March to unseat Cameron

by Daphne Liddle

THE PEOPLES Assembly, along with many other progressive trade unions and campaigns, had long planned a mass march through London this Saturday against austerity, in defence of the NHS and the restoration of union rights. They will still be marching for those causes. But another one has been added as the main slogan of the march: “Cameron must go!”

Since the leak of the “Panama Papers” from the Panama-based lawyers Mossack and Fonseca, the details of the Cameron family dealings through a company set up by the Prime Minister’s father, Ian Cameron, called Blairmore Holdings Inc have been emerging. It was moved to Ireland in 2010, the year David Cameron became Prime Minister.

A source close to Blairmore Holdings — which is still operating with assets of £35 million — said the company had been moved because its directors believed it was about to “come under more scrutiny”.

The truth about this company had to be dragged slowly out of Cameron. At first he claimed it was “a private matter”. Then we were told that David Cameron had no offshore holdings, then that there were no longer any offshore holding that the family would benefit from “in future”.

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The Tories have rallied round their leader accusing the press and the Labour leader of hounding them for doing “what thousands of other families do to reduce their tax bills” and that Cameron “had done nothing illegal”.

But the point is that it is only legal because the tax laws are written by Cameron and his cronies in the first place. At last people are beginning to see the link between the self-interest of the class and that the state they created to serve them is far from neutral.

And this culture of tax dodging by wealthy individuals and by the giant companies they own is the reason why so many essential services have been cut since Cameron came to power.

Tax dodging means dozens of women’s refuges have been closed, benefits have been cut leaving families forced to go to food banks or starve, vital services and benefits for the disabled have been cut and thousands of youth projects that gave young people a reason to hope for a better future have been swept away.

Their class has been robbing our class blind and they see this normal and excusable behaviour.

Rutland’s Tory MP, Alan Duncan, revealed their contempt for the working class. He said: “Shouldn’t the Prime Minister’s critics just snap out of their synthetic indignation and admit their real point is they just hate anyone who’s got a hint of wealth in their life?”

More than a week after the disclosure of the Panama Papers they were still dominating Prime Minister’s Question Time.

Jeremy Corbyn focused all his questions on tax, saying Conservative MEPs have voted against new EUwide country-by-country reporting measures, while the Government had cut tax official jobs and shut down tax offices.

Cameron said the new reporting measures were “based on the work we’ve been doing” and had been proposed by Britain’s commissioner, Lord Hill.

The leaders also exchanged blows over how transparent overseas territories would have to be under the new regime. Corbyn said the Cayman Islands premier was “celebrating victory” because beneficial ownership information would not be available publicly or directly to British agencies.

Cameron said overseas and Crown dependencies would provide beneficial ownership information, but would not make the information public because otherwise some might have “walked away from this co-operation altogether”.

So the wealthy are continuing to write the laws that protect their wealth from prying eyes while they continue to rob and impoverish everyone else.

For those who want to join Saturday’s protest march, it assembles at 1pm in Gower Street, near the Euston Road, to march to Trafalgar Square.