United States politicians remain (relatively) insulated from the Panama Papers fallout, but that may not last long. Names of more prominent Mossack Fonseca clients will drop in May, which could bring scandal stateside, and perhaps newspapers will stop ignoring fallout beyond the initial data drop. In the meantime, one across-the-pond figure is having a terrible time. British Prime Minister David Cameron came under fire after his billionaire father’s dealings with the firm surfaced. The British media has been tearing the PM to shreds, and his Tuesday in parliament wasn’t much better.
Cameron’s main blunder is trying to draw focus away from his dad’s offshore dealings by describing the fund as an enterprise, as opposed to the “artificial reducing tax” that he often rails against while lobbying against tax evasion. Dennis Skinner, a long-standing Labour Member of Parliament, doesn’t buy the PM’s explanation. He thinks that Cameron family funds sit in undesirable places, or at least, he hints that Cameron has benefited from this “windfall” in the past. And Skinner tossed out one of the most glorious English insults — “dodgy” — in the Commons chamber.
This “begins with a ‘d’ and ends with a ‘y'” insult did not sit well with Commons Speaker John Bercow, who asked Skinner to withdraw “that word,” which is damn close to the American equivalent of “shady.” Skinner refused and persisted in repeating “Dodgy Dave” until he was ejected from the rest of the day’s proceedings. Skinner is known to be a fiery pistol and has been sent home a grand total of five times from the chamber, which sounds like a lot, but he’s also held the gig since 1970. That averages out to about an ejection per decade, which isn’t all that often, right? Nah.
(Via BBC, The Guardian & New Republic)