[The Weeping Angel]

You know with the exception of the red book stunt. McDonnell has actually been doing a pretty good job as shadow chancellor here he is proposing a response to the steel crisis.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/35 ... sh-7680255" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Stabilise the industry and protect steelworkers by allowing time for a buyer to be found but being prepared to nationalise plants threatened with closure.
Fast-track key investment projects like high-speed rail in the North, and build them with British steel.
Create a level playing field. The Tories must stop blocking EU initiatives to protect steel but also look at business rates and energy prices.
Restructure the industry so it has a future, in partnership with workers, management and major customers working alongside government.

[Daley Mayle]

He was good on the Marr Show.

[The Weeping Angel]

You know what? Ian Dunt is right

http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2016/04 ... don-t-have" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So McDonnell strode out, sought out the nearest political journalist he could find, and demanded a consultation on whether political journalists should also publish their tax returns.

It may be the most inept response to a political scandal imaginable. It is stupid, impractical, short-sighted, wrong and counter-productive.

Who is a political journalist? We have had plenty of people writing for this website just the once. Do they become a political journalist and have to present their tax returns forevermore? Or does McDonnell mean journalists who cover politics as a staff job? If you're a news reporter but have to write up some PA copy on a political story, does that mean your tax returns have to be published?

Perhaps McDonnell was just referring to the lobby, the group of journalists based in the Houses of Parliament with privileged access to the prime minister's spokesman. But then he won't get to see the tax returns from people like Paul Dacre and all the other proprietors and editors you suspect he really has his sights on.

[Daley Mayle]

Do you have the whole interview for us to see or shall we just be content with the one cherry picked comment McDonnell was said to have made in the course of that conversation.

Was he serious or was it a throw away remark?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't...

[Daley Mayle]

I would have preferred McDonnell to have asked who were the beneficiaries in the off shore tax haven who bought Osborne & Little's premises in London.

For all we know these people could be the Osborne family.

[youngian]

He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't...

Well exactly, do we want Corbyn and McDonnell to go on the attack or be gentleman saying this is not about personalities and 'one hand this?' Cameron's affairs are merely a hook to expose a deeper ingrained problem that needs more than Richard Murphy or Nicholas Shaxson giving book talks to push it up the political agenda.

[The Weeping Angel]

He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't...

No he had the opportunity to put the government on the ropes but choose instead to waffle on about political journos.

[mikey mikey]

Meanwhile...

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 live’s Pienaar’s Politics, McDonnell said Labour would not be accepting any donations or aid from groups or individuals linked to tax avoidance.

John Pienaar pointed out that PwC, an operation he described as being at the front of an industry of tax avoidance, are Labour’s biggest single corporate donor.

He added that, “at one point in 2015 more than £300,000 worth in staff equivalent costs were given to the party at that time”.

McDonnell argued “there are no Price Waterhouse staff working for us now.”

“We cleared them out,” he said. “Every penny that comes to us will be open and transparent.”

"We will not be touching money that is used by any way in measures to avoid tax or evade tax, we will not allow that to happen and we're not allowing that to happen," he added.

PwC confirmed that there are currently no staff members from the firm on secondment to the Labour party.

"Our people have upon request provided limited and fully disclosed technical support to the main political parties in areas where our expertise and knowledge of the business environment can help them better understand technical matters and the consequences of their policy proposals," the firm said on the topic.

Labour's push for transparency follows the Panama papers leak last week.

http://economia.icaew.com/news/april-20 ... -mcdonnell" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And here comes the boot...

"It is deeply concerning that our prime minister has still failed to clarify whether or not he or his family were benefiting directly or indirectly in 2013 when he was lobbying to prevent EU measures to better regulate trusts as a way to clamp down on tax avoidance," he said.

Nice!

[Malcolm Armsteen]

How, precisely?