June 30, 2009
Interesting Post: Flippin’ Osborne?
Up on Liberal Conspiracy today, there’s an interesting post about George Osborne’s second home “flip”and the apparent inconsistency in how David Cameron has disciplined his MPs.
Purely by coincidence, I was trawling the Lib Dem website this morning (it’s work; don’t ask) and noticed that Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott was addressing this only a couple of weeks ago. Lord Oakeshott said:
“This is a real test of David Cameron’s leadership. He blackballed his country gentlemen with their moats and duck houses before their feet could touch the ground. But will he make his Shadow Chancellor pay back the tax he’s dodged?”
That seems a pretty pertinent question. The time line provided by Liberal Conspiracy makes it seem even more so:
Liberal Conspiracy also asks:
Two Questions for Tory Backbenchers and grass-roots activists:
1) Has Mr Cameron been consistent in his claim that: “I don’t think it is right to get money from the taxpayer for what you nominate as a second home and then to sell it and not pay capital gains tax”?
2) Has Mr Cameron honoured his declaration that: “Where appropriate, others will be removed from the front bench if they do not behave appropriately. I want to very tough [sic] but I also want to be consistent and fair.”?
To those I would add a third: why has the media been so comparatively silent about this? Is it simply expenses-fatigue – or something more worrying?
When David Cameron couldn’t remember how many houses he owns in a Times interview, it went pretty much un-noticed. Now Osborne appears to have flipped his second home to turn and profit and avoid tax – and apparently gotten away with it.
I’m not a Tory, as should be fairly obvious from this blog. But if I was, I think I’d still be worried. It seems to be one rule for Cameron’s mates, and another for the rest of his party. And the media seem to be in on it. This kind of cronyism and blind-eye-turning lay at the heart of New Labour – and look what a disaster that little experiment proved.
Do we really want to repeat history?
