EXCLUSIVE! Lynton Crosby - David Cameron and the Macquarie Group

David Cameron and Lynton Crosby

Yesterday the leader of the opposition, Ed Miliband added to the pressure that he has placed prime minister David Cameron under by turning his attentions to the cost of water. In a letter to a newspaper yesterday Mr Miliband wrote:

"I think the water industry is something that should be scrutinised to make sure it is working properly and make sure it is working properly for the benefit of consumers, because I know concerns have been raised." Read Here for full story.

Up until  Ed Miliband's article appearing in the Exeter Express and Echo yesterday, David Cameron had not shown the slightest interest in the cost of water and rising water bills and has wasted three years doing absolutely nothing about them. If David Cameron was so concerned about the Conservative privatised utilities that have brought us all escalating energy and water bills why didn't he act before yesterday evening?

Now in a sudden and panicked press release Downing Street announced that the government are looking into ways to reduce water bills. I wondered what was behind that panicked press release surely Number 10 realised that they just looked as though they had jumped the gun after being caught lagging behind Ed Miliband once again? After a little digging I came up with this:

The Australian owned  Macquarie Group  who purchased Thames Water is one of Lynton Crosby's (the prime minister's spin doctor's) clients. 

Lynton has worked for FTSE100 and ASX companies, brought in to counsel strategy and direct research. His work has included multi-million dollar programs; public affairs work; as well as lobbying. His clients included QANTAS, Macquarie Group and Coles See Here.  

The Macquarie group wanted to increase water bills by £29 to pay for the so-called super sewer, but this is just not true. I first raised how private companies were ripping us off on Ayes last August "Tory Led Coalition Helps Foreign Companies to Rip Us Off"  I told about how George Osborne the Tory chancellor allowed Thames Water to offset loans against their tax bills, loans that were NOT even taken out in this country! Lynton Crosby's client the Macquarie Group pay no corporation tax and hardly and UK tax either!

I wonder what is David Cameron's response to the fact that his spin doctor and close lobbyist friend Lynton Crosby's connections to the Tory privatised water industry and is there any area at all that Lynton crosby does not represent?

Isn't it time that Lynton Crosby resigned or is David Cameron and the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats going to continue ignoring all these very serious conflicts of interests concerning Lynton Crosby?

Lynton Crosby also has interests in:

• Tobacco Industry 
• Drinks Industry
• Private Health Companies (H5) and the NHS
• Fracking
• Links to Syrian Rebel fighters
• Offshore tax havens
• YouGov Polling Company

Crosby uses and owns a mysterious offshore tax haven based in Malta. The company 'Rutland' is run from the offices of a trust firm specialising in "wealth preservation" and hiding the true identity of company owners. Read more Here The paper trail linking Lynton Crosby, Malta and a secret offshore trust HERE 

Shortly after Crosby was hired by David Cameron, the government proposed policies on plain tobacco packaging, and minimum alcohol pricing which were due to be announced in the Queen's Speech was dropped.

The New Zealand PM John Key has a few things in common with David Cameron: They both have had 'dealings' with Lord Ashcroft; they both promised to go ahead with plain tobacco packaging and then suddenly went cold after heavy lobbying from Lynton Crosby's clients in eh tobacco industry one Philip Morris. They both have dealings with Lynton Crosby. John Key and David Cameron met years ago when they were both at Oxford University and reaffirmed their 'friendship' when they were both opposition leaders. It looks like they are both taking Lynton Crosby's advice to "get the barnacles off of the boat". But this Lynton Crosby scandal is not going to go away, he is fast becoming the barnacle on the Tory boat and I suspect this story will gather pace as the 2015 general election approaches.

Conflict of interests began to emerge after Lynton Crosby started work for the Conservative Party. Not long after he took up his role the Tory-led Coalition government shifted its position in favour of private health companies by trying to sneak NHS regulations through the House forcing services out of the market. At the time experts expressed surprise at the sudden shift in position. It then became clear in a 'leaked document' why this happened when it was disclosed that Lynton Crosby's company told its client how to exploit perceived 'failings' in the NHS in 2010, based on an opinion poll. Read More at The Guardian. This resulted in Crosby's clients being rewarded lucrative NHS contracts by the government.

Lynton Crosby has his tendrils all over fracking too. Mr Crosby's lobbying firm, Crosby Textor, represents the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, an oil and gas lobby group campaigning aggressively for fracking. The Tories are very keen on fracking, so keen that just a few weeks after the Conservatives hired Lynton Crosby, George Osborne offered companies like APP above a 50% cut in tax if they come and frack in the UK (they can frack anywhere they like as long as it is not at the bottom of a Tory MP's drive apparently).

And surprise - surprise Mr Crosby is also the director of nine companies including Crosby Textor and its subsidiaries *as well as YouGov, the pollsters*! 

"Strangely" and "coincidentally" the Conservative's hiring of Lynton Crosby is almost *instantly* reflected in the downward trend of the Labour Party's polling results. Polling companies can legally change the way their data and methodology is read and used and YouGov have done that several times this past few months, each time it seems to be followed by a further narrowing in the polls for Labour. Con incidence? you a make your own mind up! Polling companies can also be selective where and who they poll which will lead to fluctuating poll results and coincidentally YouGov has been fluctuating wildly over the past few months, sometimes in stark opposition to many of the other pollsters. I am not saying YouGov are doing this, I am simply pointing out that YouGov can get the results it wants by simply asking questions in a specific way or by polling people from certain areas. Also if you perpetually report that Labour are slipping in the polls and it is hysterically reported in the press then this in itself could have a downward trend on polling. It is one of the reasons why I believe the Labour lead is probably higher than YouGov state, especially as the Lord Ashcroft polling of the 40 Tory - Labour marginals gives Labour 32 wins out of 40 and has them 14% ahead, something looks wrong with YouGov's methodology.

