Corbyn tax fake news story given legs

Op-ed: Monday a #FakeNews or is that non-news story has flooded mainstream and social media.

It centres around, surprise surprise, Jeremy Corbyn. Look for negative fake news and you are bound to find Mr Corbyn features.

Who really knows why?

It could be because those that "have" and some, fear a Corbyn government becoming reality or it could be that such stories get eyeballs on them and so generate revenue or it could be that many mainstream media owners have their feet firmly placed in Tory politics or it could be other reasons but it is certainly not their quest for the truth.

So thanks to Rachael Williams on Facebook who opted Monday to share a reminder of what Mr Corbyn stands for; his ten main pledges and those of his parliamentary supporters:

We will put conflict resolution and human rights at the heart of foreign policy, commit to working through the United Nations, end support for aggressive wars of intervention and back effective action to alleviate the refugee crisis. British foreign policy has long failed to be either truly independent or internationally co-operative, making the country less safe and reducing our diplomatic and moral authority. We will build human rights and social justice into trade policy, honour our international treaty obligations on nuclear disarmament and encourage others to do the same.

We will ensure that the human rights of all citizens are respected and all are protected from discrimination and prejudice. We will take action to tackle violence against women and girls, racism and discrimination on the basis of faith, and secure real equality for LGBT and disabled people. We will defend the Human Rights Act and we will guarantee full rights for EU citizens living and working in Britain – and not allow them to be used as pawns in Brexit negotiations.

We will build a progressive tax system so that wealth and the highest earners are fairly taxed, act against executive pay excess and shrink the gap between the highest and lowest paid - FTSE 100 CEOs are now paid 183 times the wage of the average UK worker, and Britain’s wages are the most unequal in Europe. We will act to create a more equal society, boost the incomes of the poorest and close the gender pay gap.

We will rebuild public services and expand democratic participation, put the public back into our economy, give people a real say in their local communities, and increase local and regional democracy. We will rebuild our economy with public investment to deliver wealth for all, across our regions and nations in a genuinely mixed economy. We will act to ‘insource’ our public and local council services, increase access to leisure, arts and sports across the country and expand our publicly-controlled bus network. We will bring our railways into public ownership and build democratic social control over our energy.

We will act to protect the future of our planet, with social justice at the heart of our environment policies, and take our fair share of action to meet the Paris climate agreement - starting by getting on track with our Climate Change Act goals. We will accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy, and drive the expansion of the green industries and jobs of the future, using our National Investment Bank to invest in public and community-owned renewable energy. We will deliver clean energy and curb energy bill rises for households - energy for the 60 million, not the big 6 energy companies. We will defend and extend the environmental protections gained from the EU.

We will build a new National Education Service, open to all throughout their lives. We will create universal public childcare to give all children a good start in life, allowing greater sharing of caring responsibilities and removing barriers to women participating in the labour market. We will bring about the progressive restoration of free education for all; and guarantee quality apprenticeships and adult skills training.

We will end health service privatisation and bring services into a secure, publicly-provided NHS. We will integrate the NHS and social care for older and disabled people, funding dignity across the board and ensure parity for mental health services.

We will give people stronger employment rights from day one in a job, end exploitative zero hours contracts and create new sectoral collective bargaining rights, including mandatory collective bargaining for companies with 250 or more employees. We will create new employment and trade union rights to bring security to the workplace and win better pay and conditions for everyone. We will strengthen working people’s representation at work and the ability of trade unions to organise so that working people have a real voice at work. And we will put the defence of social and employment rights, as well as action against undercutting of pay and conditions through the exploitation of migrant labour, at the centre of the Brexit negotiations agenda for a new relationship with Europe

We will create a million good quality jobs across our regions and nations and guarantee a decent job for all. By investing £500 billion in infrastructure, manufacturing and new industries backed up by a publicly-owned National Investment Bank and regional banks we will build a high skilled, high tech, low carbon economy that ends austerity and leaves no one and nowhere left behind. We will invest in the high speed broadband, energy, transport and homes that our country needs and allow good businesses to thrive, and support a new generation of co-operative enterprises.

We will build a million new homes in five years, with at least half a million council homes, through our public investment strategy. We will end insecurity for private renters by introducing rent controls, secure tenancies and a charter of private tenants’ rights, and increase access to affordable home ownership.

How many times has that been shared by the mainstream media?

My guess is never.

Corbyn published his tax return ahead of this week's budget. He is trying to push for Tory Chancellor Philip Hammond to do the same. Instead the mainstream media and some on social media, including the right-wing of the Labour Party namely the regressive group Progress, prefer Monday to accuse Corbyn of not paying his full tax liability.

They have ended up with egg on their fat chins as it turns out Corbyn's tax bill was paid in full.

There are even claims he did not take a pay rise and it is that which led to the confusion.

Some were so keen to chew over his tax return they did a half ass job or was it they chose to find fault.

Who knows?

One thing this blogger knows is the country needs a Labour government enacting those ten pledges and more and it needs it soon.

Will there be a public apology for the tax fake news story?

Probably not but either way many voters will already have been duped once again.

More
http://uk.businessinsider.com/theresa-may-refuses-publish-tax-return-following-jeremy-corbyn-avoidance-2017-3
​http://www.newtekjournalismukworld.com/your-voice/the-conveniently-forgotten-panama-papers