Pay Rises and Putin

So with my time limited I thought I’d fire off a short blog about Russia and an update on a subject I’ve written about before.

I have seen lots of things denouncing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

I have seen Germany being congratulated for increasing its spending in NATO. I haven’t seen much reporting saying that for decades Germany has been failing to meet its commitments to NATO, something even Donald Trump was calling out. The EU finally becomes the military power France has so often spoken of thanks to Putin! Hardly a proud statement.

Yet the millions of dollars Putin needs to pay for his war in Ukraine comes directly from German and EU purchases of Russian gas. It’s easy putting sanctions on things Russia doesn’t sell to the EU. It’s more difficult to stop buying things the EU actually wants. This is pure hypocrisy.

The EU announced sanctions, whilst carving out exemptions for Italian leather goods because the Italians make too much money from selling luxury goods to wealthy Russians. It’s hypocritical showmanship, an EU speciality.

I am seeing French Presidents trying to appear all powerful, off the back of the last decade saying that the EU should be less US centric and that the EU needs it own army, and now performing a volte face asking America where it is and hoping NATO (mainly the US and the U.K.) will be there to defend the EU.

I am seeing lots of corporates giving platitudes on social media. Pointless empty gestures when they still do business in Russia.

Large Accountants and Law firms claiming to stand with Ukraine, but billionaires cannot create complex legal webs of ownership of property without their help. Are they going to stop? Bob Seely MP said this week (under parliamentary privilege):

“We have a coalition, not of the willing but of the woeful. Oligarchs, Putin’s henchmen, teaming up with amoral lawyers.”

But surprisingly, Apple appear to have stopped selling in Russia. Something which must hit their profits and which therefore should be applauded. Capitalism demands you do everything to make a profit. But it appears that companies can deviate from this if they choose too. After doing this other corporates are starting to follow suit.

But unfortunately I am still seeing the EUs racist border policy in action, the one I wrote about before. Remember that it was Brexiteers who are racist, not the EU, but it appears that the white Ukrainians are being taken into Poland while anyone with black skin gets turned away from entering the EU. A situation confirmed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The EU being shown on TV saying all the right things, applauding the Ukrainian President, patting themselves on the back for pointless sanctions and finally putting money where their mouth is on defence, but quietly ignoring their ‘white first‘ approach to free movement as always.

Sport, slowly pulling Russia from competitions. Football saying that games will be played in neutral locations before realising that was rubbish and banning Russia from competitions. Then patting itself on the back for being tough. Tennis still playing Russian players and the Olympics, on Wednesday allowing them to compete as neutral, on Thursday realising that’s shit. F1, at the time of writing, doing nothing. Not good enough.

Russian planes including private jets banned from U.K. airspace, that’s good. But if I was a billionaire I guess I would just use an American or European private jet company. No big deal.

Russian oligarchs are not wealthy because of their entrepreneurial flair. The whole reason wealth is in the hands of a small few is because since the fall of the USSR the country has been run like a criminal gang, benefitting a few, leaving many ordinary Russians relatively poor.

There may not be one criminal act they’ve performed that you can point towards to justify taking away their assets Everything they have done is wrong. Everything they have done is dependent on supporting 1 man who is now invading a neighbour. That is justification enough.

The sanctions so far have not been harsh enough in my opinion but they have been escalating all week as I have been writing this but the U.K. Government needs to do much more.

These Russians who continue to float around on their yachts, sailing from the Med to the Caribbean, staying at luxury hotels and villas across Europe. There is no reason for these people to complain about Putin when their lifestyles remain so lavish.

All Russian oligarchs who do not publicly condem Putin are part of his regime. So they, their families, friends, connections, their personal staff, and employees working for their business should be told to go to Moscow and do their business in Moscow. Take your kids out of the fee paying boarding schools you have them in across Europe. Go back to Moscow while the man who makes you rich is in power.

This should be the case even if they are dual Russian/European nationals. If they are dual Russian/British nationals it should be revoked. Any non-Russian employees who do not want to work from Moscow can resign. only at this point, when the oligarchs not only have to support Putins Russia, but live in it as well, will the oligarchs be affected.

The fact that these people can still swan around Monaco, Mayfair and Milan, is an absolute joke. The fact that London is called the Lanudry (laundromat in American) or Londongrad is embarrassing. I’m happy to knock the EU for hypocracy, but the U.K. needs to sort this out once and for all. No more trading off dirty money. Lets stop selling ourselves out to global billionaires.

But how do we stop this being a which hunt against all Russians? I think that’s pretty easy.

For example, if you live here…

Russian oligarchs

Perhaps you should be on the list. If you commute by bus to your office job in Bristol, no, you should be left in peace.

This is an easy test to apply. Russians who own Premier league football clubs, who own multiple properties in Mayfair, who float around on mega yachts or spend months in Monaco, and who have never muttered a negative word about Putin, they are self selecting and should not be welcome in the U.K.

So this isn’t a comment on every Russian in the U.K. There are lots of good Russians, not only here but in Russian, not to mention Segei Magnitsky, the real life Russian tax lawyer that the book Red Notice is about and who‘s death gave rise to The Magnitsky Act, US Federal Law, which allows the Americans to remove assets from individuals who breach human rights.

Only the Oligarchs, only those connected to them, and even then, only those who cannot publicly condemn Putin and the invasion of another country need to be returned to Moscow. Although the wealthy ones who do condem Putin are probably In short supply due to the effect that has on your life span.

Ordinary Russians should be unaffected and be able to live here in peace, as they have so far, but as with Germans and the Japanese in WW2, if things escalate, even this needs to be reviewed.

Pay Rises

And finally… while all this goes on, IPSA, the self styled “independent body” that gives pay rises to MP have looked at MPs performance over the last year and decided that they should get a 2.7% pay rise.

I have written about this subject before.

This year, most normal people will see their standard of living fall rapidly due to an increase in the cost of living, and will only get a pay rise because they work hard and deliver for their customers and if their employer can make a profit.

IPSA have said that MPs workload has increased so they deserve more (but so had mine). That MPs had to work from home and this increases costs. It does, but no one else is being compensated for it, and with MPs, these homes are paid for by us. IPSA believes that MPs working harder means they should take more of our money.

IPSA obviously failed to see the near £50billion spent on a failed Track and Trace, They obviously failed to see care homes in collapse as people with covid were sent from hospitals to these vulnerable locations. They failed to see the estimated £20billion fraud from covid contracts. They have overlooked the £millions to MPs and their friends in unchecked covid contracts. They have not seen the weekly apologies by the Met police for failing to do their job in nearly every event. They failed to see the huge cost of living increases. They have failed to see that having 2 jobs, as many MPs do, means you're not actually being an MP properly.

I personally value MPs right now at around £40,000 a year. Still decent. Still near double the U.K. average. But half of what they currently get. A huge difference between their self perception and mine. I suspect many British people would wonder why they can’t work on average salary.

Parliament continues to go down the road of self destruction. Where greed and complacency takes them into Marie-Antoinette territory. We shall have to continue watching them eat cake until, as with her, something is done.