Question Time 31st October 2024
The Panel:
Darren Jones (Labour)
Andrew Griffith (Conservative)
Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat)
Sir Tom Hunter (Entrepreneur)
Sir Craig Oliver (Author and Journalist)
Venue: Guildford
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones, the Labour MP for Bristol North West since 2017, is a graduate in human bioscience from the University of Plymouth and a former president of their students’ union. He later read law at the University of the West of England and the University of Law in Bristol before becoming a solicitor specialising in technology law.
Andrew John Griffith is the Conservative Party MP for Arundel and South Downs, elected to Parliament for the first time in 2019. At the 2024 general election, the 53-year-old hung on to his seat despite a vote share drop of 20% and is now Shadow Science Secretary. A graduate in law from Nottingham University, before qualifying as a chartered accountant, Andrew worked for investment bankers Rothschilds & Co. Yes, THE ROTHCHILDS!!!! Later he joined SKY TV and rose to be a board member and Chief Operating Officer.
A Fellow of the Royal Television Society, the year prior his election to the House of Commons Mr Griffiths benefitted to the tune of £17 million through his SKY TV shareholding when the company was sold to Comcast, an American entertainment conglomerate. Also known as Communistcast, it is they who control our very own Lie News. Speaking of donors, in the 2024 electoral cycle, Communistcast donated $366,551 to a Ms Kamala Harris, $270,081 to the Democratic National Committee Services Corp and spent $7,317,000 ‘lobbying’ American politicians. Keep that in mind when listening to Kay and Beff re-interpreting what the voters vote for next Tuesday.
Munira Wilson, nee Hassam, is the daughter of Zanzibar fruit pickers. Her father came to England to study, her mother fled here during a revolution. A grammar school girl, after graduating from St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge (Modern and Medieval Languages), Munira trained as a tax consultant at Ernst & Young before becoming a campaigns organiser for the LibDems.
A one-time political assistant to $1 million a year Facebook executive Nick Clegg, Munira became a lobbyist for, amongst others, mega big pharma, charidees and the NHS. She entered parliament in 2019. Appropriate to this Halloween edition of Question Time, she represents Vince ‘Dead’ Cable’s gravestone-cold former seat of Twickenham.
Sir Tom Hunter is a Scottish entrepreneur and philanthropist, a grocer’s son who has risen to become one of the UK’s wealthiest individuals. Born in New Cumnock, East Ayrshire, he made his fortune in the 1990s through his sportswear chain, Sports Division, which he sold to David Whelan’s JJB Sports for £290 million. Part of the windfall launched The Hunter Foundation who ‘pilot, prove and, where possible, have the relevant Government or Agencies adopt solutions to significant societal challenges.’ I see.
The rest of the money founded a private equity firm, West Coast Capital, which has made Sir Tom a billionaire. Initially investors in retail, after being caught out in the 2007-2008 credit crunch, West Coast now specialises in property, e-commerce and data analytics.
Recently, the 63-year-old paid for Alex Salmon’s body to be flown home in a private jet after the former SNP supremo died while opening a ketchup bottle in North Macedonia. Extra house points to the Puffin who, in the unread comments, noted that upon his arrival in Aberdeen, Alex would, despite being dead, still be the healthiest man in the Granite City.
On last week’s Question Time, the unannounced and undeclared link to David Cameron was his sister-in-law, Emily Sheffield. As further proof that we can vote them out but not get rid of them, this week’s Cameron connection is his former Director of Communications, Sir Craig Oliver.
A media wallah, Oliver attended high school in Stirling where his father Ian was Chief Constable. At school, Craig was a contemporary of BBC lifer Kirsty Young. Mr Oliver began his career in broadcasting at STV after graduating in Broadcast Journalism at the Cardiff School of Journalism. Following a tour of commercial TV stations, he joined the BBC, rising to be Controller of English news output for BBC Global News and, therefore, fake Fiona Bruce’s one-time boss.
The 55-year-old became David Cameron’s spin doctor in 2011, taking over from Andy Coulson after a phone-hacking scandal. Speaking of which, Sir Craig was mentioned in dispatches during the Leveson Enquiry into the culture, practices, and ethics of the British press, because of an un-declared dinner with News Corporation lobbyist Frédéric Michel as the News of the World phone hacking scandal broke. Hmm. Oliver claimed he did not have to declare the dinner on the Register of Interests as he and Michel split the bill. Hmm.
A Remaniac caught out by Brexit, he left Downing Street with Cameron after the 2016 European Union membership referendum and was knighted by his former boss in the subsequent Resignation Honours. Before their divorce, Craig’s wife BBC newsreader Joanna Marie Mussett Gosling. Not only that, he was a director of her company, Paya Ltd, which pulled the tax dodge often seen on Question Time of paying a journalist’s wages to a company rather than to the actual employee.
