A bridge across the Atlantic

Tax abuses are ten a penny, but this one is particularly abusive, and seemingly corrupt:

"It seems that if you are lucky enough to qualify for an Atlantic Bridge jolly – that is to say you’re a top Tory (for non-British readers, that means a member of the offshore-promoting Conservative Party) who needs to get chummy with an American Conservative – your donation to the Atlantic Bridge (UK) will qualify you to have your expenses paid by Atlantic Bridge, Inc (US).

As a higher rate taxpayer, a £1,000 trip to see comedian James Hirsen in LA, for example, would be covered by a £600 donation. The remaining £400 would then be claimed from British taxpayers. It sounds like an invitation to take part in well planned, systematic corruption."

and we note that even though a charity must never endorse a political party or play any part in party politics, it seems that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, its honorary patron, set the Atlantic Bridge a clear goal: to become ‘a bulwark against the… people on the left’,
(To get around this, the Atlantic Bridge achieved charitable status in 2003 by claiming to be an education and research scheme or think tank.)

We're pleasd to see that thanks to blogger Stephen Newton, the UK Charity Commission has launched an inquiry into this scheme.