Sir Jim Ratcliffe Says

[baggieal]

I understand that this is all par for the course for all teams to some extent in the upper tiers of football, but whilst Man Utd may indeed pay a lot in taxes, they also apparently took out a £105 million loan to fund their last summer signings which took their total debt to some £1.1 billion. They are also still entertaining spending millions more on improving their stadium whilst simultaneously both increasing ticket prices and making job cuts to those who aren't paid thousands a week for kicking a ball about on a patch of grass.

Totally agree with you about the likes of Amazon Al, but as a personal tax exile, I don't think Ratcliffe can talk too much about this particular topic. He comes across as yet another greedy billionaire who really doesn't give a toss about "ordinary" people and avoids paying tax himself but still thinks he can use his position to comment on the state of the country.

As I said earlier, I'm not saying that he is wrong in pointing out that the levels of immigration or benefits costs are not sustainable but he carelessly/ deliberately uses false figures to exaggerate and support divisive right wing rhetoric.

You?re probably right to an extent Omeg but I have never ever voted in my life. I would though deport all the illegals that have arrived because yes our cities are becoming unrecognisable and the amount of assaults on little girls is increasing. We are talking about girls under 16! The fact the grooming gang fiasco is still going on is shocking and that?s because certain people do not want to inflame certain communities - bit like the chief constable in Birmingham who had to resign and rightly so because he bowed to pressure and lied. Without individual names of course details should be made public about the grooming gang scandal ie exactly what happened which apparently included young kids and bottles used. Absolutely sickening!

In terms of benefits it?s again out of control and many are better staying at home than working for nothing! For that idiot Streeting to gleefully announce a pay increase of 3.3% to NHS workers today took the p iss when those on universal credit will see increases of around 6.2% and more with multiple kids. I know a nurse who uses a food bank only because I help there.

For me I did not like Ratcliffe but my estimation of him went up today although his use of language was totally wrong albeit the main content correct. My mother in law is very left wing but she agrees all these illegals should be deported and until deported should not mix with the general public! Nothing Right Wing in that but a view which is getting to be the majority one now. I am getting sick of certain people always using the word Right Wing when it does not suit their narrative. The use of such is why many are running scared and the police made the wrong decision at that football match at Vile Park as they were pressurised by the local community and certain MP?s. Makes me mad when Starmer jumps on Ratcliffe and then he has appointed the disgusting vile Mandelson and Doyle and defends the tax evader Rayner. That?s different though.

Everyone has a different view but most views would change if let?s say you lived in Crowborough with school girls in a lovely house and all of a sudden bus loads of illegals started arriving next door to you. Always different then but people like Neville and Linekar spout crap behind their mansion gates in leafy private roads.

I bet Farage will be cheering through the rafters with Starmer refusing to quit. It?s quite sad but a fact - the longer Starmer stays then more will drift over to Reform. Burnham is more Left than Starmer but had he gone for leadership my opinion is Labour would do much better in the May elections than they will under this idiot. I
know many business leaders too and most are of the view Reeves is totally out of her depth and a bigger clown than Starmer. God her voice and tears make you think - get a life girl!

All my views Omeg and I respect 100% a differing view of course which is why we are all different.

As for football clubs they all are on the fiddle and I was always told if a company or business continues to trade insolvent then that?s illegal. Problem with this the owners or directors are never made accountable until the company or business goes bust . Sadly the richer you are then the more chance then you have of getting away with it. My view ( again my view ) is if you own multiple companies like let?s say Jamie Oliver and one goes bust then the other profitable company/companies should pay all the creditors of the one that went bust, I saw what Jamie Oliver screwed all his creditors for with the company that went bust and his main company was continuing to make millions - and lots of them. All wrong especially as many creditors were those who could not afford to lose a few thousand and it sent some bankrupt.

[baggiematt]

You?re probably right to an extent Omeg but I have never ever voted in my life. I would though deport all the illegals that have arrived because yes our cities are becoming unrecognisable and the amount of assaults on little girls is increasing. We are talking about girls under 16! The fact the grooming gang fiasco is still going on is shocking and that?s because certain people do not want to inflame certain communities - bit like the chief constable in Birmingham who had to resign and rightly so because he bowed to pressure and lied. Without individual names of course details should be made public about the grooming gang scandal ie exactly what happened which apparently included young kids and bottles used. Absolutely sickening!

In terms of benefits it?s again out of control and many are better staying at home than working for nothing! For that idiot Streeting to gleefully announce a pay increase of 3.3% to NHS workers today took the p iss when those on universal credit will see increases of around 6.2% and more with multiple kids. I know a nurse who uses a food bank only because I help there.

