Now that cuts are biting, people are desperate for an alternative, but Labour didn’t have the courage to provide it.
Having eggs pelted at you seems almost a rite of passage for politicians, and if that’s the case Ed Miliband must be feeling pretty ministerial these days. Miliband fell victim to his second egging yesterday afternoon, a fate he deserved because – according to his assailant – he isn’t “standing up for the poor”. Whatever one thinks of egging as a tactic: the man has a point. Continue reading
In the legal case against HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) over the ‘sweetheart’ tax deal with Goldman Sachs, details have emerged of a controversial cover up to avoid political embarrassment at the heart of government.
UK Uncut has been granted leave to challenge the so-called “sweetheart” deal between HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and Goldman Sachs, which saved the bank up to £20m. UKUncuts’s case will now go to a full judicial review where its lawyers will argue that HMRC failed to carry out its legal duty to renegotiate a deal with the bank after it emerged the government had a mistake in the original talks by not including interest payments. Lawyers for UK Uncut asked the judge to grant permission to seek a declaration that the agreement was unlawful. They want £20 million to be returned to the public purse. HMRC argued that a judicial review could not be brought without endangering tax-payer confidentiality which it claimed was of “paramount importance”. 
UK Uncut, the anti-cuts direct action group, has today announced a new plan of action to start shortly before the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations and the Olympic period. The group, best known for targeting tax dodgers, will hold street parties in major towns and cities across the UK in the run up to the Jubilee and Olympics which will ‘resist the cuts and celebrate a future that is decided by us, not a handful of billionaires’. 
