YOUR VIEWS

RE: ASHCROFT COVER UP

RAY Fleming's article Ashcroft Follow- Up in yesterdays (3rd March) Majorca Daily Bulletin states “the undertaking he gave ten years ago to establish British residency, was also relevant to his tax status in Britain”. It was not. The Cabinet Office has revealed that it did a deal with the Tories when Lord Ashcroft was made a peer in 2000.

It meant that he could live in the UK as a long term resident, allowing him to claim non dom tax status
The senior official involved in that deal, Sir Hayden Phillips, stated, “This is not about tax, this is about residency”.
Why is it that Mr Fleming thinks it right for Peter Mandelson to call for an inquiry, its not as if Labour and the Lib/Dems have not accepted donations from “non dom” donors who do not pay full tax in the UK.

Both these parties have accepted Millions of pounds from “non doms”, why has he singled out the Tory Party.
Between 2001 and 2008 Labour received approx. £9 million from “non doms” Lib/dems approx. £3 million and the Tories approx. £5 million.
Peter Mandelson had to resign from the Government in 2001 for using his influence to gain a passport for Srichhand Hinduja who had contributed £1 million to New Labour. Peter Mandelson had resigned before for accepting an undisclosed interest free loan of £373'000 off millionaire Labour MP. Geoffrey Robinson who is a beneficiary of an offshore trust.

And this is the hypocrite who has the brass neck to call for an inquiry into Lord Ashcroft's tax affairs. I know who I think there should be an inquiry into and it is certainly not Lord Ashcroft.

Mr. Don Donovan
El Toro, Majorca

DEAR SIR,

A NEW advertising campaign to promote Spanish tourism has been announced with the theme, “I need Spain”.
If it wasn't for the fact that the campaign has been awarded to the multinational agency, McCann Erickson one might have thought that it was a mistranslation of what is probably more accurate, “Spain needs me”.

Yours, John Rule
Sol de Mallorca