Ed Miliband got egged for not having the guts to stand up to austerity

fried egg, 123rf.com, image 15299193 by shpringelolgaNow 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

HMRC let Goldman Sachs off tax to avoid “major embarrassment” to Osborne

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.

It came to light in the High Court that the former tax chief, Dave Hartnett, chose to waive the £20 million that Goldman Sachs owed to HMRC to save his personal reputation, and avoid major political embarrassment for George Osborne and HMRC. The political scandal has been revealed by UK Uncut Legal Action, the anti-cuts campaigners who have brought the case against HMRC. Continue reading

UK Uncut takes on the Inland Revenue and Goldman Sachs on behalf of the 99%

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”. Continue reading

The future isn’t what it used to be

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’. Continue reading

UK Uncut to shut down Westminster Bridge in protest over NHS bill

Thousands are expected to occupy one of London’s most iconic landmarks on 9th October in last-ditch attempt to defeat the bill condemned by doctors as ‘undermining all that is precious about the NHS’. UK Uncut has announced that it is planning a spectacular act of mass civil disobedience in a last-ditch attempt to defeat the government’s Health and Social Care bill. The anti-austerity direct action group will bring traffic to a halt by blocking Westminster Bridge on Sunday 9th October, days before the final vote in the House of Lords. Continue reading