Coalition of the Millionaires.

[Magda Hassan]

The coalition of millionaires: 23 of the 29 member of the new cabinet are worth more than £1m... and the Lib Dems are just as wealthy as the Tories



By Glen Owen
Last updated at 9:45 AM on 23rd May 2010

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It is the £60million Cabinet. David Cameron’s coalition Government may have adopted ‘fairness’ as one of its defining slogans, but his team of Ministers has been drawn almost exclusively from the ranks of the financial elite – leading to accusations that politics is once again becoming the preserve of the wealthy.
Of the 29 Ministers entitled to attend Cabinet meetings, 23 have assets and investments estimated to be worth more than £1million.

Enlarge That's rich: Britain's new coalition Government Cabinet

[B]THE CABINET RICH LIST[/B]


1. Lord Strathclyde £10m - Leader of the House of Lords, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The 2nd Baron Strathclyde, more normally addressed as Tom, is wealthy even by the aristocratic standards of the Lords. The half-Belgian peer owns a lucrative slice of his family’s estate management company, Auchendrane Estates, has numerous private directorships and a £2.3million house in Westminster.

2. Philip Hammond £7.5m - Secretary of State for Transport

Hammond had been expected to take the No2 position at the Treasury until the coalition agreement was struck, but there is little need for him to make personal economies. His stake in property company Castlemead has been estimated to be worth up to £6million in shares and dividends. He also co-owns a £1million house in Westminster and a £400,000 home in Woking, Surrey.

3. George Osborne £4.6m - Chancellor of the Exchequer

The youngest Chancellor for more than a century holds a £2million stake in his father’s luxury wallpaper company, Osborne & Little, and lives in a £2million family home in London’s Notting Hill. His constituency property in Tatton adds another £600,000.

4. Jeremy Hunt £4.5m - Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport
Hunt, a lambada-dancing party high-flier, owns a stake in the educational publisher Hotcourses estimated at nearly £3million. He also owns a property in Surrey, a house in Hammersmith, West London, and a half-share of a holiday home in Italy.

5. David Cameron £4m - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service
The PM and his wife both come from wealthy backgrounds and enjoy substantial property assets of their own: their London home has been valued at £2.7million and their constituency house at £1million. Mrs Cameron’s work as the creative director of Smythson, the upmarket stationers, earned her a £300,000 bonus. Both are in line to inherit fortunes from their parents: the combined wealth of the Camerons’ parents has been put as high as £30million.

Getting to work: Cameron's new coalition Government tackles the task at hand

6. Chris Huhne £3.5m - Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
The former journalist and City economist is known as ‘nine homes Huhne’ – he has five buy-to-lets in London and Oxford, a family home in the capital and a house in his Eastleigh constituency. He also has a share of a holiday home in France, while his wife, Vicky Pryce, a senior civil servant, owns a property in Greece.

7. Dominic Grieve £3m - Attorney General
Dry-as-dust barrister Grieve has built up shareholdings in companies including Royal Bank of Scotland which are thought to be worth nearly £1million. He also owns a £1.3million home in Hammersmith and Fulham, and a rental property in the capital.

8. Francis Maude £3m -Minister for the Cabinet Office, Paymaster General
Party grandee Maude owns two buy-to-let nest-egg properties in London and France, and a valuable family home in Sussex. Until David Cameron’s crackdown on his team’s second jobs last year, he was a member of Barclays Bank’s Asia-Pacific Advisory Committee. He also has a number of shareholdings.

9. William Hague £2.5m - Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Canny Hague’s property interests in London and his Yorkshire constituency are worth at least £1million, while his earnings from the after-dinner circuit – at up to £25,000 a speech – private directorships and book contracts add at least another £1.5million.

10. Andrew Mitchell £2m - Secretary of State for International Development

Former merchant banker Mitchell retains lucrative interests from his time in the City, including various property shareholdings. He also owns a home in London worth
£1.6million.
It's not just politics they have in common: Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg

11. David Laws £1m-2m estimate - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Laws is said to have made so much money in the City that he was able to retire at the age of 28, after betting $1billion of his company’s money on the value of the dollar – and guessing the right way. He displays few public signs of this reputed wealth, apart from a house in France and a £400,000 cottage in his Somerset constituency. He keeps any shareholdings well-concealed.

12. Nick Clegg £1.9m - Deputy Prime Minister
Like his coalition partner Cameron, Clegg’s father made millions in the City. While Clegg senior has an impressive international property portfolio worth several million pounds, the Lib Dem leader’s own wealth comes from a £1.5million property in Putney and a constituency house in Sheffield.

