Prince Charles requesting €1m in CASH seems cartoonishly fishy to me, says ESTHER MCVEY

Whichever way you look at it, Prince Charles accepting cash in a carrier bag from a Qatari politician has a decidedly bad whiff about it.

Whilst all the statements from the palace say nothing illegal happened, there is nothing to look at here guv - or words to that effect - and all procedures were followed, officials must have

thought the cash transfer unusual to say the least.  Surely some eyebrows, not just mine, must have been raised?

And there is so much about this story that remains tantalising unanswered - like why did Charles accept cash from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani?  Why did the Sheikh not send the

money via a bacs transfer? Surely that is easier than lugging a million euros across town on 3 separate occasions. And just how big exactly does a bag need to be to hold a million Euros?

Was the money requested in cash?

We are also told two of Charles’ advisers hand-counted the money? How long did that take ? Then, once counted, it is believed Palace aids asked Coutts to come to collect the money. 

Now just a quick question, have you ever tried to hand cash into a bank? It is not that easy. £6,500 is deemed a a "large cash deposit" that raises red flags and invariably a Spanish

Inquisition. The FCA website explains that cash is a high-risk asset in financial crimes, the government’s Money Laundering Regulations require banks to ask for the source of any large

deposit.

This money came from a former Prime Minister of Qatar, so you might guess it came from overseas, but you cannot bring more than £10k in cash into or out of the country without declaring it.

Just as an aside, when I lost my seat and I was no longer a Minister or an MP, and was trying to set up a business to start working again, because I was deemed "politically exposed" I was

refused a bank account altogether.

Red Flags came up next to my name as someone who had worked in politics. And yet, here we have millions stuffed into suitcases being accepted by the banks with no problem at all.

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Is it me, or is it every way you turn women's rights are coming under attack? 

In America, The Roe v Wade judgment last week sent the women’s movement back 50 years when it removed their constitutional right to an abortion. 

In sport, trans women born as men can compete and beat women and that is viewed as acceptable and fair by the politically correct brigade, and worst of all in politics, the Labour Party

still seem unable to define what a woman is.

A student is getting £60,000 of taxpayers’ money to research racist puppets. Yes, you have read that correctly.

The project, known as "Grotesque acts of ventriloquism", claims white artists receive funding to produce puppet representations of people of colour that is often stereotypical. What a load

of tosh, or in this case what a load of dosh. 

As a fan of the muppets, probably the most famous puppet show ever, I did not see racism. I saw a fun show - but people seem to see racism in everything these days - especially when they are

getting paid to do so - sadly, we will all end up paying the price.

Children from local authority care are significantly more likely to drop out of University, partly due to having no emotional or financial family support and no home to go to in the

holidays. 

So, my heart was lifted when I discovered on of the biggest University housing providers - Unite - has been providing free all year-round accommodation for them. 

The impact has been huge with significantly less dropping out and more getting their degree. What a wonderful way to level the playing field without having to artificially provide degrees or

uplift grades - simply providing stability allowed them to shine. 

Halifax is the latest firm to go down the virtue signalling route of having pronouns on staff name badges and have told customers who do not like it to close their account and move

elsewhere.

Perhaps they are saying that because they know how difficult it has become for many people and businesses to open new accounts with banks. As a customer of Halifax for many years I am

disappointed with their attitude. But what I do know is any company which treats the views of its customers with such disdain is heading for a fall.

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