themselves - Martin Freeman for instance: and as for Mr Muncher's rather pathetic ad hom attack on the journalist (scurrilous journalist is shown to be scurrilous! who'd have thought it) who dared to expose the hypocrisy, I'm not sure the time lapse makes a lot of difference - she was still his de facto wife, although perhaps he was only worth a couple of million back then, a state of poverty and oppression that would clearly explain why he was so keen on Arthur Scargill's party at the time.

Shock, horror - Champagne Socialists!! Who'd have thunk it?
Never ceases to amaze the number of Labour firebrands who preach imposing their socialist ideas on us and then do the opposite. No crap school down the road for their kids. Yes you Diane Abbott. Inheritance tax? Not for you Ed. Oh and Hillary Benn did ok out of his old man's tax avoidance.
After every period of Labour rule, the country is left on its arse.

slowmart

Rick Chasey wrote:

Yeah global crahses that eminate from us sub prime that affects the rest of the western world are definitely the result of Labour, especially for their handling of the financial services sector that the Tory govt accused Labour of not being 'hands off enough' at the time.

Or....

widespread failures in financial regulation, including the Federal Reserve & FSA'S failure to stem the tide of toxic mortgages; complex financial instruments the bundling of subprime mortgages into mortgage-backed securities (MBS) or collateralized debt obligations (CDO)were purchased by corporate and institutional investors globally. Derivatives such as credit default swaps also increased the linkage between large financial institutions, breakdowns in corporate governance including too many financial firms acting recklessly and taking on too much risk; an explosive mix of excessive borrowing and risk by households and Wall Street and London that put the financial system on a collision course with crisis; key policy makers ill prepared for the crisis, lacking a full understanding of the financial system they oversaw; and systemic breaches in accountability and ethics at all levels.

btw, that list isn't exhaustive


However Brown selling off the gold reserves against the advice of the treasury at the bottom of the market is only equalled by Lamont's ill feted defence of the pound where Soros taught him a lesson which just showcases why you shouldn't have people of low intelligence in positions of power or be prepared for adverse outcomes if you do.

Stevo_666

Rick Chasey wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Slowmart wrote:

If Cameron wins then its down to Milliband & Balls being so damn inept, disjointed and disconnected from the real world.

There is hope then.

Of course, the letter from the 100 business leaders who think that Labour is good for business and investment in the UK will be out any minute now

Because so few businesses made money during their last tenure...

You'd think that there might be a reasonable number if Labour's ideas were any good, but no...unfortunately for Milipede the majority of companies who were quoted on a recent Labour advert distanced themselves from it:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband/11503829/Labour-faces-backlash-from-some-of-Britains-biggest-companies-over-advert.html
It's no coincidence that business has come out much more clearly in favour of the Tories than in the past.

Out of interest, how many are publically endorsing the Lib-Dems?

rick_chasey

Yeah it's a shame.

In my world of CFOs etc the single biggest concern is over an EU exit.

secretsam

Rick Chasey wrote:

Yeah it's a shame.

In my world of CFOs etc the single biggest concern is over an EU exit.

One assumes they want to stay in?

finchy

Stevo 666 wrote:

Out of interest, how many are publically endorsing the Lib-Dems?

Seeing as the Lib Dems were the only major party to propose taking measures to prevent massive private debt building up during the early part of the last decades, you'd think that more businesses would be supportive of them than the wise-after-the-event Tories with George "Let's copy the Irish" Osborne as Chancellor.

tangled_metal

Would any of this be better if the tories and labour had been swapped? What I mean if Tories had been in when lebour were and vice versa? How much would that have changed? I guess I am saying is there really much about the financial mess that could have been changed had a different government been in? Was it inevitable and was there much difference between them at the time.

finchy

^^^ No, it would have made no difference whatsoever. Both major parties were pretty much committed to the same economic policies. The Tories just happened to be out of the firing line when it happened.

I'm surprised that Labour don't make more of this - attack Tory credibility on economic competence and then fight on public services, but they seem to be stuck for ideas themselves so I think they'll be in opposition come June and looking for a new leader.

rick_chasey

SecretSam wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Yeah it's a shame.

