Newsgroup: it.politica.pds
Titolo: Le leggi le scrive chi ha i soldi per finanziare i partiti....

Ecco il sogno di chi vuole abbattere il finanziamento pubblico dei
partiti..... leggete...è inquietante.... altro che "democrazia
rappresentativa".... chiamiamola "democrazia privata", che è più
aderente alla realtà...
---------------------------------------------------------
June 5 1999
                                        BRITAIN
      Billionaire tax exile is giving party up to
    £360,000 a month, reports Tom Baldwin 
    Massive donations make
     Tories 'the plaything of
                one man' 
  WILLIAM HAGUE has been told by senior Tories that
  the massive level of financial support given to the party by
  its treasurer, Michael Ashcroft, threatens to turn it into the
  "plaything of just one man". 
  Two authoritative sources within the party have told The
  Times that the billionaire businessman and tax exile has
  been backing the party with up to £360,000 a month.
  Over a period of a year, the support from either Mr
  Ashcroft personally, or his trusts and companies, is
  believed to be approaching £4 million. 
  Funding on such a scale would mean that the treasurer is
  meeting about a third of the Tories' annual costs - an
  unprecedented proportion for any political party. 
  Last night aides said Mr Ashcroft was too busy travelling
  to comment. However, Michael Ancram, the
  Conservative Chairman, said it was "unreal" to suggest Mr
  Ashcroft had donated £4 million last year. "This story is a
  total fabrication," he said. 
  However, Mr Ancram did not make any comment on the
  figure suggested for Mr Ashcroft's monthly subsidy of the
  party. 
  Mr Ashcroft, who is listed by The Sunday Times as
  Britain's fourteenth richest man, with a fortune estimated
  to be worth £1 billion, spends most of his time as a tax
  exile in Florida. He is rarely seen in Conservative Central
  Office although he has recently re-emerged as a major
  player in the City with his controversial bid for the
  employment firm, Corporate Services Group. 
  However, he is understood to exercise exceptional
  powers of control over the Tories' activities, with Mr
  Hague seeking permission before authorising major
  spending. The party accounts last year revealed an £11
  million deficit for a period which included the general
  election. For the first time, the party named significant
  donors who had given more than £5,000 - a list which
  included Mr Ashcroft. It was acknowledged that he had
  been the largest benefactor, with his donation reported to
  be about £1 million. 
  The previously undisclosed scale of his backing makes the
  party heavily reliant on Mr Ashcroft. Senior figures have
  made it clear that they are disappointed with his attempts
  as treasurer to raise money from other sources. One
  official, who cited Mr Ashcroft's abrasive style and
  controversial reputation within the City as a reason for the
  lack of other big donors, told The Times: "For every
  penny we don't receive, he becomes even more powerful.
  We cannot let the party become the plaything of just one
  man." 
  Since the last election the Tories have tried to rid
  themselves of the previous Government's reputation for
  receiving donations from almost anyone. Archie Norman,
  who quit as chief executive last month, set up a fund
  raising unit which aims to secure more small donations. 
  A Conservative party spokesman said: "It is utterly false
  to allege that Michael Ashcroft has had a disagreement
  with Archie Norman about the funding of the
  Conservative party. It would be quite wrong to suggest
  that they have fallen out." 
  A senior Tory official said last night that he believed the
  figure of £360,000 a month was "exaggerated". He
  added: "Archie has done a lot of good, cutting back costs,
  and we should be able to live within our means." 
-----------------------------------------------------------
June 5 1999
                        BRITAIN NEWSFEATURES
 
