It was interesting to read the decision of the far right ‘journalist’ Isabel Oakeshott to move to Dubai in protest at the UK government’s decision to remove VAT exemptions from private school fees. The“pernicious tax on private schools” prompted her to look elsewhere for the best places to educate her children. The UAE, she said, offered “endless opportunities” and had a “booming economy”, says the Guardian. No, Izzy. There is no “tax on private schools”, pernicious or not. The government, having inherited a debt-ridden country, decided to remove a tax exemption from better off people in order to help the less well-off. But let’s not allow facts to get in the way.
Oakeshott’s partner is none other than multimillionaire Richard Tice, deputy leader of Nigel Farage’s far right Reform UK Ltd company, which masquerades as a political party. He’s the MP for Boston and Skegness and insists he is “spreading (his) international reach” by spending some time in his constituency and some in Dubai. If that makes him happy, and the good people of Boston and Skegness are happy to have a part-time MP, that, I suppose, is his business. But what an odd choice for this far right – did I mention they were far right? – couple.
Oakeshott regularly attacked migration, Islam, and sharia law when she lived in Britain. That’s essentially what Reform UK Ltd is all about. Stop all migration, blame Muslims and Islam for everything is basically Reform’s Shtick and Tice is always banging on about it. But hang on: Dubai is a Muslim country governed by sharia. Shurely shome mishtake?
So, let’s get this right, then. This happy couple are happy to be the migrants they resent, living under laws which ordinarily they oppose? Doubtless they are both teetotal and are learning Arabic? After all, these are the sort of people who demand that people “coming over here” should integrate with the citizens of the country they migrate to. To do otherwise would invite suggestions of hypocrisy. What a strange state of affairs, certainly when compared to my own views on this matter.
I am, as my loyal reader knows well, a soggy, if not dripping-wet, left-leaning liberal yet it seems I have far stronger views on so-called Muslim countries and sharia then far right journalists and politicians. I would never, under any circumstances, visit countries that apply sharia. By visiting or even living in such places, I’d effectively be condoning and even endorsing a cruel, repressive system. It’s bad enough that here in the UK we have unelected religious leaders in parliament, 26 of them. The only other country that has that is Iran.
I am strongly in favour of people having the freedom to worship the God, or Gods, of their choice, although it is very odd, don’t you think, how children of the devout always seem to end up following the same one as their parents. But I am even more strongly opposed to people of religion, any religion, having privileges and rewards that I, a secular atheist, cannot too enjoy. I believe in that whether it’s in Dubai or Boston and Skegness.
The only way forward, if we are to reject separatism and embrace diversity, is to do so within a secular society and more widely a secular world. This means no religious laws, no religious schools, no privileges. We are all the same person under God or in my case no God. Here is secularism explained.
My guess is that many rich people go to Dubai for a number of reasons, but dodging tax is sure to be among them, and I guess some of them make the judgement call that if that means embracing a backward islamic law they have previously condemned is a price worth paying.
Super patriot Tice said this: “The problem with (the UK) is that it is going to hell in a handcart under this government and as long as we pursue these policies of high tax, high regulation and net zero we are not going to grow. Smart people are leaving the country. It is as tragic as that.” Let’s not get bogged down here with arguments about tax and regulation, because the likes of Reform UK Ltd believe in a low tax, deregulated country, with public services, especially the NHS, pared to the bone or abolished altogether and they ignore the fact that is catastrophic climate change is made by humans. But it is not the “smart people” who are leaving. It’s the unpatriotic super rich. They just call themselves smart. They aren’t.
They’re associates of MAGA, in the case of the owner of Reform UK Ltd, Nigel Farage he is one of the leaders. It’s freedom for those who can afford it, like Oakeshott and Tice, not freedom for the lumpen proletariat who have little influence and far less freedom.
The problem with the UK is that the likes of Reform UK Ltd are leading us to hell in a handcart, having already helped inflict a disastrous Brexit on us, they now want far more. Only we can stop this, by realising who and what they are and stand for, by not believing their bullshit and ultimately not voting for them. And whatever you do, never believe they are patriots. Real patriots don’t abandon their countries, don’t talk them down, don’t avoid paying their fair share of tax nor work against the interests of working people.
Dubai is welcome to these millionaire grifters. I hope they go to live there permanently, under a sharia law that I would never tolerate. And leave this country behind, giving us the chance to fix everything they have broken, especially our politics.
