David Cameron’s Panama, war scandals

Posted on April 11, 2016 by petrel41

This video from London, England says about itself:

‘Cameron Resign’: ‘Tough week’ for UK PM following Panama Papers leak

9 April 2016

A massive protest has gathered in front of PM David Cameron’s residence at Downing Street 10, calling for his resignation. The rally follows the so-called Panama Papers leak, which among others exposed the offshore dealings of Cameron’s late father.

By Joana Ramiro in Britain:

Thousands tell PM to quit

Monday 11th April 2016

People flock to Downing Street incensed at Panama Papers revelations

HASTILY organised protests demanding David Cameron’s resignation following the Panama Papers revelations brought thousands of people onto the streets of Britain at the weekend.

Demonstrators gathered in the centre of Glasgow and Manchester and in front of Downing Street in London, later marching on a hotel where the Prime Minister had just publicly acknowledged mishandling the crisis.

The demonstrations, labelled #ResignCameron on social media, came less than 24 hours after the Prime Minister admitted that he had benefited from shares in his father’s Blairmore Holdings fund, once registered in a tax haven.

Teenager Lily Douglas sat down outside No 10 with her school friends for most of Saturday afternoon because they wanted “David Cameron out of the government.”

She told the Star: “He’s a rubbish Prime Minister.

“He doesn’t listen to his constituency, he doesn’t show any respect for the working class.

“We’re here because of cuts to our services, cuts to our education, cuts to our jobs, cuts to our disability services — it’s a horrible life to live.

“We don’t want him in there, we want someone who is actually going to respect us and represent us.”

The London demonstration moved between Westminster and the Connaught Rooms, where the Conservatives’ spring forum was taking place.

While protesters besieged the hotel, crying out: “We pay taxes, why won’t you?” Mr Cameron admitted he “could have handled this better” in what had not been “a great week.”

Green Party council candidate Alastair Binnie-Lubbock came to the protest in a floral shirt, shorts and sandals in tune with the “Panama” theme.

He said: “We can’t wait until 2020 for [the Tories] to be out of office because they are just going to try and sell everything off and there won’t be anything left for the people.

“They say we need to have all these cuts to public services, but actually they are just hiding money away in tax havens.”

The London protests went on well into the early evening, when the Metropolitan Police made three arrests, including two on “suspicion of breaching a dispersal notice.”

Australia’s big four banks and some prominent companies are named in the so-called Panama Papers, along with about 1,000 Australian residents, according to media analyses of the material issued last week by the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ): here.

By Joana Ramiro in Britain:

Show us the money Dave

Monday 11th Apeil 2016

As Cameron is hit by yet more questions over tax affairs, Labour launches plan to clean out havens

LABOUR launched an attack on Britain’s wealth-hiding super-rich yesterday after a week which saw Prime Minister David Cameron exposed as a direct beneficiary of tax avoidance.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell revealed his new tax transparency enforcement programme yesterday, after Mr Cameron’s accounts revealed a potentially tax-dodging £200,000 gift from his mother in 2011.

Ms Cameron’s gift to her son is suspected to have been an attempt to avoid inheritance tax, which won’t apply to the gifted cash if she is still alive in 2018.

The Prime Minister’s fat finances were unveiled after increased public scrutiny following the Panama Papers scandal forced Mr Cameron to publish personal records dating back to 2010.

Commenting on Labour’s latest tax policy, Mr McDonnell said that after a “week of half-truths and spin” it was time “to clean out the tax havens.

“It should be a matter of shame to the British government that more than half the companies recently named in the Panama Papers were registered in UK-governed tax havens.

“It is deeply concerning that our Prime Minister has still failed to clarify whether or not he or his family were benefiting in 2013 when he was lobbying to prevent EU measures to better regulate trusts as a way to clamp down on tax avoidance.”

Mr McDonnell’s programme would include a public inquiry into any harm that firms and individuals connected to the Panama Papers leak might have done to British tax revenue.

He would also offer a cash boost for HMRC’s specialised tax enforcement unit, firm up anti-avoidance rules, work with European authorities to probe multinational deals and review the registration of trusts’ funds in offshore accounts.

Tax haven corruption is not just a tax issue — it drives at the very heart of our democracy and its credibility,” added Mr McDonnell.

“We risk eroding public trust in our democracy if we do not tackle the issue head on.”

Speaking on BBC One’s Andrew Marr show, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said that for “the greatest sense of openness,” not only politicians but also public figures should open up their books.

He said: “I think it is probably a good thing if we move generally in that direction so that everybody knows what influences are at play.

“Money and politics have to be treated with the greatest sense of openness possible so you know what influences are at work on any individual, on whatever political or any other decisions they make.

“You are involved in public life, for example, as a very important commentator on the BBC, as indeed many others are.

“I think we need to know what influence is at work on them.”New plans to criminalise companies aiding tax evasion are to be announced by Mr Cameron today in an attempt to draw a line under the Panama row.

This 9 April 2016 video is called Mass protest in London calls for Cameron to resign.

By Lamiat Sabin in Britain:

Secret government kill list uncovered

Monday 11th April 2016

PM in the frame again for appearing to mislead Parliament

A SECRET assassination list has been held by the government for at least 14 years, targeting people in countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen, a human rights organisation revealed yesterday.

Reprieve’s research also suggests that Tory PM David Cameron could be guilty of misleading Parliament last September, a serious offence, after claiming that the drone killing of two British nationals in Syria had been “a new departure.”

In October 2001, the government drew up a list of individuals who were then targeted by British and US forces, according to Reprieve, which published the Britain’s Kill List report.

The list includes people suspected of being militants, drug traffickers and paedophiles who are marked for attack without them being put on trial for the allegations against them.

However, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) told the Morning Star that it “does not comment on intelligence matters.”

The Star was not able to get contact with 10 Downing Street despite repeated attempts to obtain a comment about Mr Cameron’s claims in the Commons.

Reprieve says that it found the names of 41 men who had “died” repeatedly — after reportedly being killed in “successful” drone strikes, their names subsequently reappeared in reports of the casualties caused by other air attacks.

The charity’s report reads: “Reports indicate that each assassination target ‘died’ on average more than three times before their actual death.

“This raises a stark question. With each failed attempt to assassinate a man on the Kill List, who filled the body bag in his place?

“In one case, it took seven drone strikes before the US killed its target. In those strikes, as many as 164 people died, including 11 children.”

The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) is scheduled to issue its own report on Britain’s use of drones for targeted killing, but Reprieve is calling for a separate, urgent review of the policy, which dates back to at least 2002.

Reprieve director Clive Stafford Smith said: “For a country that loudly proclaims its opposition to the death penalty even after a fair trial, the hypocrisy is stunning.

“Now we know that British authorities are deeply involved in executing all kinds of people, including alleged drug dealers, without a trial at all.

“If democracy means anything at all, the Prime Minister must order a full and transparent inquiry into the Kill List, starting immediately.”