Will Benn Divest from UBM?
UBM has announced that it is fleeing Britain's rapacious tax regime for the friendly and more welcoming business environment to be found in Ireland. Vince Cable has condemned UBM as corporate tax dodgers. To be fair UBM management have to keep their shareholders happy - shareholders like the farm minister Hilary Benn.
Just got off the phone with Hilary Benn's SpAds, they promise to get back to Guido. They are going to ask Hilary what, in the circumstances, he is going to do with his significant and correctly declared, shareholding in United Business Media (thought to be worth 7 figures). Will he divest, vote against the move or sell his shares?
35 comments:
There'll be more money left for shareholders, which is an extremely good thing. I can't honestly see a member of that family of sincere hard-lefties divesting themselves of the fruits of capitalisy endeavour si easily, can you? Expect him to criticise the move, promise to "look into it" and then, after the local elections, say nowt about it. If you question him again, he'll say something like you're a xenophobe as you hate the EU permitting companies to trade - and site - across borders. Job done!
Just a guess of course.
Ah, baby benn , appointing that worthless anally retentive veggie whimp , son of a traiterous loonie who thought East Germany was a good idea, to head defra, was the sort of calculated insult to the countryside that probably seemed funny inside nulab a year ago.
Might not seem so clever now, as the bus loads of canvassers head for town !
If they're in a blind trust he can't do anything while he's a minister, can he?
perhaps he'd like to leave the country too...what sort of a father would give him a girl's name anyway?
ferrets in a bag kicking the shit out of each other.... that's what the UBM move reminds me of.
guido -you need to mention Adair Turner. he's all for the move. yeah -that Adair Turner. ex cbi and friend of Tony.
"and correctly declared, shareholding in United Business Media (thought to be worth 7 figures).2
...and still a Labour Minister
He'll be a cunt - just like his dad. Oh, and hiss boss.
You have to remember that UBM was/(is?) Lord Hollick's outfit, he with all the right-on New Labour credentials. I hope when they move to Dublin they appoint Bertie Aherne as non exec director chairing the audit committee. He may even open a bank account specially for the role rather than take the usual cash.
Ah, - like so many of the oh-so-righteous, patronising, bullying, goody-goody lefties . . . . filthy rich, - and looking for more.
‘Twas ever so.
7 figures!!!! Jesus Christ thats anything from £1,000,000 to £9,999,999.
Where the f**k do they get that sort of dosh from?
I thought that old loony bugger of a father Anthony Wedgewood was supposed to be a lefty who didn't approve of that sort of thing.
Why a naive tosser I turned out to be!
Pa for course - if my recollection is right commy daddy Benn was responsible for financing Concorde, an exclusive plane, paid for by the tax payer so the rich could travel in style at a discount.
A Scargill
These family polical firms need to be weeded out - off the top of my head I can think of the Benns, Balls, Alexanders, Kinnocks, Watsons - anyone care to add to the list?
Sound like snotty is keeping the Army busy again,off to Kosovo .
Does he think of the Army like our gold reserves? they are lying about doing nothing he considers useful so get em working/dying or is he so paranoid now he wants them all out the country?
Well, given the Benn family publishing business (one of the Empire's biggest in the first half of the 20th century) has been held in trust in the Caribbean for decades, it's not much of an embarrassment that a public company he holds shares in but doesn't control is moving offshore.
That he's in any way involved with UBM, the creation of currency-speculator-turned-communications -magnate, Clive Hollick, very much a luvvie for New Labour, might be more of an embarrassment given his own posturing towards the Left (which secretly venerates toffs and despises new money).
Great story, Guido..
Guido, you overlooked the obvious choice Et tu Brutus Benn ???
Let Vinny C show Rockin Gordo how to dance his way out of that...
Simone is Right said...
"...what sort of a father would give him a girl's name anyway?"
Hilary used to be a more popular name for boys than for girls.
clochoderic said...
"These family polical firms need to be weeded out - off the top of my head I can think of the Benns, Balls, Alexanders, Kinnocks, Watsons - anyone care to add to the list?"
CHURCHILL
second generation cashier
second rate defra minister (ask anyone at the cattle markets)
me thinks economically it will difficult , no chance of corporate tax cuts , so better for them to get share holder value and move .
although ireland doesnt vote for lisbon could be fun .
ive got my front side seat for labours scorched earth attack on boris , sounds more like a barbie to me .
bring it on milliband i say , bring it on
What do you mean "divest from" UBM?