   When William Hague become Tory Leader he declared
  that the party would stop taking overseas donations. It is
  curious that the party's chief financier is a tax exile based
    in Florida, write Tom Baldwin and Paul Durman 
                                          ©
     Michael Ashcroft "loves to prick the bubble of the
Establishment,"
said a
     critic. "There's nothing he likes more than upsetting old
merchant
banker
                      types"
    The man who pays for the Tories
  UNLIKE other major donors to the Tory party over the
  past two decades who have received peerages or
  knighthoods, the party's most important current
  benefactor still goes by the plain name of Michael
  Ashcroft. 
  Indeed, despite becoming the party's treasurer and chief
  benefactor, with a large, well-staffed office at
  Conservative headquarters in London's Smith Square, he
  is so far removed from the British establishment that he is
  not even listed in Who's Who. A clue to his lack of
  honours may perhaps be found in the one title he has
  achieved: High Representative for Belize at the United
  Nations. 
  Friends and critics agree that Mr Ashcroft, 53, craves the
  acknowledgement of an Establishment that has regularly
  turned up its nose at him. A Norwich grammar school
  boy, he never went to university and began working life as
  a management trainee at Rothman's. Like many self-made
  men, he has what one Tory officials called a "chippiness"
  which means he is only too willing to court controversy.
  "He's absolutely unafraid of taking on the Establishment,
  whatever it is," said a City critic. Another said: "He loves
  to prick the bubble of the Establishment. There's nothing
  he's like more than upsetting the old merchant banker
  types." Mr Ashcroft, who lives most of the year as a tax
  exile in Florida has many business links with the Central
  American nation, where he is a naturalised citizen. He is,
  however, registered to vote in this country - an important
  fact given the forthcoming legislation banning overseas
  donations. 
  His business interests in Belize extend to the country's
  biggest bank, significant stakes in its utilities, fruit industry
  and media, as well as substantial support for the ruling
  People's United Party. Mr Ashcroft's firm, BHI, has also
  helped the country become an "off-shore" haven, not least
  for the register of shipping under flags of convenience,
  over which it now has operational control. 
  John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister and a former
  merchant seaman, recently attacked the safety record of
  Belize-registered vessels, which he said was the worst in
  Europe. 
  In the early 1990s, Mr Ashcroft faced ruin when ADT, his
  burglar-alarm company, was accused of falsifying profits
  in a legal action brought by his largest shareholder. The
  action settled, Mr Ashcroft bounced back to sell ADT,
  the one-time sponsor of the London Marathon, for £3.75
  billion, making himself perhaps £200 million. 
  Lack of disclosure also attracted criticism from the
  Department of Trade and Industry report into the Blue
  Arrow affair when Mr Ashcroft and his then friends were
  involved. 
  Long shunned by many UK investors, he disappeared
  from the London business scene for several years. But in
  the past 18 months, he has suddenly re-emerged at the
  head of Carlisle Holdings. This previously tiny company
  last week completed the latest in an arcane series of deals
  that give it £1 billion of sales and 47,000 employees
  engaged in cleaning, building maintenance, banking,
  recruitment and security. Mr Ashcroft's controlling
  shareholding is worth more than £300 million. Needless to
  say, he is already planning a rapid expansion for Carlisle.
  Through 20 years spent accumulating a £1 billion fortune,
  his business activities have provoked suspicion and
  interest. The Charity Commission is now investigating his
  funding of the ADT College in London, after
  discrepancies appeared in its accounts for donations from
  Mr Ashcroft's Adlearn Foundation. 
  The complexity of his deals - his many, many deals - has
  often baffled even the financially sophisticated. With his
  liking for tax havens, his apparent dislike of openness and
  his willing embrace of controversy, lack of understanding
  soon turns to lack of trust. 
  One senior merchant banker who first dealt with Mr
  Ashcroft in the 1980s says: "I just found he was too clever
  for me. He was running rings round me." 
  Christopher Davidge is chief executive of Christies
  International, the auctioneer, where Mr Ashcroft suffered
  an £80 million loss on his investment. He always found his
  adversary "very upfront" but adds: "Michael is a very
  shrewd person. I would not like to fathom out what he's
