Nick Cohen is on form in the Observer under the above title saying:
Stopping tax exiles milking places such as Sark for their own benefit should not be a tough choice for Labour
As he notes:
Perhaps I am being over-optimistic, but I sense that ministers realise the need for change. Alistair Darling criticised the Isle of Man last month for asking the British taxpayers whom its banks exist to short-change to bail out its financial system. He also ordered an inquiry into tax havens. Admittedly, a former functionary of the Financial Services Authority, which let Britain down so badly, is leading it, but maybe ministers will ignore his findings, which I think I can safely predict will be timorous in the extreme. Talking to them, I get a sense of renewed radical self-confidence. Ideas that were impossible to contemplate in the bubble seem common sense now.
If they were to decide that Sark and the failed economic model it represents were not so quaint after all, they would be on the side of the honest taxpayers and international progressive opinion, and against African dictators, tax-dodging multinationals, money launderers, organised crime and the Barclay brothers. Labour is talking a great deal about the need to make 'tough choices' at the moment. This is not one of them.
Quite so.
Disclosure: Nick quotes me in the article. I did not talk to him during its preparation.
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I wholeheartedly agree with your hope that the people of Sark nationalise the property necessary to ensure that two irresponsible bankers cannot use democratic reform as a Trojan horse to hold them to ransom. Clearly they lack the sense of responsibility to the community the current Seigneur has shown.
Having said that there is a community spirited article in the Barclays’ Telegraph today which throws some light on the consequences of Richard Murphy’s cavalier attacks on capital:
Sir John Major, the former Prime Minister, has accused the Government of treating savers “appallingly” by failing to protect them from recent dramatic falls in interest rates.
The article goes on to point out the difficulty this is causing pensioners dependent on interest on savings to top up their abysmal pensions. As I have repeatedly pointed out, Richard, a healthy economy is entirely dependent on a responsible level of savings. Implementation of your blinkered pursuit of capital has caused the asset bubbles you currently criticise. Your wish is to exacerbate the problem. It’s time to gave some thought to the fact that solving third world embezzlement should not be the basis on which we delineate out economy. Neither is it the case that the solutions of the two issues are incompatible.
Governments should stick to taxing earned income, transparent accounting, and fertile economic conditions. Pursuing capital is a lazy fix for having overspent.