I understand that selling assets is now referred to as "diversifying into".
anon @5:46
Yes, Churchill Mark III wasn't as good as Churchill Mark II - who understood in the 1930s where the real enemy lay - nor of course Chuchill Mark I - way back in Victoria's reign.
I think Sir W. helped win a war - which is more than can be said for others you mention.
On the subjest of big business.
The Telegraph today chose to lead by printing an OFT Press Release >
"About 100 leading household brands, including PG Tips, Coca-Cola and Aquafresh, are at the centre of an investigation into allegations of price-fixing, The Daily Telegraph can disclose."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/29/nprice329.xml
Which follows on from and is linked to last weeks disclosure of a similar investigation into the leading Supermarkets ( usual suspects ) for " price fixing ".
What a pathetic and obvious smokescreen issued by the administration, trying to divert attention from its own failings by trying to blame Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever and Andrex's US owner Kimberly-Clark for reported rises in our weekly shopping bills. Poor deluded consumer we.
To cap this it goes on to quote one John Bridgeman, a former OFT director general.
""There is no smoke without fire... The OFT is not going to go big on this unless it has something to go on."
Oh really ? And what happened to the idea of being innocent until being proven guilty ?
This 'former DG ' clearly believes that to be accused is to be guilty. Just like the Nazis-Stassi c*n*s he is spawned from.
Thank you for your time; not a supermarket owner nor shareholder nor even a customer; I prefer crap from convenience stores.
Rex - you forget that Benn Snr would otherwise be Viscount Stansgate if he had not renounced his title in the 60's to enter the Commons. That would make Hilary next in line. They are knobs to a man.
Benn faces deputy leadership disaster
By Toby Helm, Chief Political Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:27am BST 14/05/2007
Mr Benn faced a new setback yesterday with revelations in the
Sunday Telegraph that he holds shares worth £233,559
in a firm which has a contract with his government department.
The shares in media and business information company UBM
were passed down to him from his grandmother and his father.
-------------------------
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/14/nbenn14.xml
clochoderic:
- Johnson?
Off topic:
"Bean is sending 600 more troops to Kosovo."
Exactly when are we going to leave the Balkans? Round about the same time we leave Iraq or Afganistan??
Guido
Do you have any stories that would concern Either Benn or any other ministers "Divesting" themselves whilst in a public office?
Come on DARLING , you know you want to tell us all (+:
The millionair new socialists/communists, take from the poor - give to the rich!
corrupt career polititians -
cunts!
Please could anyone explain to me the YouTube video that is to the right of the blog?
In it a nice young man vaguely resembling Nick Clegg appears to have a chat with Margaret Hodge and then goes off to visit an old woman in a cell. WTF? Is the old woman a Conservative voter that they have incarcerated during the local elections?
Can't see why he should sell, is the stock market only put on earth for the use of Conservatives? It would be helpful that Benns Junior and Senior fessed up to their tastes for capitalism though.
ive just been sent labour party election broadcast now titled "brown stares out of the train window "
harmen "i came into politics to??"
jaqui smith "i was teacher and kids need??"
gordon was travelling on one of branstons trains.
it was dull almost enough to make you sleep and lose the will to live, if after 10 years browns vision is this (whatever it was its so un memorable).
nothing on economy , europe , brtishness it was about as universal as you could get .
nothing going on here only dull goverment and mps !! the red despot spotter disagrees there is quite a lot going on here , namely wasteing money and kids dying of mental moral corruption .
look upon your success of government mr brown , it might be nice in the westminster bunker , but its right mess everywhere else
hese family polical firms need to be weeded out - off the top of my head I can think of the Benns, Balls, Alexanders, Kinnocks, Watsons - anyone care to add to the list?
I'll add to that list... "are all a bunch of cunts..."
Vince Cable really has lost it since enjoying his purple patch as stand-in leader. Why the hell would anyone in their right mind condemn UBM for moving its tax domicile? Capital is mobile so it is bound to gravitate towards countries with competitive tax regimes. Indeed, any director that failed to consider such a move would be failing in their fiduciary duties and could face a shareholder law suit.
Douglas Alexander and Harriet Har-person looking miserable at PMQ's - Priceless..
GORDON RATTLED !!!!!!!
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