J.K. Rowling gives $1.8M to Labour
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/09/20/rowling.labour.donation.ap/index.html
I can't believe she's encouraging them :roll:
;)
It was in the news. I thought it quite silly since they showed footage of the first HP film rather than of the politicians or of J.K herself. :roll:
What a dummy.
Everyone knows you only give money to Labour in return for a title.
They can't get her into the Christmas list, not enough time.
Labour will be toast by the time the birthday honours are announced so it's money wasted
A million nicker and she's still not Dame Jo of Hogwarts.
What a plonker !
Apparantly JKR is a personal friend of the Browns.
I've always admired her support for single parents. I was a single parent (not through choice - far from it) during John Major's 'back to basics' years (the hypocrisy :roll: ) and it was made to feel awful.
But... Gordon Brown is still an unelected waste of space. And I feel cheated that I have nobody to vote for, come the next election.
I'm probably being way too cynical
BUT
That donation is deductable
and JKR has a huge tax bill
I have to say I'm alway deeply suspicious of anyone who makes a HUGE donaion to any one cause, whatever it is, and then tells the media.
Sometimes it's done to raise awareness of a good cause, but that's not what's happening here. Political parties are not 'good causes'.
If there wasn't a hidden agenda, JKR would have done it annonymously.
Over here the tax deduction is 75% only for the first 400 of the donation. After that the deduction is reduced, until 1000. After that its out of your own pocket.
Is the whole thing tax deductable over there?
The obvious answer is - gosh no it's not 100% deductable.
But as Lord Levi ( a personal friend of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - a bit like JKR ) showed, with careful manipulation by cleaver accountants and diverting part of the money into a non-existant policies study group, you can go from being Mr Levi to Lord Levi overnight and have done nothing better than paid your tax bill.
Is that how Lord Conrad Black (currently a "guest" of the United States Federal Penitentiary) got his title?
Is that how Lord Conrad Black (currently a "guest" of the United States Federal Penitentiary) got his title?
I'd love to blame Blair and Brown for Conrad Black.
The truth is he came to his elevated status during the Margaret Thatcher years along with Lord Geoffrey Archer ( imprisoned for 18 Months ) and Jonathan Aitkin ( banged up in the scrubbs for a year ).
If any children ever ask you what is the difference between right and wrong just tell them it's £1,000,000 to the ruling party in the House of Commons. :lol:
If any children ever ask you what is the difference between right and wrong just tell them it's £1,000,000 to the ruling party in the House of Commons. :lol:
I don't see it that way. She's following her convictions and donating maybe less than 0.1% of her wealth. If I did that no one would blink an eyelid. Well, my wife might complain that we could have spent it on a night out.
Alan said
If there wasn't a hidden agenda, JKR would have done it annonymously
Doing it publically raised the spirits of the party and made Gordon Brown look better to the general public. Stupid, perhaps, but a lot of politics these days image is the most important thing.
I agree - she was trying to help a friend out of a really bad situation.
Added to that a lot of first time voters at the next general election will be huge JKR fans. There has to be an element of placing a positive image on New Labour for first time voters. After all it's unlikely they will have mortgages or be concerned about them or escalating food costs or inflation etc etc. It was about image and JKR is one of the few untainted friends Gordon Brown has got left.
It was nicely timed to be aired just before the party conference.