Strongly worded title perhaps. But after the previous post from the early hours of this morning that’s the cleaned up version of the description of the hypocritical parasites known as the BBC. Moments ago on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme John Humphrys interviewed Margaret Hodge, champagne socialist chairman of the Public Accounts Select Committee.
Yet again Hodge took the platform afforded to her to describe companies who legally structure their headquarters and finances to pay tax overseas instead of here in the UK as ‘immoral’. She proudly informed Humphrys that she no longer shops at Amazon or drinks at Starbucks as a result. This despite the revelation that the family business Hodge herself owns shares in – and allegedly uses tax minimising measures to hold others in trust and in children’s names – pays just 0.01pc tax on £2.1bn of business generated in the UK.
But that of course is ok for a taxpayer soaking, troughing hypocrite like Hodge, who last year allegedly earned from her £1.8million worth of shares a dividend from Stemcor of more than £56,000 – much greater than the gross pay of the vast majority of the population.
Despite this knowledge, John Humphrys either took the decision not to challenge this hypocrisy, followed an editorial decision not to bring it up or timidly accepted a demand from Hodge not to bring it up (we will never know because any FOI request to discover the truth will be met with the standard refusal because the information is supposedly held for the purposes of ‘journalism, art or literature,’).
This is the contemptible establishment at work. Whipping up discord, hysteria and resentment among sections of society over perfectly legal behaviour, but in cowardly fashion carefully evading scrutiny of their own alleged behaviour by simply omitting any mention of it. Yes, scum.
Autonomous Mind 
Yet another beauty of a post, AM.
Reminds me of an area of govt. policy under discussion on Today one day, where they invited the Chairman of the Social Market Foundation for a response. He was interviewed by….Evan Davies! Who just happens to be a director of the Social Mar….you get it!
It’s as rotten a Hell, and needs selling off mega-pronto.
Superb posts recently AM. Thank you.
Humphrys (no “e”) is just the usual lefty protecting his own. The BBC – bias is in our genes.
Thanks Steve. And thanks David – (spelling corrected).
Mentioning that hypocrite Hodge, the millionaire tax dodger getting rich from a tax dodging company along with a mention of Tim Yeo and his position in the pockets of subsidy the quasi criminal subsidy looting windmill pimps got me banned by the spectator. Of course the BBC protects the like of Hodge, they are friends and allies, its all candlelight suppers and their rug rats going to the same private schools and pony clubs. The libdem muppet got invited presumably because the BBC knows which of his buttons to push to get the required answers and nothing more, libdems have at least one use if only to the BBC. And the Humphrys tone, almost reverent and hushed and respectful, he could have been interviewing Mandela, non of the usual interrupting patronising chivvying reserved for the BBCs ideological enemies.
All in all just another of the BBCs perfectly set up non investigative non enlightening non illuminating show trial style reports and a perfect example of the synergy between what labour wants peddled and the ever compliant collaborators of the BBC. If labour need an attack line opened they have a magical connection with the BBCs print arm and the BBC provides the audio visual confirmation of any attack line labour and the left wants peddling. Half the story and only when it suits their genetic political prejudice. And from the start the Cameron regime has willingly played the part for the BBC a dumb standing target for all the brickbats the left can throw at it, not only that but empowering the BBC to engage in its spiteful and partisan political machinations.
You can be sure that if Hypocrite Hodge was a Tory she would have been in for a Gestapo style grilling, worse still the Cameron gang dont fight back and they have no interest in tackling the biased and corrupt BBC, no interest in bring the BBC to account for itself via a public inquiry. The Tory scum fully and richly deserve everything they get from the BBC, they are snivelling cowards toeing the line and happy to work within the lefts ever more constrictive dictated boundaries, presumably because they are so mired in corruption themselves they are not going to start rocking any boats and turning over any stones for fear of being outed themselves.
This post comes across as really quite deranged. As far as I can tell, Stemcore, the company in question, have explicitly denied moving profits abroad to avoid taxes. That aside, whether Hodge maintains a secret Kindle habit despite claiming to boycott Amazon is really not the issue.
In the four minutes 30 seconds that Hodge had, she gave the position of her Select Committee quite succinctly. And that was what most people wanted to hear.
Namely, that international companies can set up here, get the benefit of our national infrastructure, our grants, our cheap subsidised (by working tax credits) labour and our flexible labour laws. Yet they are not required to contribute a fair share as compared with their UK-based competitors because of bizarre rules that enable them to spirit away profits made here as “royalties” and so forth.
I don’t care if the politicians are hypocrites (I don’t think Hodge is), or that the rules are being followed, or even that the politicians are responsible for the rules. I want someone like Hodge to be given the opportunity to stand up for the small businesses who cannot cope if Starbucks decides to set up 4 outlets in their town or Amazon forces companies to deliver their tax-free products for next to nothing.
Steve, why don’t you do what others have done and look at Stemcor’s accounts to see how much tax it paid on its profits? Then you can define ‘fair’ and explain why legal behaviour is being demonised in the way it is. I like the way you try to skirt around the fact Hodge benefits directly from exactly what she is railing against. The issue is that the BBC pointedly avoided challenging Hodge about Stemcor while giving her free rein to attack other companies who are acting perfectly legally.
Hodge isn’t standing up for small business. Labour has never stood up for small business. The costs of doing business are increasing all the time because of government action and HMRC is becoming more aggressive in its efforts to challenge deductibles and stop SMEs from doing anything that minimises their tax liability. I and friends of mine are experiencing this first hand.
Perhaps when you let your moral indignation and blindness give way to the reality of what’s happening you won’t make such ill informed comments.
Its accounts would indicate it has paid around 32% of its profits in tax. The discussion is hardly helped when you quote the misleading ratio of 0.01% of turnover.
If things are getting tougher for small companies that is just more evidence that the balance is wrong.
The latest news indicates that Hodge is putting her reputation on the line over Stemcor. So if you are right, you have your chance to take her down.
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I ain’t saying your content isn’t good, however what if you added a headline that makes people
desire more? I mean Arse kissing establishment BBC scum « Autonomous Mind is kinda vanilla.
You ought to look at Yahoo’s home page and watch how they create news headlines to get viewers to open the links. You might try adding a video or a pic or two to grab people interested about everything’ve got to say.
Just my opinion, it could bring your posts a little bit more
interesting.
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