For me I did not like Ratcliffe but my estimation of him went up today although his use of language was totally wrong albeit the main content correct. My mother in law is very left wing but she agrees all these illegals should be deported and until deported should not mix with the general public! Nothing Right Wing in that but a view which is getting to be the majority one now. I am getting sick of certain people always using the word Right Wing when it does not suit their narrative. The use of such is why many are running scared and the police made the wrong decision at that football match at Vile Park as they were pressurised by the local community and certain MP?s. Makes me mad when Starmer jumps on Ratcliffe and then he has appointed the disgusting vile Mandelson and Doyle and defends the tax evader Rayner. That?s different though.

Everyone has a different view but most views would change if let?s say you lived in Crowborough with school girls in a lovely house and all of a sudden bus loads of illegals started arriving next door to you. Always different then but people like Neville and Linekar spout crap behind their mansion gates in leafy private roads.

I bet Farage will be cheering through the rafters with Starmer refusing to quit. It?s quite sad but a fact - the longer Starmer stays then more will drift over to Reform. Burnham is more Left than Starmer but had he gone for leadership my opinion is Labour would do much better in the May elections than they will under this idiot. I
know many business leaders too and most are of the view Reeves is totally out of her depth and a bigger clown than Starmer. God her voice and tears make you think - get a life girl!

All my views Omeg and I respect 100% a differing view of course which is why we are all different.

As for football clubs they all are on the fiddle and I was always told if a company or business continues to trade insolvent then that?s illegal. Problem with this the owners or directors are never made accountable until the company or business goes bust . Sadly the richer you are then the more chance then you have of getting away with it. My view ( again my view ) is if you own multiple companies like let?s say Jamie Oliver and one goes bust then the other profitable company/companies should pay all the creditors of the one that went bust, I saw what Jamie Oliver screwed all his creditors for with the company that went bust and his main company was continuing to make millions - and lots of them. All wrong especially as many creditors were those who could not afford to lose a few thousand and it sent some bankrupt.

I think this is the problem though Al. You and Radcliffe are talking about different topics.

He is talking about immigrants. You are talking about illegal migrants. Clever people trick you in merging immigrants, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.

You wont find many people who believe you shouldnt deport illegal immigrants. Thats not even in question, to the point that it’s almost pointless talking about it.

I really think you should prove that assaults on children are increasing because of immigrants instead of just peddling that around. Did you see the white nursery worker from Bristol that raped children in his care? Sorry Al but I think youre a gullible sort when it comes to immigration and I think you should really question what you read on the topic.

[baggieal]

I think this is the problem though Al. You and Radcliffe are talking about different topics.

He is talking about immigrants. You are talking about illegal migrants. Clever people trick you in merging immigrants, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.

You wont find many people who believe you shouldnt deport illegal immigrants. Thats not even in question, to the point that it’s almost pointless talking about it.

I really think you should prove that assaults on children are increasing because of immigrants instead of just peddling that around. Did you see the white nursery worker from Bristol that raped children in his care? Sorry Al but I think youre a gullible sort when it comes to immigration and I think you should really question what you read on the topic.

As mentioned his words did not come across well but the content was correct, He said immigrants are draining the states resources meaning it?s the illegal immigrants costing billions that are doing this. I welcome any immigrants who work with a skill ie teachers, hospital staff and engineers for example. If you look at the population growth of immigrants from 2000 ( he got confused with dates ) is it any wonder why services are failing with no infrastructure changes. The NHS is crumbling FFS because there?s little investment to support the population growth.

Last time I looked today that nursery worker was of Chinese heritage!!!

Certainly not gullible but have a view like Radcliffe. Is that wrong? Your views are clearly to the left - that?s up to you! At the end of the day the majority will decide and my view is Starmer is doing Farage?s work by staying in power!

Just my view Matt but would not dream of attacking your views and for the record other big business leaders have come out in support of Radcliffe, These people certainly can?t be called thick which is another narrative to Right Wing!

[baggiematt]

As mentioned his words did not come across well but the content was correct, He said immigrants are draining the states resources meaning it?s the illegal immigrants costing billions that are doing this. I welcome any immigrants who work with a skill ie teachers, hospital staff and engineers for example. If you look at the population growth of immigrants from 2000 ( he got confused with dates ) is it any wonder why services are failing with no infrastructure changes. The NHS is crumbling FFS because there?s little investment to support the population growth.

Last time I looked today that nursery worker was of Chinese heritage!!!

Certainly not gullible but have a view like Radcliffe. Is that wrong? Your views are clearly to the left - that?s up to you! At the end of the day the majority will decide and my view is Starmer is doing Farage?s work by staying in power!

Just my view Matt but would not dream of attacking your views and for the record other big business leaders have come out in support of Radcliffe, These people certainly can?t be called thick which is another narrative to Right Wing!

Not left wing at all Al, but believe in treating people fairly.

There are two nursery worker incidents (weirdly) and I was referring to the Bristol one but the point is that if it was a Pakistani male or someone from Africa, the reaction would be different.

