Lord Ashcroft - what a patriot

[DodgyAgent]

Partly my point was based on a claim Dodgy made that the Tories were proud to British (as if members and supporters of other parties aren't), but to answer your question directly, I believe it's important to demonstrate your committment by living here - otherwise it's lip service - which isn't to totally discount it, but does significantly discount its value imho.

In which case you have a perfectly valid point

[ratewhore]

The whole thing tells me he has the same attitude to tax planning as the rest of us.

Non story.

[Moscow Mule]

I forgot to mention - your Anything But Cameron stickers, t-shirts etc are available now...

http://www.cafepress.co.uk/AnythingButCam

[Moscow Mule]

Oh look,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8549243.stm

Donations are legal...

[minestrone]

Oh look,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8549243.stm

Donations are legal...

Soooo, that must mean his business is genuine.

[TheFaQQer]

[Lord Paul is] also VERY young for a PCllr.

I'm not dredging this up to go down the nom-dom argument again, but I was just struck by your use of the "VERY young" when I was reading something on Wikipedia.

Lord Paul was born in 1931, making him 38 years older than Yvette Cooper PC, 35 years older than David Cameron PC, 30 years older than William Hague PC, 48 years older than Charles Kennedy PC, 10 years older than Paddy Ashdown PC, 6 years younger than Margaret Thatcher PC, 12 years younger than John Major PC, 27 years younger than Alan Milburn PC....

Thinking about it, I'm not sure that I'd class someone who is nearly 80 as "VERY young", despite higher life expectancy these days.

[Moscow Mule]

I'm not dredging this up to go down the nom-dom argument again, but I was just struck by your use of the "VERY young" when I was reading something on Wikipedia.

I used the wrong phrase - he's a young Lord to get on the PC.

He was made a life peer in 1996 so 13 years service is not much to get on the PC for somebody who is not a career politician.

He didn't really do anything of note until he was made Deputy Speaker in 2008, which happens to coincide with the the donations made to Brown & the Labour party throughout 2007 & 2008.

[TheFaQQer]

I used the wrong phrase - he's a young Lord to get on the PC.

He was made a life peer in 1996 so 13 years service is not much to get on the PC for somebody who is not a career politician.

Ah, OK. There aren't many current members of the PC who aren't career politicians, apart from the law lords, overseas PMs and the like, and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The shortest time I can find (and I haven't trawled all the PC records) would be Baroness d'Souza who became a peer in 2004 and PC in 2009.

Other similar time frames as Lord Paul exist, though - for example Sir John Wheeler (PC 1993, became a politician in 1979), Baroness Anelay (peerage 1996, PC2009), Lord Bassam (peer 1997, PC 2009)

And I've only got as far as the "D"s.

Edit: The following PCs also had a short time between becoming a peer and a PC:

Baroness Dean (peer 1993, PC 1998), Lord Drayson (peer 2004, PC 2008), Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (peer 1997, PC 2009), Baronness Jay (peer 1992, PC 1998), Baroness Prashar (peer 1999, PC 2009)

To a certain extent, even Lord Hesketh had a "young" political life before becoming a PC. Despite becoming a Lord at the age of 4, he didn't play an active part in politics until 1984, and became a PC in 1991.

Lord Malloch-Brown has the shortest time between being appointed a peer and being made a PC - when he was made a peer in 2007, he became a PC at the same time.

Trying to find members of the PC, who are members of the Lords, who are not career politicians, lawyers, men of the church, royal appointments or civil servants is no easy task - there aren't many of them