Tag Archives: lord myners

What does a Labour ex-minister think of deficits?

By Mark Pack | Published 10th June 2010 - 8:50 am

As the Telegraph reported:

Lord Myners, the former City minister, last night criticised Gordon Brown’s administration for living beyond its means and said he had been frustrated by his colleagues’ “flawed thinking” on the economy. “There is nothing progressive about a government that consistently spends more than it can raise in taxation,” he said.

Posted in News | Also tagged | 3 Comments

PMQs: Hattie tries to throw a “stinger” in front of voting reform

By Paul Walter | Published 9th June 2010 - 4:20 pm

Prime Minister’s Questions is definitely becoming more subdued these days. The bellowing and ya-boo atmosphere has reduced by about 80% since the election. The Cumbrian shootings have dominated both sessions so far, which has added to the quietish feeling.

Harriet Harman has suddenly developed an interest in the electoral roll and the fact that “3.5 million people” who could be on it, aren’t. Fascinating. She seems to have suddenly come up with this as a reason to throw a sort of police “stinger” in front of voting reform – or at least constituency boundary re-drawing. She seems to have forgotten that her party was in power for thirteen years. Why didn’t they do something about electoral registration then? And, as David Cameron retorted, the last election was fought on recently redrawn boundaries anyway – which rather kiboshed Hattie’s argument.

Harman then had a go about CCTV. David Cameron went off on one, ending up about rights to enter people’s houses. He did make some good points about civil liberties during which Nick Clegg nodded very strongly. Harman raised an estate on her patch where they want CCTV coverage. Cameron said it was all about proportionality. If only he could say that about voting reform.

Good joke from Cameron:

Continue reading »
Posted in PMQs | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 42 Comments

The LDV 2×2 Daily View (15/5/09)

By Stephen Tall | Published 15th May 2009 - 11:50 am

Our daily review and preview of the day’s big stories…

2 Big Stories

MPs’ expenses dominate the headlines … again

Another day, another bleak day for Parliamentary politics. Former Agriculture minister Elliot Morley was suspended from the Labour party for claiming £16,000 in expenses on a mortgage he had paid off. Meanwhile, Andrew MacKay, a senior aide to Tory leader David Cameron, resigned after claiming tens of thousands of pounds in second-home expenses on a London property that his wife, Tory MP Julie Kirkbride, designated as her main home. And as if that wasn’t enough, the House of Lords took the exceptional step …

Continue reading »
Posted in Daily View | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Minister tackling offshore tax havens … uses an offshore tax haven himself

By Mark Pack | Published 29th March 2009 - 9:37 am

As the Sunday Times reports:

LORD MYNERS, the minister in charge of the government’s assault on tax havens, has used a blind trust to conceal £250,000 of his own money in an offshore shelter.

Details of the secret holding have been obtained by The Sunday Times as G20 leaders gather in London pledging to stamp out tax abuses.

Myners transferred 500,000 of his own shares in the Ermitage hedge fund, based in Jersey, into a blind trust when he became a minister in October …

He owned the shares while overseeing price-sensitive policy decisions. During this time he met Jersey officials who now

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Opposition watch | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment