The Dark Lord Ashcroft

It used to be that Peter Mandelson, after he had been draped with ermine, was called The Dark Lord, after Voldemort from the Harry Potter books.

Now, it seems, Michael Ashcroft - Lord Ashcroft of Tax Avoidance - cannot be mentioned on CiF.

Perhaps the fear is that some of his magic will rub off and he will become too poor to pay for marginal seats at the election.

This was deleted from CiF on Prem Sikka's thread about Ashcroft:

Lord Ashcroft casts a long shadow on the next general election. According to the information released by the Electoral Commission, he has donated over £5m to the Conservative party and its associations. A large proportion of this money is targeted at marginal seats in order to swing the election for the Conservatives.

Yes, which makes it somewhat baffling that the moderators on CiF were so assiduous over the weekend in deleting and disappearing any posts which even mentioned his name.

It was not as if the question of his tax status was not being explored by other publications nor has it been the case that The Guardian has broken any news on this.

Just as dodgy as billionaire non-doms bankrolling the Tory party and buying seats is the question of why CiF stifles debate.

Or are the moderators a law unto themselves and see a familiarity with Ashcroft, who clearly feels that he has no need to comply with the ethical standards David Cameron was so keen to espouse only the other day?

What is the right thing to do? Our problem today is that too often, too many people just don't ask that simple question. Instead they ask: "What do I feel like doing?" At the heart of the breakdown of trust in society is a breakdown of personal responsibility.

Clearly, if you are rich, it is just a question of:

Nah, I don't feel like paying tax, so bugger the ethics, I'll keep me money in me pocket, innit.

Nice people to vote for, obviously.

Or not.

................

After that post was deleted, I thought it would be worth simply quoting from The Guardian itself, to test whether the mention of Ashcroft and the Tories buying marginal seats was the issue.

How about trying to simply repeat the words of Justice Secretary Jack Straw, quoted by The Guardian and prefaced with a note that the moderators would have no need to delete something which they had already cleared for take-off and publication.

Jack Straw, the justice secretary, said today: "He was only granted his peerage on the basis he would return to live in the UK, become fully resident, and pay tax in the UK on his wider income.

"Lord Ashcroft has been forced to admit that he has not complied with this promise and that for the last 10 years the Conservatives have been concealing the truth. Instead of paying tax in the UK on all his earned income, he has been channelling millions into the Conservative party to help them buy this election."

So, what is terrorising the might Guardian in that comment?

Perhaps it is simply that we are no longer allowed to question the wisdom of the moderators.