There’s no time to clown around at Davos as wealth divide widens

Dosh, smackers, loot and spondoolies – that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? Money is dominating the news agenda, whether it’s to do with levelling up, walking out, or reining it in.

Wednesday’s story about Magic Mike: The Arena Tour, in which male dancers whip off their kit to provide “unparalleled entertainment” for guests aged 18 and over, was all about the moolah.

Organisers said April’s show at P&J Live has been cancelled due to a “sharp increase in production costs”.

They didn’t give details of the extra expenses but it can’t be for wardrobe.

As far as I can tell from the pictures (it’s research, leave me alone) they don’t need much more than a pair of jeans and a smile, although their tattoo artists must be raking it in.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Magic Mike’s ink slingers were at Davos this week, talking tatts at the World Economic Forum, pictured inset, with fellow millionaires, billionaires and Boris Johnson.

I bet you any money

Boris has a hidden tattoo, the Bullingdon Club logo perhaps or the combination for his safe.

He has signed a deal to write a “memoir like no other” for which he will be paid a “vast sum” according to a friend and reports estimate the former prime minister collected more than £2.6 million in earnings, donations and gifts in the past 12 months.

He appears to be blowing it on flights to events that the actual prime minister should be at instead, which is perhaps the point.

NOT-FOR-PROFIT

Community-owned airline FlyHighland could start running services to and from the islands this year.

Founder Thomas Eccles has set himself the admirable ambition of running a not-for-profit airline and after campaigning for donations, it could be about to take off.

His vision is to connect Scotland’s islands and mainland like never before with profits redistributed into community projects.

King Charles has been thinking along the same lines, asking for profits of £1 billion a year from wind farm deals to be used for the “wider public good” rather than the monarchy.

The Crown Estate has signed lease agreements for six offshore wind projects with the potential to power seven million homes.

Many royal watchers may have been waiting for the moment Charles finally steps out from his adored mother’s shadow to show what he is all about – and this feels like that moment.

It’s also the moment that even Tories are fed up of the Tories, with Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross saying he is “majorly disappointed” over the UK Government’s funding snub for Moray. It awarded funding to 10 projects in Scotland – including a cultural quarter in Peterhead, Macduff Aquarium and a Fair Isle ferry – but Elgin’s bid was unsuccessful.

The Moray MP is seeking meetings with ministers to find out “what went wrong” in the government’s decision-making process. That might take a while.

Elsewhere Oxfam revealed the richest 1% of people in the UK are now wealthier than 70% of the population combined.

It builds a picture of widening worldwide inequality and, along with Patriotic Millionaires and Tax Justice

UK, is pushing for “solidarity wealth taxes” and a permanent increase on tax for the richest 1%.

MILLIONAIRES

More than 200 millionaires, including heiress Abigail Disney and actor Mark Ruffalo, wrote in an open letter to Davos delegates: “Tax the ultra rich and do it now. It’s simple, commonsense economics. It is an investment in our common good and a better future that we all deserve, and as millionaires we want to make that investment.”

Disney said: “Extreme wealth is eating our world alive. It is undermining our democracies, destabilising our economies and destroying our climate.”

Oxfam’s campaign is supported by Ian Gregg, of the Greggs bakery empire, who believes he should be paying more tax.

He said: “I can never be happy with an economy that fosters such division in society for our children and grandchildren.”

Meanwhile reports emerged that Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi had to pay the taxman a seven-figure penalty, while HMRC has named schemes linked to Tory peer Michelle Mone’s husband Doug Barrowman as tax avoidance.

What a bunch of doughnuts.

Extreme wealth is eating our world alive