I totally agree that peers in the House of Lords who are "non-doms" for tax purposes should be made to either become resident in the UK for tax purposes or be ejected unceremoniously from the Upper House.
As members of the legislature of this country, it takes an extreme level of of arrogance to also not pay the correct level of taxes to the government. No one likes pay taxes, but if you are or aspire to be a member of either House of Parliament, then you must also be willing to pay taxes to the state which you make laws for.
All non-doms who are also peers just must be extremely arrogant. They should have to pay the extra tax that they have saved over the entire period that they have been in the House of Lords and not being resident for tax, whether or not they are willing to become resident and remain in the Lords or not.
I still find the term "non-dom" immensely entertaining, though.
09 March 2008
Give Non-Dom Peers The Boot
06 September 2007
Tycoon Refused Lordship Offers Brown Money
Sir Gulam Noon, the food tycoon whose nomination for a peerage was blocked after he was advised by Labour not to declare a £250,000 loan, has told The Times that he may convert the loan into a donation after being impressed by the new Prime Minister...
His nomination was blocked because he omitted the loan from his form. The police interviewed Sir Gulam twice under caution as they tried to establish whether there had been a conspiracy to sell honours. (The Times)
21 May 2007
Lords To Prevent MPs Exemption From FOI?
After MPs voted to pass an amendment to the Freedom of Information Act exempting parliamentarians from the regulations, it is passed to the Lords for scrutiny and amendment. The Telegraph suggests that "Peers are already plotting how best to derail a bill passed by the Commons on Friday that would exclude Parliament from the rules." They intend to either form a cross-party coalition to stop the bill or table an amendment to ensure the House of the Lords was not covered by the bill in order to shame the Commons into ending the bill entirely.
I very much hope that they are going to, and succeed in this venture of stopping this bill - in any way possible. No legislative organisation should be able to pass laws from which exempts itself and its members. Once again, we are seeing that it is the Lords - the appointed and hereditary chamber - who are the ones who are following the wishes of the people far closer than the representatives which the people get to elect.
The article suggests that the Conservative front bench will be urging Conservative Lords to vote against, supported by a quote from David Willetts:
"I think that it's wrong for MPs to exclude ourselves from legislation that we apply to everyone else...Hopefully the Lords can see more clearly than the Commons in this matter. It really is quite disgusting that it takes the undemocratic chamber to remind the democratic chamber of what the people want and deserve.
It would have been a free vote for individual MPs, but I personally think it is a mistake to pass legislation and then say we MPs should be exempt."
Source: The Telegraph
