A well-timed change of heart from Lord Paul?

stephen

A smart guy! Is Cashcroft saying anything as clear and candid yet?

Irene

Everything is calculated with this shower.

Strange isn't it how the BBC reports that Ashcroft "admits non dom status" but Paul "ends non dom status"

Nigel T Packer

I see from news reports that he is only changing his status from the next tax year. What about all the tax he has avoided since his ennoblement? It must be millions?

Mr. Green

Yes, Brown and Co. do want to keep focus on the serious business of government. Currently their primary focus appears to be that of remaining in government by whatever means.

I expect Lord Paul to both keep his status and his title - it's yet another ride on the Liebour merry-go-round spin machine.

2trueblue

Nice timing, and the investigation into his expenses has been cancelled. All done then? And he has a new role. They say things come in threes.

Walsingham's Ghost

This is the 'Ashcroft Promise' all over again - Lord Paul is never going to give up Non-Dom status for the sake of a seat on the Red Benches.

Cash for Peerages is one thing, but giving up the benefit of Non-Dom status in return for little more than an ermine collar and a dubious expenses arrangement will, I fear, not strike the Noble Lord as a good deal.

This 'promise' will fade away, just as Ashcroft's did.

WG

Nicholas

Good tactics by the national socialists as usual. If you're going to shuffle the chairs, shuffle them in plain view and extravagantly, accompanied by Big Lies, whilst the MSM is concentrating on some obscure rumour about the Tories.

New Labour know how to turn stories around. The Tories don't - not entirely their fault because for success the technique needs the baying press dog pack to chase the distraction ball.

The Tories are the real underdogs. New Labour's teflon avoidance of any shit sticking to them is fantastic considering the millions of tons of the stuff that has been thrown up by their many crimes, abuses, corruptions and scandals.

2trueblue

Stephen, Ashcroft also declared his hand but it didn't resonate with Liebores election machine, so the words got changed. You must keep up, you pay your fee.

Sir Graphus

I imagine the fellow gave similar assurances about Chorus pension funds, too.

D K MCGREGOR

Have we really come to this, the country is falling apart and the government wants a scrap over nondoms. That these individuals have been part of , never mind influenced policy is a ####ing disgrace.
A plague on all their houses.

Andy Leeds

So when Lord Paul was ennobled in 1996 exactly the same conditions were applied to his peerage as to that of Lord Ashcroft in 2001 ?? If this was not the case why was Lord Ashcroft treated differently ? Lord Paul was not born in the UK to British parents, whereas Lord Ashcroft was. So why has Lord Ashcroft been treated differently ???

David Lindsay

It is not as if Lord Paul's party is financially dependent on him, as Lord Ashcroft's party is financially dependent on Ashcroft.

But the fact remains that Lord Paul sat in our legislature - indeed, he was a Deputy Speaker and he is a Privy Councillor - while declaring another state to be his natural home.

That declaration, even more than the tax privileges thus obtained, is the real scandal, for him and for Ashcroft alike.