The other day Tom Watson posed the question who are Flying Lion Limited? Always up for a bit of an investigative challenge I decided to have a little look around to see what was about and there’s a few interesting things that cropped up.
First off, they crop up rather often in senior Conservative MP’s lists of members interests. Here’s a few of them:
Michael Ancram, 13-14 December 2006, return flight to Damascus paid for by Flying Lion Limited.
David Cameron, 22 March 2006 return flight to Prague (Czech Republic) (please no Dominic Fisher insinuations, purely coincidental) traveling with Flying Lion Limited but being a bit tardy on registering this interest, leaving it till 22 May 2006.
David Cameron, 20-21 November 2006 t Khartoum Sudan again provided by Flying Lion Limited.
William Hague, 22 March 2006 same flight as Davey boy to Prague presumably.
William Hague, 3-4 April 2006 to Sudan, obviously provided by Flying Lion Limited.
William Hague, 15-17 May 2006 to Israel and Jordan with Flying Lion Limited.
William Hague, 6-7 December 2006 to Pakistan provided by Flying Lion Limited.
William Hague, 8-10 December 2006 flying on from Pakistan to Bahrain again with Flying Lion Limited.
Andrew Mitchell, 22-25 January 2006 flights to and from Rwanda with Flying Lion Limited.
Andrew Mitchell, 3-4 April 2006 flights to the Sudan, yep you guessed it, with Flying Lion Limited.
Andrew Mitchell, 17-18 July 2006 to Bangladesh flying with the Tories favourite airline.
Andrew Mitchell, 20-21 November 2006 off to Sudan with Davey boy’s flight with Flying Lion Limited.
Andrew Mitchell, 28 February – 4 March 2007 off for a week in Burma courtesy of Flying Lion Limited.
OK, that’s the MP’s. In addition to this a number of Parliamentary Researchers/Assistants were also entertained with freebie flights by Flying Lion Limited including Edward Llewellyn who works for, wait for it, Davey boy himself and Ben Pratt who works for Michael Ancram.
So there we have it, a little shufty down the list of members interests reveals that various high level (you don’t get much higher than the leader after all) Conservative MP’s and their staff have all been given free flights by Flying Lion Limited to ferry them to various parts of the world.
However, as with all members interests, it’s important to actually know who we’re dealing with here. Who exactly are Flying Lion Limited? David, the first commentator to Tom’s post brings up an excellent suggestion in contacting Companies House to find out information. This would be a very useful method were Flying Lion Limited a UK registered company which they’re not. To be more precise, they’re registered in the well known tax haven of Bermuda at this address:
CEDAR HOUSE
41 CEDAR AVENUE
HAMILTON HM 12
BERMUDA
Incidentally, Cedar House must be an absolutely massive building because during my little dig for information I came up with so many different companies registered at that one address that I’d really hate to be their postman.
So we know who they are, where they are but what kind of a company are they? Well, surprise surprise, they’re not exactly BA with a nice open online booking system servicing hundreds of destinations around the world on a daily basis. In fact, according the the registrar of aircraft in Bermuda, they are the owners of a sole Dassault Falcon 900EX, registration VP-BMS. For those not of an aeronautical nature, that’s one of those executive type planes, not exactly a Leer jet but you get the idea, not a big high volume passenger jobbie.
I’ve never been a plane spotter, but I understand it holds a fascination for some people and for all our benefit, some of those nice people with a predisposition for snapping pictures of planes some actually put them up on the net. I’d love to drop an image here but all of the sites I came across had specific copyright notices so if you’re interested, this is Con Air 1.
Nice little plane and I’m sure a thrill for any senior Tory to be chauffeured around in, saves mixing with all the riff raff on standard air carrier’s flights although I’m not exactly sure where this leaves Dave and his Eco-Warrior comrades on the old environmental credentials. Something doesn’t quite match between proposing eco-taxes on airlines that ferry the average Joe public off on holiday while themselves jetting off on private executive jets. Perhaps companies registered in Bermuda will be exempt, who knows?