In my world of CFOs etc the single biggest concern is over an EU exit.

One assumes they want to stay in?

That's right.

tangled_metal

Of course Labour got out of the austerity term by not gaining coalition with liberals. Imagine if they had? They would have had to make the cuts in public sector although it would hurt them politically they would still have had to do that. Althought not as hard as the tories but the cuts and austerity would have been well up in the mix. In some ways I wish Brown had got in back in 2010. Another labour term to try and clear up the economic mess they had a part in (and the Tories before them don't forget that).

Basically we have the political system we deserve! No such thing as conviction politics these days only the PR based pandering to swing demographics (or something like that).

tangled_metal

Just read some of the reasons why some of the names on the list should be ingnored in the OP's linked article. These reasons included:

0.000158 per cent of the UK’s 63.2m population - not suprising really is it since the list was a 100 business chiefs list not the representative of the whole country list. State the bleeding obvious indy.

Then there was "not representative of the country;'s gender mix" type of comment. I haven't fact checked but I suspect it is not ethnically representative or representative of other groupings neither. It isn;t meant to be. Why should it? Another point is top executives are not exactly representative of the UK gender mix neither. A big problem for some for others meh!

Then some were tory donors (1/5th of them apparently). not surprising really because such a list backing the tories is basically declaring your support and possible voting habit. You have to be committed to your view to do that in favour of a particular party. i bet Labour's list would contain a fair proportion of Labour donors (especially if you widen the business list to include leaders of unions).

Come on Indy, give us a good, meaty reason! Oh yes, two business chiefs went on a UK business delegation at which the Prime Minister also turned up for a few days. Well I would hope that all PMs turn up for these from time to time to give clout and importance to them. I bet Brown did a fair few and Blair too. Another non-issue IMHO.

He went to a wedding of one, his wife worked for another and became friends as a result and another was a former Tory group leader at a university. Well you do get condemned by the company you keep. Wasn't Blair also good friends with that red headed press woman (along with Cameron) who was acquitted of involvement in phone hacking? Seem to remember him giving her a nice big hug on some TV thing at the beginning of the phone hacking business.

All in all I question whether half the reasons the Indy gave for questioning impartiality, or whatever the article was about, matters or is a suprise to people.

Ho! Hum! All part of the media sticking it to the enemy of their core readership. Mail and Mirror would have different views on the list I am sure to each other too.

finchy

It's politics. The Telegraph made headline news out of the fact that rich Tory supporters support the Tories. The Independent pointed out that the people who came out in support of the Tories are rich Tory supporters. Nothing to see on either side really.

orraloon

Trouble is the facile strapline e.g. "100 business leaders" gets trotted out repeatedly without any of the context of who are these people and their political affiliations. BBC radio news bulletins been using it for past couple of days.

Say something often enough and it becomes 'fact'.

pblakeney

orraloon wrote:

Say something often enough and it becomes 'fact'.

No it doesn't.

Otherwise Manc33 would be full of facts.

Or, are you saying that due to repetition, they are now facts? :shock:

orraloon

'Fact' not Fact.

Careful now, or I'll be calling in Manc33 to back me up here...

Stevo_666

johnfinch wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Out of interest, how many are publically endorsing the Lib-Dems?

Seeing as the Lib Dems were the only major party to propose taking measures to prevent massive private debt building up during the early part of the last decades, you'd think that more businesses would be supportive of them than the wise-after-the-event Tories with George "Let's copy the Irish" Osborne as Chancellor.

Presumably there is a good reason why businesses are not prepared to support Labour or the Lib Dems despite both parties pro-Euro stance. There are a few possibilities:
1. They don't think the Tories will take us out of the EU, or
2. EU exit is less important to them than Rick says, or
3. Labour and Lib Dem policy is in their view likely to harm UK business and the economy, which after all is the cornerstone of our economic prosperity.
Or a mixture of the above.

Anyway, good to see that we are the fastest growing country in the G7 - 2.8% year on year growth. Seems like the medicine is finally working.