Fiona Vincent is another one of our amazing team of writers for the SPOTLIGHT NEWSPAPER and she’s just submitted an amazing exposé explaining the far more likely reason for why Theresa May called the recent snap election and its a real eye opener folks!
This article will be going in the special edition of the Spotlight Newspaper that we are currently crowd funding to launch. Here’s the crowd funding link folks…
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/spotlightnewspaper
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BREAKING THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT TO PROTECT THE CONSERVATIVE MAGIC MONEY TREE
In July, as the Northern Ireland Secretary assured us that a power-sharing deal is still achievable and Sinn Fein said that it would be unlikely, we had to reflect on the delicate balance of peace that accompanies the process of power sharing in Northern Ireland. The question that has kept returning to me, particularly as I watched the Conservatives fighting to hold on to power with the help of the DUP, is ”why on earth did Theresa May call a snap election at a time like this?” Was it arrogance, complacency, vanity? What caused her to risk the governing majority, slim though it was, in an attempt to create a larger mandate for BREXIT, a larger mandate that no one really seemed to agree was ever needed?
It’s worth noting here that the Conservative government has also been trying to block the Kenny Move on Unity. Passed during the 2017 general election campaign, the Kenny Move states that if Ireland vote positively in a referendum for a United Ireland then Northern Ireland is automatically in the EU. As Northern Ireland voted for remain in the EU, during the referendum, this would seem to be a positive step in favour of Irish unity. The Good Friday agreement even includes a provision for a referendum on a United Ireland. However, the DUP, who are staunch unionists, would be very happy to never have that referendum.
Could it be that Theresa May simply failed to understand that Ireland’s peace is still in a tenuous balance and the battle, which the Good Friday Agreement effectively removed from the streets, still plays out in Stormont? Let’s face it, Sinn Fein are still intent on a united Ireland, free from the clutches of the UK, while the DUP are still intent on becoming ever closer to the UK and holding all the Power in Northern Ireland.
For me, a missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle suddenly appeared as I was pointed to an EU paper, agreed in Feb 2017, which created new rules (that were expected to come into force in Jan 2020), designed to prevent tax avoidance through non-EU countries. The start of 2020 triggers major initiatives, put forward by the Juncker Commission, to boost tax transparency and reform corporate taxation. Ambitious Anti-Tax Avoidance Directives were agreed by Member States ensuring that anti-abuse measures will apply throughout the EU
Perhaps Theresa May has other, less obvious reasons for calling a snap election? It makes sense because once the new rules on tax avoidance had been agreed and announced in February, Theresa May knew she needed to trigger article 50 shortly after in March as this would ensure that by the end of 2019 the UK would be out of the EU and the government would no longer be forced to close overseas tax havens.
It’s also worth noting that as the government had lost the legal case to retain control over Brexit negotiations and were forced to open up the Brexit deal to parliamentary scrutiny, things were likely to get even more difficult. So Theresa May’s mantra of “no deal is better than a bad deal” could perhaps have been an attempt to try and rally stronger support for a speedy resolution.
Some folks might also recall that we had the scandal of the Panama papers not so very long ago and that, at the time, the government had promised to close down the off-shore tax havens? In truth, this simply has not happened and no action has been brought against these companies. Not only that, corporation tax has now been eroded down to just 19% (from 28% in 2010). In fact, this Conservative government has even gone so far as to level threats at the EU negotiators, suggesting that they would be prepared to turn the UK into a tax haven and let’s be under no illusions here, it’ll be the UK tax payers who will be required to stump up the huge divorce bill when we finally leave the EU, not the tax evading multi-nationals.
I should add that Jeremy Corbyn’s recent unexpected campaign success seems to have thrown a bit of a spanner in the works for Theresa May. This might explain why she’s now even willing to risk the Good Friday Agreement and why the Power Sharing Agreement discussions in Northern Ireland are in even greater jeopardy. It seems, for the Tories at least, that protecting the Tory Magic Money Tree and keeping large corporations happy must take precedence, even over the best interest of the British people.