Anyway, I digress. So we know who’s been getting free flights, we can presumably know what plane they’ve been flying on as it’s the only one registered to Flying Lion Limited but why should a company registered in Bermuda seem so predisposed to ferrying senior Tories about?
Well, Unity picks up on an article from a few years back in the Times which is semi-accurate. Flying Lion Limited was at one time part of ADT. For those who don’t follow business takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, ADT used to be run by a certain Michael Ashcroft, better known as Lord Ashcroft, big rich geezer who throws lots of money at key marginals for the Tories. However, ADT itself was aquired by Tyco back in 1997 and Lord Ashcroft did indeed serve on its board of directors. However on 18 November 2002 he and another board member resigned.
So why is Flying Lion Limited ferrying around senior Tories? Does it look good for a party that’s banging on about the environment to be nipping to various destinations on a private executive jet? Does it do much for openness and transparency in politics that senior Tories, including their leader of course, are receiving gifts in the form of flights from some company registered in Bermuda who just happens to be part of the former company of their single biggest donor? I leave people to decide that for themselves.
Incidentally. Does anyone have any friends who are lawyers in the US? Flying Lion Limited were involved in a court case in Florida a few years back regarding Freedom of Information and I’d love to know what that was all about.
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21 comments ↓
> Flying Lion Limited were involved in a court case in Florida a few years back regarding Freedom of Information and I
Nice one, Penguin.
As a fully equiped anorak, and who also worked in the Marine & Aviation insurance industry for some time – A VP registration on the Aircraft suggests, if I recall correctly, a flag of convenience registration for maintainance etc.
Secondly a swept wing and rear engine configuration suggests in the case of a multiple flame out (loss of power to all engines) suggests a “dutch roll” (hunting from side to side) followed by a flat spin/stall will happen. It happened to a BA Trident some years ago at Heathrow – There were no survivors.
USA statistics suggest that the olds on a major malfunction on an executive jet is substantially higher than a main carrier.
All in all we may get lucky – Keep flying Air Cameron Dave !
Thanks for that GW. Looking through the records for the Bermuda aviation authority, they all appear to have numbers beginning with VP and I just assumed it was a standard country code system, not being an anorak that is. Well, not of an aeronautical nature anyway.
That said, I’ve just been looking through some research on aeroplane emissions which I may well put up for good measure in a bit.
My appogies – I’ve had a chance to get me old books out of the attick – VP is Bermuda – And not in compeete flag of convenience catagory.
It does go a bit further though. If Lion Air is a Bermudan Registered company how can it legally make political donatioms in the UK ?
Should the Tories be returning this cash value, or face prosecution ?
GW
Very good questions GW. I think there may well be some important questions for senior Tories to be answering this week.
Further to that GW, it must be noted that there’s a difference between political donations and gifts to MP’s that are registered with members interests. Westmonster quotes the figure of a value of
Travel expenses can be paid by overseas donors.
What you have “uncovered” is a series of properly recorded members interests – in stark contrast to John Prescott’s cowboy attire which he only registered 11 months later after being caught with is hand in the till.
Err, no Political Penguin, the rules for donations to parties and MP’s are broadly the same when it comes to permissibility. However, the rules do not apply to donations in kind for overseas travel, the reason being that the donor is often the foreign host who invites the MP. Not the case here, but the exemption applies to all foreign travel, so the donation is permissible.
“For those not of an aeronautical nature, that
To Prat. Please point to the bit in my post where I said it was not admissible for MP’s to receive travel expenses received by overseas companies. I know you have a problem with reading and misrepresenting people’s views but I would have thought you’d have learned by now. We can all live in hope. Richard seems to disagree with you over the ‘properly recorded’ bit, perhaps you two should discuss. I would point you in the direction of some interesting sections of the PPERA which directly refer to the nature of trips abroad but I can’t be bothered. BTW, nice to see you turn up yourself for once, I take it you’ve run out of mates and fake identities to post on my blog.
