The word hypocrisy means "“a situation in which someone pretends to believe something that they do not really believe, or that is the opposite of what they do or say at another time e.g. There's one rule for her and another rule for everyone else and it's sheer hypocrisy”.
And when it comes to tax avoidance this is certainly true of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP party.
During the General Election Nicola Sturgeon made headlines across the UK after she went to London making bold claims about her stand on tax avoidance.
What Nicola said:
The Herald ran the headline “Sturgeon demands zero tolerance on obscene and despicable tax avoidance” with the story saying
“Nicola Sturgeon has weighed into the growing political storm over tax avoidance, branding it obscene, immoral and despicable, and promising a "zero tolerance" approach in Scotland.
The First Minister said "a whole political establishment" had negligently allowed tax avoidance to become routine, even though it robbed public services of essential funding and “people should be "unequivocal about how obscene and immoral and downright wrong" it was to dodge tax, however it was done.
"It is awful, it is despicable, I can't actually think of words strong enough for it, and the sooner we start calling it for what it is, the sooner we might start to see it tackled and tackled effectively."
She even said she would “"make examples of people, so we send the right message to anyone thinking of doing it.”
What Nicola and SNP actually do : Bankers, tax avoiders and SNP party funders all doing very nicely
What example has Nicola made of people who avoid paying tax with the power she already has?
Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond made an example of tax avoiding billionaire Jim McColl, the richest man “in” Scotland by giving him the run of the Scottish parliament and making him their choice of official economic advisor to every single Minister in the Scottish parliament – yet the billionaire admits he lives in Monaco to avoid paying tax and states he does not want tax avoidance tackled change corporation tax instead.
What sort of economic advice has Jim McColl the tax avoider being giving John Swinney, Nicola Sturgeon and all the other SNP ministers to decide our tax fate?
Did he advise SNP Ministers, who decide SNP policy, to increase taxes for nurses and teachers instead of taxing the rich more as they promised at the general election?
McColl claimed during the referendum campaign "voting NO would be bad for Scotland".
Then just like SNP ministers he gives advice to, he did a u-turn, declared he no longer supports independence but does support tax powers be given to SNP.
Why? Alex and Nicola promised to cut his corporation tax by 3p in the £ lower than Cameron - and that would mean he could reap the benefit of Westminster government tax avoidance rules and SNP tax powers to cut his corporation tax where he could transfer those tax cuts into his own pocket using the Westminster tax avoidance rules - gaining the best of both parliaments policies to enrich himself why he was happy as an official economic advisor to SNP that Scotland voted NO.
And as well as the run of the Scottish parliament the SNP government gave their official economic advisor £1million of Scottish tax payers money – claiming it was a grant for his business. Since when does a billionaire who is the richest man "in" Scotland need government grants to invest in his own business as he has plenty tax avoidance money to invest himself..
Member of the British Establishment, on the court of the Bank of England until 2012, Lady Susan Rice. is doing nicely too from being an SNP economic advisor too as SNP appointed her to take over to chair the board of Scottish Water as of 1st June 2015. - after SNP did a deal with David Cameron behind Scotland’s back, during the referendum, to create a UK water market together that now includes Scotland’s water - at the same time SNP toured Scotland pretending they want to split from the UK and don’t do deals with Tories.
How can a party with a team of so called world leading economic advisors and bankers for years lose the referendum on an economic debate with a lawyer – especially when Alex Salmond is a trained economist who has had decades to plan the economic case?
As SNP show their preference for tax avoiders and bankers consistently with SNP just appointing a former RBS chief two weeks ago to help them decide how Scotland’s business rates should be changed.
This after SNP actually appointed George Mathewson as their chief economic advisor –he was the former Chairman of RBS who mentored and appointed “fred the shred” to take over as his replacement so he could move to a Hedge Fund Tosca Holdings –the same hedge fund that advised Fred Goodwin to take over ABN Amro the deal that sunk the bank).
The international business times ran a report stating “the (RBS) problems stem from former chief executive George Mathewson, according to renowned business journalist Ian Fraser”
George Mathewson is reported to be another tax avoider appointed by SNP to be their official economic advisor – a man who uses a Cayman Island tax haven– a pattern emerging rather than the story Nicola Sturgeon pedalled in London that she thinks they are despicable when she surrounds herself with them to decide Scottish Government economic policy.
SNP love affair with bankers continued at the general election – with SNP even asking YES voters to crowd fund their election campaign for an SNP candidate, Ian Blackford who was actually a merchant banker waving a Scotland flag while asking the poor to crowd fund his election campaign for him so the SNP party and the merchant banker did not have to use their vast wealth.
The “New” SNP even told the austerity laden yes voters SNP and their merchant banker were pleading poverty to “We realise it is customary to offer "rewards" for those contributing to the crowd funding but we won't be doing that. Instead we will commit to spending every donated penny wisely in winning this General Election campaign”.
Merchant Banker Blackford SNP MP said that RBS should be broken up in an independent Scotland – of course that would allow him to take over and cash in for himself.
Just four weeks ago it was revealed Stagecoach, who's chairman funds the SNP party was found guilty of using a complex tax avoidance scheme to defraud the nation of taxes too.
And the Sunday Post revealed SNP are also bankrolled by another tax avoider and “The company has close links with several SNP ministers, including Miss Sturgeon, SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson and Transport Minister Derek Mackay.
This you scratch my back and I will scratch yours relations SNP has with so many people apparent here too as in recent years the company has been selected to take part in a Scottish Government scheme for first-time buyers.- while a Housing Associations in SNP housing Minister Margaret Burgess constituency has been forced to allow an English housing association to take over after SNP told them there was no more housing association grant money available to fund new houses.
While this private property development company that funds the SNP party avoids paying tax on profits from properties it owns and rents out all across Scotland.
Despite Nicola and SNP claims they will sort out tax avoidance, while currently "the use of offshore companies as vehicles for property ownership and development is not illegal, the Scottish Greens pressed for it to be restricted to companies registered in the EU in a bid to exclude tax havens, such as the Isle of Man, and improve transparency.the move was thrown out by SNP Land Reform Minister Aileen McLeod., a move I'm sure their party donor welcomed.
The Sunday Post story goes on to say “In its manifesto for last year’s general election the SNP called for a crackdown on tax avoidance and the abolition of non-dom status” with SNP using these claims to actually get an MP into power who is a tax avoider.
SNP MP Phil Boswell now admits – only after he became an MP thanks to claiming he is against tax avoidance - he used a tax loophole to avoid paying tax with SNP leaders standing by their man.
Phil Boswell since becoming an MP has tried to avoid paying for his own clothes as he wrongly tried to charge taxpayers for them as well as being caught avoiding recording his business interests in the Westminster register as he his meant to and is still under investigation over expenses claims for his office
. Phil Boswell was not selected by the local branch – as SNP leaders claimed the man selected failed vetting (the second candidate they made this claim of for this particular selection process) and SNP leadership declared Phil Boswell – who came second in the selection process - as their man for the constituency - like Tony Blair the leadership over-ruling party members to decide who gets parachuted in.
When SNP is funded by, advised by and represented by tax avoiders it is sheer hypocrisy for Nicola Sturgeon, the party leader to claim to not only Scottish taxpayers but UK taxpayers at the general election SNP has zero tolerance for tax avoidance (for votes) and proves very often what SNP say for headlines and votes, like Nick Clegg, is the opposite of what they do once the voters trust them with their votes.