Crosby Textor's chairman, Robert Champion de Crespigny, was in 1999 found to have acted unlawfully when he bought out a rival gold mining company. Mark Fullbrook, the group's London managing director, is former head of campaignin for the Conservative Party.

David Cameron's support for the Syrian uprising has also been brought into question after it was revealed that Lynton Crosby's company work for the rebels. The UK branch of Lynton Crosby's lobbying empire represented the Syrian National Council See Here and Here.

After david Cameron lost the vote, Downing Street was engaged in a furious and foul mouthed attack on Ed Miliband after Mr Miliband refused to back David Cameron and William Hague's 'war cry' to help the US bomb Syria. Downing Street accused Ed Miliband of being a "copper bottomed s***"  and a "f******* c***" when the Labour leader told the PM that his party would not back the vote on whether to take military action on Syria. (Since Miliband's refusal to back the government's and the US's bombing Syria campaign, Syria has destroyed its chemical weapons making facilities and is now starting to destroy all its chemical weapons - none of which would have happened if Ed Miliband had given in to the PM's bullying and haste over military action in Syria.)

What has also never been answered by David Cameron and number 10 is just how much time Lynton Crosby has spent there. A "Tory spokesman" has told the FT last May (2013) that Crosby spends about half of his time working inside number 10 the heart of the British government and the other half working at Millbank the Tories official headquarters. Yet still to this day david Cameron refuses to answer questions about his top aide. Why does an aide hired by the Conservative party need to spend so much time inside number 10? By strange coincidence it was last May that the government shelved plans for plain tobacco packaging along with plans for minimum alcohol pricing.

With the prime minister's spin doctor Lynton Crosby's connections to the tobacco industry, drinks industry,  private health companies (H5), Syrian rebel fighters, the water companies and now the banking industry it explains why David Cameron and the Tory led Coalition government are very reluctant to produce a list of the companies that Lynton Crosby is involved with and it also explains why the government are reluctant to take on bankers of any description, from any country, and why, when Ed Miliband was fighting hard for energy consumers rights and cost of living the Tory chancellor George Osborne was arranging to take the EU to court over bankers mega bonuses and forcing the British taxpayer to pay the legal bills, which are expected to run into at least a million pounds. It appears the Conservative party's connections to the banking industry span globally and their fingers are in pies all over the world - in one way or another!

The Conservative Party is inexplicably linked to the once nationalised but now privatised utilities, utilities that were privatised under Margaret Thatcher. Rail under John Major and now the NHS, education and the Royal Mail under David Cameron.

Angela Knight a former Tory MP was once the mouthpiece and apologist for the banking industry, is now an apologist for the energy conglomerates.

Yes this the Tories and their mates are certainly "all in it together" and the Liberal Democrats are helping it stay this way too!

According to the propaganda from the Conservative government at the time of privatising all these industries they told us privatisation would "drive prices down and increase efficiency through increased competition". This excuse has been repeated frequently over the past 35 years since the Conservative privatisation programme began (interrupted by 13 years of Labour government). Not only for water, but for gas, electricity, the railways and more recently Royal Mail and it is being used as an excuse to sell off great swathes of our NHS to private companies. Instead of going down each and every one of these facilities has soared in cost, both to the consumer and to the government, so the taxpaying public are hit with a double whammy.

It is only now since Ed Miliband stuck his head above the parapet and forced the cost of living up the agenda over energy costs and now water prices, that criticisms made of privatisation at the time during successive Tory governments about profiteering, corruption and general misconduct by some companies involved are more than justified. What terror does that fill you with for our NHS, education, firefighters, paramedics, police and defence?

The wheels are finally beginning to fall off of the Tory privatisation programme and predictably there is great reluctance on behalf  of the Tory led Coalition government to do anything about it other than follow where the leader of the opposition Ed Miliband, leads. In fact, rather than learn their lessons over privatisation, the Conservative government with the help of the Liberal Democrats are in the process of privatising state education, the NHS and Royal Mail.

All we get from the government are mealy mouthed platitudes and useless rhetoric about bringing household bills down and running after Ed Miliband shouting "we'll bring down water bills too", this government seriously needs to get a grip. Cameron has lost control of the country and now big business is taking over and it doesn't bode well for the future.

This latest outcry over the cost of living and the Tory privatised utilities is justified as were the criticisms made of it at the time of their privatisation, but the sobering question now is, do we as the general public ignore those same voices and much the same kind of criticisms that are currently being screamed by hundreds of voices from hundreds of campaign groups who are trying to warn us about the Conservative privatisation agendas of education and the NHS?

If we ignore the clarion cry against these privatisations now, just what problems are we setting ourselves and more importantly our children and grandchildren if we stand back and watch while the NHS and education is being privatised by stealth under our very noses by the same Conservative party ethos that brought us the privatisation, sell-offs, rip-offs in water, gas, electric, rail and now mail? We are condemning our future generations to privatised healthcare where only the rich are covered by the size of their wallets.

The solution to the terrible consequences of Tory privatisation is first and foremost stop them from privatising our NHS and state education. We can do this by voting Labour en masse at the next general election, as only the Labour party have promised to repeal the Tory's privatisation NHS reforms (Health and Social Care Act 2012) if they win the next election. By the same token Ed Miliband has also promised to take on the privatised energy companies and to control them with effective legal legislation after imposing a 20 month price freeze in order to get restructuring of these industries and the installation of a new regulator to control them through parliament.

The choice is clear and the choice is ours, the Tories and their false recovery and seriously deceitful unemployment stats, the party for the rich and sod the poor (no change there then), or the party that genuinely will try help everyone - Labour?