Letter to "Express & Star" on the Ashcroft millions
Dear Sir
So now we know a bit more about the Ashcroft millions. Lord Ashcroft has contributed a "significant sum" to Margot James's campaign in Stourbridge, along with all the other constituencies that the Conservatives are hoping to buy with Lord Ashcroft's help.
Lord Ashcroft only got his peerage by promising to become a "permanent resident" in Britain. But he broke that promise, and decided (in secret collusion with senior civil servants) that it was good enough for him to be a "long-term resident" so that he could avoid tens of millions of pounds of tax. He had William Hague and David Cameron going round in circles using clever, weasel words so as avoid looking too carefully at what Lord Ashcroft was actually up to.
Isn't this typical of the arrogance, double-speak and double-think of so many of the unimaginably rich, who feel no compunction about avoiding their fair share of responsibility for financing the vital public services from which they are happy to take the benefit. Yes - there are exceptions. Andrew Carnegie financed more than 2,500 public libraries world-wide, including the Old Stourbridge Library. Bill Gates's charitable works are well known. I know nothing about Lord Ashcroft's charitable donations. But I do know that he has dedicated more than £10 million of his wealth to the return to power of a Conservative Party which has promised to ease the tax "burden" on the rich.
Labour has presided over a Britain in which the super-rich, like Lord Ashcroft, are not held to account but are allowed to avoid paying tax. Surely the Liberal Democrats are right to demand the creation of a fairer society, and a fairer tax system.
Yours sincerely
Chris Bramall,
prospective Liberal Democrat candidate,
Stourbridge constituency
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Published and promoted by Simon Hanson on behalf of the Stourbridge Liberal Democrats,
both at 53 Chawn Hill, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY9 7JA