13. David Willetts £1.9m - Minister of State (Universities and Science) Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Willetts, who is married to the successful professional artist Sarah Butterfield, derived a useful income from private directorships until the Cameron crackdown. He owns a London house worth £1.3million,
a property in Hampshire worth £300,000 and a rental property.

14. Theresa May £1.6m - Secretary of State for the Home Department and Minister for Women and Equality
Vicar’s daughter May owns a £1million home in London with her husband Philip, and a home in Berkshire worth an estimated £600,000.

15. Oliver Letwin £1.6m - Minister of State, Cabinet Office
Former Rothschild banker Letwin, the Old Etonian son of academics, holds numerous investments from his time in the City. He also owns a £700,000 constituency home in Somerset and an £800,000 home in London.

16. Caroline Spelman £1.5m - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Spelman, a former sugar beet commodity secretary for the National Farmers Union, co-owns a biotechnology business with her husband, has a constituency home in Dorridge, West Midlands, and a property near Westminster.

17. Owen Paterson £1.5m - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Paterson, who is married to Rose Ridley, daughter of the 4th Viscount Ridley, has a second life as the owner of a large country estate on which he lets buildings and agricultural land.

18. Cheryl Gillan £1.5m - Secretary of State for Wales
Gillan, the privately-educated daughter of an Army officer, owes her fortune to the three homes she owns in the Home Counties.

19. Kenneth Clarke £1m+ - Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State for Justice
Cigar-smoking Government veteran Clarke has accumulated shareholdings in companies such as BP, BAT and Diageo which were recently valued at more than £600,000. He owns a £500,000 house in his Nottinghamshire constituency.


A wealth of policies... Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, centre, sits with members of the coalition cabinet: (L-R) David Laws, Theresa May, George Osborne, Ken Clarke and Iain Duncan-Smith

20. Sir George Young £1m - Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal
Aristocratic Sir George, known as the ‘bicycling baronet’, owns a £650,000 family home in Penton Mewsey, Hampshire, and a £500,000 flat in London.

21. Iain Duncan Smith £1m - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Former Tory leader Duncan Smith owes his apparent wealth to his wife, Betsy. He lives in a £1million house provided by her father, the 5th Baron Cottesloe, which appears to be tied up in a series of complex family trusts.

22. Michael Gove £1m - Secretary of State for Education
Close Cameron aide Gove owns two properties – a London house and a home in his Surrey constituency – together worth over £1million. Until entering Government, he also earned at least £70,000 a year on top of his MP’s salary from journalism and book-writing.

23. Dr Liam Fox £1m - Secretary of State for Defence
Dr Fox is another Cabinet Minister who has benefited from the two-home life lived by many MPs, owning a Central London property and a large house in Somerset which combined are worth £1million.

Just six Cabinet Ministers are believed to be worth less than £1 million. They are: 24. Business Secretary Vince Cable, 25. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, 26. Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles, 27. Minister Without Portfolio Baroness Warsi, 28. Chief Whip Patrick McLoughlin and 29. Scottish Secretary Danny Alexander.

[Peter Presland]

This thread seems as good a place as any to post this.

Would it really have been much (ANY!!) different, had the Labour Party managed to conclude a coalition agreement? There's an article in the Mail about David Laws' forthcoming book entitled - "Pretty soon people will be asking 'who the hell is running this country?': David Laws gives the first account of the five days that changed Britain..."

Laws was at the Heart of the Lib-Dem coalition negotiations with both Lab and Con so this is a first-hand, eye-witness quote:

".... We have all these expensive Lib Dem pledges,' said Balls, 'but how do we fund them, and cut the deficit?'

I said: 'Look, Ed, as you know we are proposing that the higher personal allowance is funded by progressive tax reforms of the type I would have thought Labour would support - higher capital gains tax, a new mansion tax and reform of pensions taxation.'

Mandelson frowned: 'Surely the rich have suffered enough?'

My emphasis - but considering his swanning around with this and that Russian Mafiosi (Derepaska's Yacht in Cannes for one - and in company with George Osborne on that occasion as I recall) and his general spooky past, it really does tell you all you need to know about what has become of the party of the working man.

[Magda Hassan]

I totally agree Peter. It wouldn't have been a bit different.
In answer to Law's question: The Banks and Corporations.
In answer to Mandy's question: No, the rich have not suffered enough. They haven't suffered at all. Others have suffered for them. A bit like Jesus is said to have suffered for us but I don't know that the British people will be turning the other cheek for too much longer.

[David Guyatt]

You don't get to be a participant at a Bilderberg Conference meeting if you hold views that are contrary to the wealthy elite.