To Alex Masterley. Pretty much the same answer as to Prat about me not saying it was not permissible for MP’s to received travel covered by foreign companies although obviously not the stuff about sock puppetry so welcome to the blog. I think if you read the first post you’ll see that my core concern here is not specifically related to the matter of members interests but to the notion, and I feel it is fair criticism, that the Tories have sought to shift their image away from one of privilege based on greater economic advantage and to claim that they care about the environment.
Flying around on luxury executive jets (and that is an assumption in the case of David Cameron’s trip to the Sudan although it is on record that William Hague did indeed fly in an executive jet) all points to rank hypocrisy on both counts. More about that later in another post when I get the time.
To Richard. Well if you want to be picky about terminology, then a Dassault Falcon isn’t like a Leer jet because, well, it’s not but shall we move on to your points.
See answers to Prat and Alex as regards why the Tories using an executive jet amounts to hypocrisy, not going to write it again.
Nice little dig about taxpayers money. I do love the myth perpetrated by Tory types that Labour is on some kind of taxpayers junket. Please remind me again which political party in the UK receives the largest amount of money directly from that taxpayer again? No, sorry, that doesn’t fit into your line of argument so I’m sure you’ll ignore that.
You make an interesting point about official HM Opposition business. I would have a little look through the PPERA and their definitions on this one. According to the register of members interests it’s down as a fact finding visit. Now this is of course open to differing interpretations but there is also a section that says that if it to develop party policy or for publicity then such things like flights etc should be declared as party donations, ie to the Electoral Commission.
Although I make no accusation because you could easily interpret the matter one way or the other, some people might question whether taking along a journalist from the Telegraph could amount to publicity for electoral gain and if the journey was not to develop policy then please tell me what he was there for? I don’t see that things have suddenly got better in Darfur since his visit nor what specific role the leader of HM Opposition carries in a constitutional sense by going on such visits.
‘If people like Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes wrote about every trivial adjustment to paperwork few people would read their sites. They would have traffic more like yours.’
Couple of points to this statement. Firstly, you do not know how much traffic goes through my site so you are unqualified to make any statements to that effect. I, unlike certain people am not a self-publicist nor do I blog for the aggrandisement of my own ego or to climb up any slippery poles. It’s my hobby and I enjoy it. I also actually know how to interpret traffic through my site unlike said persons who don’t seem to know the difference between hits, unique visitors or spambots and I’m quite happy with the amount of people who visit my site.
Secondly and I have said this before, more people read the Sun newspaper than all the broadsheets put together so your point is? Those that pander to the lowest common denominator get more readers as I’m sure they do. If the tittle tattle and homophobic comments on Guido’s site are what rocks your boat then feel free to go there, we live in a free society and I’m not forcing you to read my blog.
Am I being stupid or are the Tory Blogosphere all following the same line that it was in order for the leaders of the vermin to acept hospitallity from a cowboy airline Registered” s a “flag of convenience” in Bermuda.
What they have not said, or the Vermin Party has said, is what were the real costs of these freebies compard with what was actually declared.
Mark you what I really want to see is that little report in “Lloyds List”
sole Dassault Falcon 900EX, registration VP-BMS. Crashed on take off at Stanstead. Reported Engine problems. No survivors. It is believed passengers included The Right Honourables David Cameron, William Hague , Lord Ashton etc.
And yes I am being very nasty.
Political penguin: If permissibility is not the issue then I can’t see what you are making a fuss about. Air travel is an accepted mode of transport for long distances and politicians find it necessary or desirable to travel abroad. Some of that travel may be for party purposes rather than parliamentary purposes. The use of air travel is not and never has been totally out of the question for environmental reasons. Limiting use to situations where iut is necessary is advisable, but the Conservatives are not seeking to impose mandatory restrictions despite what Zac Goldsmith or Tim Yeo may have said. Rather Cameron proposes incentives for more fuel-efficient aircraft.
