Could this be why @jeremycorbyn raised tax avoidance at this week’s #PMQs ? Panama Papers 2 is this Sunday https://t.co/RUet76o9YN
— Nick Robinson (@bbcnickrobinson) November 1, 2017
The BBC’s pension fund has shares in BP and Facebook….both companies deal with the Russians….Russia owns Facebook shares. Does that ‘relationship’ mean the BBC is in hock to the Kremlin? Has the BBC been funding Russian sponsored ‘fake news’ via Facebook?….LOL…and of course Apple, another BBC investment, is probably the world’s biggest tax avoider….not to mention the appalling tax dodging [according to the BBC] Amazon. I imagine we could just go on and on and on…the BBC no doubt won’t say a word about its own dodgy investments as it castigates others for their ‘immoral’ choices….and supposed links to Russia.
There’s been several occasions when Corbyn has been on PMQs and his questions have been based on a BBC programme yet to be broadcast. I’m absolutely sure there is no collusion and no coordination. None at all.
Corbyn raised tax avoidance and the BBC has been going hammer and tongs at it all day today…most of it complete rubbish….they mention the Queen and ‘her’ investments and tell us that of course nothing illegal has been done nor is there any suggestion that she has evaded tax…however, they ask, is it right what she does?
Since when has the BBC been appointed the moral arbiter of what is right or wrong in the world? Not sure that is in its charter and yet it seems to have taken the task of overseeing our morality to itself.
The language the BBC uses shows that this is not just straight reporting but an attempt to whip up as much anger, fury, indignation and hostility towards ‘the Rich’ as possible….in line with Corbyn and McDonnell’s aim.
We hear of ‘highly secret documents’, that the ‘Rich and powerful’ have ‘secret investments’, that there is a ‘secret British empire’ out there…and of course…nothing illegal…but is it right? The news kept quoting some activist who told us that ‘those of us who are left behind are paying the taxes that keep this country running for these people to use and they are not paying taxes’. Hmmmmm…that’s just not true….the Rich have been soaked for money since the crash….it is well known outside the BBC that they pay massive amounts of tax…and the less well off have benefitted from vastly increased tax allowances taking many out of tax altogether.
The richest 1 per cent of income taxpayers pay over a quarter of all income tax; the top 10 per cent pay 60 per cent of the total.
And the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that about 90% of income tax is paid by the 50% of taxpayers with the highest incomes. So that leaves just 10% of income tax being paid by the lower earners completely demolishing John McDonnell’s lie at the election…
“The burden in terms of the tax take is falling on middle and low earners”
What’s missing from the BBC’s reporting? No menton of who ‘leaked’ these documents. It could well have been Russia and yet nothing from the BBC….Corbyn is closely linked to Russia and has a great interest in having such documents published…and yet nothing from the BBC. Why would Russia do such a thing? By releasing these documents it sets the cat amongst the pigeons and increases the hostility towards the Establishment and the rich and powerful in the country thus giving Corbyn a means to attack them and present himself as the champion of the ‘left behind’. Russia trying to influence our Democracy? Russia trying to put Corbyn into No10?
The BBC in contrast is quick to attack an American Trump official who it claimed is linked to ‘The Kremlin’ via his business connections. Unfortunately that turned out to be complete hokum…the man disclosed his business dealings before hsi appointment and his business dealings turn out to be that he holds some shares in a company with Russian owners. The BBC’s Kemal Ahmed interviewed him and suggested that there was ‘something improper’ in the Commerce Secretary ‘gaining’ from a relationship with Russia. But of course there was nothing improper…it was just business, not illegal, there were no sanctions against the company….half of europe gets their gas from Russia….from the state controlled Gazprom…and BP has signed a deal with Rosneft to bring more gas to Europe. Who owns London’s Evening Standard? A Russian whose ‘oligarch’ father was in the KGB and lives alongside Putin in Moscow.
Today Lebedev divides his time between Russia and the UK. His main residence is in the Moscow suburb of Rublyovka where most of Russia’s power elites have their dachas. “It’s where Putin lives, too”, he remarked. Nobody really knows whether he is pro or anti-Putin.
But Kemal didn’t stop there even when the man had convincingly proved his case and his innocence. Ahmed wanted to know if he agreed or understood that people would be uncomfortable that he has a relationship with Russia….except of course he has no ‘relationship’ with Russia…just some shares in a company. Ahmed then wanted to know if he would consider getting rid of his shares due to the way this [controversy] has been covered [by the Media] and had damaged his reputation. So the Media has run a smear campaign against this guy and tried to suggest he is some sort of Russian agent and Ahmed thinks it is his fault and that he should sell his shares to prove his innocence? Bizarre but shows how the BBC thinks…..they just want to link Trump to Russia anyway possible regardless of facts.
Odd how the BBC completely ignores the fact that Obama let the Russians buy 20% of America’s Uranium business and that Clinton was paid over $100 million dollars by the Russians [never mind all that loot from the Saudis…possiby more dangerous than the Russians]…..but a Trump official with some shares in a Russian company is hung out to dry by the BBC and fellow travellers? Talk about preposterous and a lack, deliberate, of proportion and priority.
London is awash with Russian money, often from highly dubious sources….does the BBC attack anyone who has shares in Chelsea FC or a season ticket…are they part of Putin’s secret army? I imagine if you traced where that money went in Britain half the country would be having a ‘relationship with the Kremlin’ by the BBC’s logic.
British companies do business with Russian companies all the time, investments are made with Russian companies, we have military adventures in the Middle East alongside the Russians…..I’d bet there are many links between the BBC and Russia should we look hard enough.
The desire to make and shout loudly about very tenuous connections between certain individuals and the Russians is of course a highly political choice by the BBC…intended to keep up the narrative that Trump is only President because the Russians put him there…thus he is not a legitimate President…thus he should go. It is the same narrative with Brexit….we see the BBC and the Remain Media are starting to create a whole story about Brexit being the result of Russian propaganda and thus the referendum was not legitimate and needs to be rerun. Pure propaganda.