Just so we know just some of the UK attendees at Bilderberg's bashes a shortened list follows (for example no busnessmen/bankers are listed and, I think, some pols are also missing):

United Kingdom

Rt Hon the Baroness Shirley Williams ( at least 2010), stateswoman and member, House of Lords; Harvard University Professor; Past President, Chatham House; int'l member, Council on Foreign Relations.

Paddy Ashdown (1989),[29] former leader of Liberal Democrats, High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ed Balls (2006),[30] former Economic Secretary to the Treasury and advisor to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and was Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (2007–2010)

Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington (Steering Committee member) ,[31] former Foreign Secretary

Kenneth Clarke (1993,[32] 1998,[33] 1999,[34] 2003,[35] 2004,[36] 2006,[37] 2007,[37] 2008,[38][39] Chancellor of the Exchequer 1993-1997, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform 2008-2010, Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State for Justice 2010-current

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil (Viscount Cranborne) (1997),[1] Leader of the House of Lords 94-97

Denis Arthur Greenhill, Lord Greenhill of Harrow (deceased) (1974),[40]) former Head of Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Denis Healey (founder and Steering Committee member),[31] former Chancellor of the Exchequer

Peter Mandelson (1999,[41] 2009[42] Business Secretary (2008–2010)

John Monks (1996),[43] former TUC General Secretary

George Osborne (2006,[44] 2007,[44] 2008[45] 2009[46]) Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (2004–2010), Chancellor of the Exchequer 2010-current

David Owen (1982),[47] former British Foreign Secretary and leader of the Social Democratic Party

Enoch Powell, (deceased) (1968),[48] MP and Ulster Unionist

Malcolm Rifkind (1996),[43] former Foreign Secretary

Eric Roll (1964, 1966, 1967, 1973–1975, 1977–1999) (Bilderberg Steering Committee),[49] Department of Economic Affairs, 1964, later Bilderberg Group Chairman

David Hannay, Baron Hannay of Chiswick (1995),[50] Diplomatic posts at European Union and United Nations.

John Smith (1989) (deceased),[51] Labour Party leader
[edit]Prime Ministers

Tony Blair (1993),[21][32] Prime Minister 1997-2007

Gordon Brown (1991),[22] Prime Minister 2007- 2010

Edward Heath,[4] Prime Minister 1970-1974

Alec Douglas-Home (1977–1980),[52] Chairman of the Bilderberg Group, Prime Minister 1963-1964

Margaret Thatcher (1975),[53] Prime Minister 1979-1990

Quite a list isn't it.

I feel sure that Peter Carrington attends as a representative of HM the Queen. He has been the Chancellor of the royal family's most prestigious chivalric Order of the Garter since 1994; is Lord of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council; was Chancellor of the Order of St. Michael & St. George for the years 1984-94 (until his appointment as Chancellor of the senior royal Garter Order). Quite apart from having his own country pile, I believe he also lives in a "grace and favour" place on royal lands.

(and forgive me for what follows - it's a pet hate thing). Most onerously, Carrington won the Military Cross in 1945 for allegedly capturing and holding the bridge at Nijmegen, Holland. The bridge was actually captured at at terrible cost by the men of the US 82nd and was only "captured" by Carrington and his tanks when the Nazis withdrew from both ends following the assault of the 82nd. Nice gong Pete.

What is not mentioned was his refusal to then proceed with his tanks to take advantage of the capture of the Nijmegen bridge and make a rush to relieve the British paratroopers holding out at Arnhem. Had he done this the war would almost have ended in 1944 not 1945. He didn't proceed and the rest is history. And the Bormann "capital flight" programme continued unhindered ensuring that the Nazi creed could resurrect itself after the war -- notably in 1954 at the very first Bilderberg Conference held, interestingly, at Oosterbeek, just a stone's throw from, yup, Nijmegen. The Conference was held under the chairmanship of SS officer and Nazi spy Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.

All that Nazi loot that was rushed to safety by Bormann was now able to be repatriated and invested in the bright future.

But hey, getting one of the most important military "gongs" for not doing one thing, but rather doing something altogether different, is a classic elite form of double-think.

[Jack White]

"Millionaire" must be adjusted for inflation. Nowadays what were
called millionaires many years ago are now "billionaires".

I am personally acquainted with at least a half dozen millionaires,
which used to be called upper middle class.

Even our TCU college football coach is paid more than $2 million
a year...all contributed by local billionaires. Common millionaires
are "a dime a dozen" (adjusted for inflation).

Jack

[Jan Klimkowski]

The Mandelscum quote is worthy of note. I also posted it in the thread here:
http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...ostcount=2

Along with info about the Rothschild hagiographical documentary of Lord Peter...

I also note that much of the cabinet's wealth is based on multiple property ownership. No wonder they won't let the price of houses reset to meaningful and affordable levels.