I hear no Labour voices raised against ministers who use private helicopters at tax payers expense, or against chancellors who increase aviation duty supposedly to dissuade air travel and then use air travel themselves. As for flights from London to Khartoum, I have no idea who does fly to Khartoum but at present British Airways does not, so if Lord Ashcroft wants to make his plane available to David Cameron for the purposes of such a trip, then I see nothing wrong with that.
Whatever the value of those gifts it is far less than some of the sums donated to the Labour Party by donors who, unlike Lord Ashcroft, appear to have done little for their chosen party, but appear to hae been doing so for whatever honour might come their way.
Alex, you’re missing the point. In politics, credibility is very important. You cannot one day bang on about the environment and the next take a private jet with all it’s additional negative contributions to the environment compared to a standard airliner. (assuming Cameron was on that particular flight of course). It smacks of hypocrisy of the highest order and if you think that’s OK, well that’s fine with you but I take issue with it and I’m entitled to do so.
I don’t quite get you point about incentives for more fuel efficient aircraft. This has been going on for years in the aviation industry as efficiency is a core component of competition, however with lifespans of 50 years, the turnover of aircraft is decidedly slow because airlines have to get their usage out of them for the capital investment. Yes there is the possibility of replacing some engines during a plane’s lifespan but most factors relating to efficiency come from the design of the overall plane, ie it’s aerodynamics and that isn’t going to change whatever you do.
On flights from London to Khartoum, you are right that BA doesn’t fly direct now. However, and I did look it up, they used to. Equally both Lufthansa and Qatar can do the journey with only one change.
I would be careful about making insinuations regarding the allegations of cash for peerages. You may have missed it but the CPS investigated and there was no case to answer. It’s curious that I’m getting criticism from those same people who’ve been banging on about that issue for what seems like an eternity and they’ve got completely nowhere nor produced any information that they have claimed to have. I simply deal in facts, not rumours. If that’s your cup of tea then I’m sure you’d have a much nicer time over at Guido’s place than here.
GGW, I’m sure you feel strongly on this issue and I’m certainly no fan of Tories myself but it’s a bit much to wish fatal accidents on people however much you may dislike them. I know some would like to paint me in a certain light, but I do try to uphold a certain degree of politeness and restrain on my site, if it ever got to the point of something like Guido’s place then I’d simply shut it down.
If you could do me a favour and hold back on descriptions like ‘cowboy’ and ‘flag of convenience’ then it would be much appreciated. I do try to keep things accurate and as far as can be ascertained, Flying Lion Limited have an excellent safety record barring that one incident with the undercarriage and I think you may have picked up the ‘flag of convenience’ reference from GW which he later clarified as VP being designated to Bermuda which was what I had originally thought.
However, congratulations on hating Tories, I have no problem with that whatsoever.
I know some would like to paint me in a certain light, but I do try to uphold a certain degree of politeness and restrain on my site, if it ever got to the point of something like Guido
SO agreed – although the stats on incidents is in our favour.
Dear Dominic, please refer to my first ever post, shouldn’t be beyond your limited technical capabilities. All I can really say on the issue of blog popularity is this. A while back I duped you into putting a link from your site to mine. It took only till last week for the total number of referrals from your site to top 100 and many of those are repeat referrals although I could never get round to analysing them all because I’m far too busy doing other things.
In contrast, a referral from someone like Bob Piper, Tim Ireland or Tom Watson would bag me more than 100 referrals in under a 24 hour period. I know you may wish to think of yourself as some uber blogger type but on that basis, and believe me, it’s one of the things that I do professionally, such a small number of referrals do not indicate that your blog has a particularly high readership.
Incidentally, I’ve had the whopping number of 12 referrals off your new site and most of those are you so sorry kiddo, you might be able to talk yourself up to others but you don’t impress me much at all.
Agreed GW.
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