  ever doing. Everything is to make the most money out of
  any situation." 
  An admiring financier who knows him well says: "He's
  driven. He just wants more and more money. There is no
  such thing as enough." 
  Mr Ashcroft has ruffled the feathers of the city
  establishment with a recent opportunistic - though so far
  unsuccessful - bid for a troubled employment company,
  Corporate Services Group. He took on many of the UK's
  most important shareholders and tied the City's Takeover
  Panel in knots with a series of Byzantine arguments.
  Whether this approach is well-suited to politics is more
  doubtful. A sympathiser said last week: "He's a chancer
  and a maverick, which may be fine for a sharp
  businessman. But in politics, he's going to be judged by a
  whole different set of rules." 
  The Tory Party under John Major was happy enough to
  take Mr Ashcroft's money but did not offer him a title, or
  give him the post of party treasurer which he had long
  coveted. Under William Hague, the party cannot afford to
  be so stuffy. 
  After the general election, donations swiftly dried up and
  Mr Ashcroft was one of three rich businessmen who kept
  the party in business, along with Sir Stanley Kalms, the
  retail tycoon, and Sir Graham Kirkham, who was
  treasurer for a year until last year. Mr Ashcroft swiftly
  emerged as the senior and the most generous of the three,
  taking over from Sir Graham. His support for the party is
  now authoritatively said to be running at £360,000 a
  month - a third of its running costs. 
  Although his status as a tax exile means that he is rarely
  seen at the party's headquarters, he has become the most
  powerful treasurer in Tory history, with an effective veto
  over any new expenditure. At one stage last year, he was
  reported to have refused to pay for a political broadcast,
  leaving the party having to screen what was widely
  derided as a "home video". 
  Most officials at Conservative Central Office are grateful
  for what they call his "great and generous" support, even if
  they acknowledge that "like most successful people, he
  can be very difficult at times". 
  There has even been concern that Labour is seeking to
  lure him away, particularly because Mr Ashcroft's support
  for the Crimestoppers charity has seen him form a close
  bond with Jack Straw, the Home Secretary. 
  However, the unease which greets him in the City, as well
  as his secretive manner, is thought to have put off a
  number of potential donors. 
  Some within the Conservative Party's high command are
  getting worried about his influence. "It is not healthy to
  combine the role of treasurer with that of chief benefactor.
  He has not proved successful at raising money and for
  every penny we don't receive, he becomes even more
  powerful," a senior source told The Times.When Mr
  Hague took over as Tory leader, he recognised that the
  party's reputation for taking money from almost anyone
  had been a major reason for its electoral disaster. He
  promised to outlaw foreign donations and has begun
  building a fundraising operation which targets small donors
  through direct mailshots and telephone canvassing. 
  "The aim is make sure we have a financial base which
  does not rely on the support of one or two rich and
  powerful men," said a spokesman. However, Archie
  Norman, who as Tory chief executive had led the efforts
  to transform party finances, quit last month amid rumours
  of a fractious relationship with the treasurer's office. 
  "Ashcroft has money to burn," said one of his enemies
  within Central Office. "His financial support has reached
  dangerous proportions. We cannot let the party become
  the plaything of just one man."

 aderente alla realtà...
Oreste, come chiami la democrazia dei partiti che sputano sopra l'opinione
della stragrande maggioranza degli italiani (come per il finanziamento
pubblico)???
TC

pubblico)???
Se la stragrande maggioranza degli italiani è composta da poveri
rincoglioniti che non capiscono nemmeno quale sia il proprio
interesse, non posso che dolermi di questa civiltà occidentale ormai
morente e allo stremo.

 wrote in message
news:37595809...@news.tin.it...

Ti ringrazio. Io sono uno di quelli.
Credo che dovresti provare ad avere piu' rispetto per chi non la pensa come
te e non ti ha mai offeso.
Magari potresti anche tentare, una volta ogni tanto, s'intende, a pensare
che potresti non essere il depositario della verita' assoluta.
Se la discussione politica per te e' semplicemente dare del rincoglionito a
chi ha idee differenti, non credo proprio che vorrei giungere alle fulgide
vette della civilta' da te agognata. Mi va benissimo la civilta' occidentale
cosi' com'e'.
Ciao
TC

morente e allo stremo.
Ah, riecco Marx...e si è visto come è andata a finire 100 anni fa.