Alongside two BBC colleagues, Joanna was prosecuted by HMRC with herself and her co-defendants having to stump up £920,000 to the Revenue. Not only were the wages from her employment at the BBC paid to her company, but Joanna chose ‘not to include a copy of the profit and loss account within the financial statements’ forwarded to Companies House, therefore covering up her income altogether. Disguising herself as Mrs J M M Oliver, she even avoided the (lower than Income Tax) tax on her company’s dividends by part-paying herself in (never to be repaid?) interest-free director’s loans. Tut, tut, tut.
***
Question one was from a loon who had believed what she was told during the election campaign and had voted Labour ‘for the first time’. Her latest disappointment being the previous day’s budget.
Darren referenced the £22 billion black hole and said … not a lot really, growth will come from confidence, apparently, confidence in balancing the books. Tom Hunter said the precise opposite: no government has ever taxed its way to growth. In a thick Scottish accent, he offered to take Darren, not outside for a thumping, but to see a businessman friend who was going to lose £1.3m in the Employers National Insurance increase and would be laying off 90 people – who wouldn’t then be paying any tax and would be claiming benefits instead. Tom was very worried and refreshingly, or even uniquely for a QT panel, spoke sense.
Governments don’t create wealth; entrepreneurs, risk-takers and hard-working people create wealth. The tax take, not the take rate, pays for public services. He was sick of hearing about the black hole and threatened to jump into it, presumably to give it a West of Scotland kiss.
Darren ‘totally heard’ what Tom and the audience were saying. He changed the £22 billion black hole to a £10 billion black hole to save himself two black eyes. A fool in the audience wanted taxes to be even higher.
La Brice canvassed for audience members who saw things they liked in the budget. A very large lady in a blue top so ridiculous it must have been a lower divisions Wendyball away kit, raised her hand. She was impressed with the ‘transport for up North.’ Wonder what that means? This being Guildford in Surrey, up North could be anywhere.
Andrew didn’t welcome the budget, referenced suffering farmers and care workers and pointed out Labour’s broken promises over not changing fiscal rules and not increasing tax. People feel incredibly let down by Labour’s pre-meditated increases.
Munira had spotted an elephant in the room. Despite welcoming extra taxes for health, the elephant in the room was … Brexit. Yawn.
Craig said he wasn’t an economist but he can hear and read and could remember the government promising the opposite of what they have just delivered. Are they being loose with language or are they gaslighting us? The government is missing vision. They are missing what they are going to do and how they are going to get there.
Darren refuted any suggestion of dishonesty and offered to contradict every allegation line by line. Instead of shouting ‘go on then’, the audience preferred to gape at him glassy-eyed. La Bruce tried by contradicting him with historic quotes from Rachael Reeves. Darren responded by ranting about Liz Truss.
Fake Fiona had had enough and moved on to the second question. A tinged man with poor English asked if extra spending on the NHS would actually fix its problems – such as a lack of staff. Lack of staff?!
Munira thought it remained to be seen. Her concern was the front and back doors had to be fixed first. The front door is GPs and dentists, and the back door is social care. She thought technology and AI would appear from nowhere and solve lots of things.
Sir Tom offered a diagnosis. Pouring money into something that is broken is insanity. People working on the front line will know what is going on better than people at the top, but managing the one and half million employed in the NHS is impossible. He would like to see a ring-fenced personal tax for the NHS and the government held to account as to how it’s spent, for governments are not good at spending people’s money.
A ranter in the audience blamed the Tories and Labour, boom and bust and the economic illiteracy of the ruling class.
Craig didn’t take the bait but rather wanted improved productivity and some kind of a cross-parliamentary consensus. Health Secretary Wes Streeting seems to be clear in what he wants to achieve and should be allowed to get on with it.
Darren could, ‘hear the frustration’.
Darren is a father of three daughters and is married to net zero and technology consultant Lucy Symons-Jones. They are vegans. Are we surprised? Interesting Lucy is the Director and Lead for Net Zero at Lexica, a private company spun out from the NHS and owned by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. There, she liaises at executive level with public sector organisations and leading suppliers and innovators to reach national net-zero targets.
Her previous employment at the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) included combining ‘her business and public policy expertise to define, design and implement policy and technology solutions’. She also ‘headed the external affairs team and led its strategic transformation under a net zero vision as well as supporting key stakeholders in engaging the government.’ Well.
Rather than bother with all of that, husband Darren just accepts money for nothing. According to his recent submissions to the Member’s Register of Interests, recent donors include £33,000 from engineering and design consultancy Arup, and £34,000 from business management consultants Baringa.
Make no mistake, extra health spending that you pay for will be going not on patients but on wastes of space like Darren’s wife and what makes money for the donors.
© Always Worth Saying 2024
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