George MonbiotIt's rare to see how lobbyists operate. But the Epstein-Mandelson correspondence shows us what happens all the time: plutocrats and government ministers conspiring against the public interest. This is why all lobbying should be in the public domain, but despite Labour and Con promises, it's not. 🧵
Here's the context:
When Mandelson was Business Minister, Epstein wrote asking him to make only the cash portion (ie not equity etc) of bankers’ bonuses taxable.
Mandelson's answer: “Trying hard to amend as I explained to Jes last night. Treasury digging in but I am on case.”
I'm guessing that the "Jes" in this message is that other moral paragon, Jes Staley, though I can't be sure. A Labour government minister, channelling the demands of his finance-bro chums.
This, my friends, is how it happens. This is why we don't get what we want, or what we vote for.
And it gets worse. As this excellent thread and reporting by @[email protected] shows, Mandelson actually suggested to Epstein that yet another plutocrat should "mildly threaten" *his own government*, so that the filthy rich could avoid paying their taxes: bsky.app/profile/dann...
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:dblasbhk3aqnuesmy6i2fyew/post/3mdsu2pyslw25
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:dblasbhk3aqnuesmy6i2fyew/post/3mdsu2pyslw25
Remember that Mandelson quote? "We are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich, as long as they pay their taxes". By "we" he meant the Labour government. Turns out that he - as a government minister - was lobbying on behalf of his filthy rich chums to ensure they paid less tax.
Here, because of the libel laws, we call such behaviour cronyism, or back-scratching. Anywhere else, there would be a different name for it. Corruption.
Deixis9
JWcph, Radicalized By Decency@georgemonbiot.bsky.social Also, lest we forget, there's A LOT of inherent problems with filthy rich people that have nothing to do with wether they pay taxes or not - something a minister of any description & particularly a Labour one should be intensely (!) aware of...