There is nothing wrong with a sensible conversation about immigration but his words were clumsy and he quoted false facts. Also as most posters point out, its not the smartest set of comments for the owner of a football club thats best players are immigrants and the irony is, so is he!

We should all be responsible for what we write, so if we say child rapes are on the up because of immigrants, at least back it up with data or you are just peddling misinformation from a racist agenda, which is the gullible part.

[regis80]

i?m sure I read somewhere that immigrants contributed 17B to UK since 2022.. whereas this Rat paid zilch on tax to the UK. He?s now back peddling because focus is on him and how much tax he pays.

[kettering_baggie]

I think that the UK economy is very much better off through having the likes of Jim Ratcliffe invest their money in this country. The last time I looked Ineos was a UK registered company. I suspect that a large majority of British people support his views and he is certainly entitled to his opinions, unfortunately, though, expressing views on a subject such as this brings down a load of criticism from people who don’t seem to believe in free speech. I believe that you should be able to say what you like, you don’t have to agree but it is sad that free speech looks to be under threat.

[kettering_baggie]

I would add also that if I had the sort of wealth that Jim Ratcliffe has, I would choose to live where the hell I liked. Monaco, I would suggest, has rather more appeal than Manchester!

[albion68]

Says the billionaire owner of Manure whose first team squad relies overwhelmingly on foreign born players😂

Of course this country has a problem with illegal immigration but it is nowhere near as big (or costly) as the problem of a rising benefits bill which is overwhelmingly made up of white British.

DWP figures from Aug 2024 clearly show that the biggest proportion of benefits is paid in state pension ( some 13,000,000) which reflects our aging population. There were an additional 1,360,000 on pension credits. Next highest was Universal Credit at 7,000,000 (this continues to grow as older benefits such as housing benefit -2,200,000-are transferred to this new system), then PIP at 3,500,000 claimants (plus 1,300,000 on the old DLA) and 1,400,000 claiming Carers Allowance.

Of the est. 8 million on Universal Credit in July 2025, 76.5% were white, 10.2%Asian/British Asian and 6% Black/British Black which roughly reflects the same proportions of the population as a whole.

The worrying thing is that a fifth of our working population are foreign born either across the lower paid sectors (e.g. cleaning, care work) or certain higher paid ones (architects, vets, dentistry, IT, doctors). This is because we don't produce enough of our own to fulfil the needs in the higher paid sectors (despite more young people being in higher education than ever before) and because most British white people would rather rely on benefits than take poorly paid jobs.

While an increasing percentage of our population reaches pension age, the more alarming problem is that 22.5% of people of working age are not in work and the biggest driver of this are those from the younger demographic. This post Covid trend is the most worrying. In 2020, there were 1million on benefits who had a no work requirement, this had risen sharply to 3.7 million by July 2025.

Ratcliff's statements echo the deliberately divisive language of Trump, Farage and the far right. They take genuine concerns and grossly exaggerate and exploit them to their own ends. Most of the trope is around Muslims taking over British and European culture but whilst there has been an increase in those identifying as Muslim in the UK (currently around 6% of the country which is up from around 4.5% I'm 2021) it can hardly said to be a take over. I'm sure that Ratcliff doesn't even see the irony in his use of the word "colonised" given that many of the immigrants he is referring to come from country's previously run by the British Empire.

He is certainly be right in pointing out that both levels of immigration and of those on benefits are unsustainable, but his conclusions and rhetoric are IMHO dangerously wrong and feed into growing populism and divisiveness.

I think I?ve earned my pension?..left school at 15 retired at 69.vertually worked all my life 6/7days a week,believe I?ve paid more than my fare share in tax And NI.

[regis80]

I would add also that if I had the sort of wealth that Jim Ratcliffe has, I would choose to live where the hell I liked. Monaco, I would suggest, has rather more appeal than Manchester!

He can say what he wants and live where he wants Kettering. I have no issue with that. But it’s a little hypocritical what he said.
I have an issue with billionaires who don’t really contribute to the UK in terms of taxes.. okay they may create some jobs. Dyson for instance moved to singapore, why? Billionaires are rinsing us.. look at what amazon is doing?
I remember many years ago people took issue with Lewis Hamilton for moving to Monaco for a tax dodge.. i wish people would show same disgust to those billionaires who did that too.

[baggiematt]

I think that the UK economy is very much better off through having the likes of Jim Ratcliffe invest their money in this country. The last time I looked Ineos was a UK registered company. I suspect that a large majority of British people support his views and he is certainly entitled to his opinions, unfortunately, though, expressing views on a subject such as this brings down a load of criticism from people who don’t seem to believe in free speech. I believe that you should be able to say what you like, you don’t have to agree but it is sad that free speech looks to be under threat.

The idea that you can say what you like without criticism, is the exact opposite of free speech.