Tax havens in the EU – why does the BBC miss them out?

I noticed in all the BBC allegations about use of tax havens they of course made no mention of why it is that most UK collective investment fund investments are now made through Dublin or Luxembourg.

The EU invented the passported investment fund that can be easily used throughout the EU  called UCITs – Undertakings for collective investments in transferable securities.  These have replaced many of the domestic UK unit trusts that savers used to use.  88% of these vehicles are established in either Dublin or Luxembourg rather than in London which remains the principal centre for investment expertise.

One of the reasons behind this dominance by two of the smaller world centres is the favourable tax regime. In Ireland overseas  investors in the funds pay no Income tax, CGT, Subscription tax, Corporation Tax or Redemption tax to the Irish authorities. Obviously holders of the units do pay income tax on the dividends and CGT on the gains in their country where they are registered to pay taxes. UK investors large or small pay Income tax on dividends and CGT on gains in any offshore fund they hold anywhere in the world, unless their gain is below the taxable threshold or unless they hold the investment in a pension fund or ISA which are tax exempt. Ironically given the coverage it is the smaller savers who can more easily use sensible tax avoidance schemes like pensions and ISAs to avoid tax on their holdings.

In Luxembourg  too there is a  very favourable tax regime to encourage the establishment of UCITs. Dublin has proved more attractive because it also offers a very low Corporation Tax rate of 12.5% if the sponsor company for the UCIT also wishes to move there.

It is curious how Labour and the BBC concentrate on favourable tax regimes in UK offshore centres but not in these two larger EU locations. I see nothing wrong with the approach of the Irish or Luxembourg authorities who have successfully competed with a tax and services offer which has attracted a lot of  business away from London and other large centres. I do detect bias in the recent treatment of tax avoidance stories.They have been unwilling to point out up front that offshore funds do not allow UK citizens to avoid tax on their investments, and do not point out the huge volume of offshore funds generated by EU policy favouring places other than London within the EU.

142 Comments

  1. sm
    November 7, 2017

    As always, I am grateful for your lucid explanations of the sphere of international finance matters, John.

    Perhaps someone would correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it Mr Junker (as Luxembourg’s Finance Minister) who so ingeniously contrived the tax laws, or should that be ‘lures’, that drew so much investment to his country?

    1. Hope
      November 7, 2017

      I understood Maastricht allowed for the transferring of money to the country that paid the least amount of tax. What is this clause, Dennis/JR? Why no exposure to it?

      Tax should be charged at the least amount not the highest. We should be taxed far less. At the moment the records show, hoghlited by Guido, that we are paying more tax than ever before under this Tory govt! The same party who falsely claims it is the low tax party.

      The govt wastes so much I do not think it is wrong to pay the least amount. I think it is wrong for the govt to waste so much of our hard earned money. Why McDonnel thinks he has the right to waste other people’s money shows him for the Marxist he is.

      1. Mitchel
        November 7, 2017

        We have a semi-planned,output focussed economy-“waste” is there to keep the numbers up,paid for with fake money.A refinement on the Soviet model,nothing more.

      2. Hope
        November 7, 2017

        I seem to remember Cameron bullying a comedian over his taxes when Cameron knew he himself had offshore investments!

    2. LiamB
      November 7, 2017

      SM- yes, I believe you’re right, Junker did contrive to draw much investment to his small country- isn’t he a clever man?

      1. Hope
        November 7, 2017

        The whole of the EU is based on the socialist construct of redistribution of taxes. The UK has been a net contributor, yet the EU has th temerity to suggest we ought to pay our bills before leaving! Oh for a Donald or Nigel to tell them where to go.

        I,see from,Guido the ONS has produced an increase in happiness index because we leaving the EU. Osborne insulted leavers has also been proven wrong, no recession, GDP up,by ÂŁ133 billion 366,000 more people employed- he claimed 500,000 would lose their jobs. He called us economically illiterate and produced these apocalyptic warnings on the leaflet to remain! What a dope, scare mongerer and hike tax Osborne got it all wrong. Let us hope his reading skills at the paper are better than his maths.

  2. Lifelogic
    November 7, 2017

    Indeed the programme was appalling with a truly unpleasant and ignorant presenter. The lefty, politics of envy, greencrap BBC gets almost everything totally wrong, and now produces very little in the way of decent new programmes at all. The are just hugely unfair competition to other providers, pushing lefty misguided drivel. The dreadful Peter Hall complains about Netficks and the likes. Make the BBC charge customers, abolish the licence tax and let us see who really want to pay for Guardian, propaganda TV. Almost no one buy the Guardian after all.

    1. Lifelogic
      November 7, 2017

      Theresa May says:- Abuse scandal ‘a matter of shame for us all’

      Why does May always say such very, very stupid things – she is a bit like Hillary Clinton in this respect? I personally have nothing whatsoever to be ashamed of in this matter and nor do the vast majority of people I suspect. The blame lies with the perpetrators and the people who perhaps did not report it promptly (or act on solid information) when they should have done.

      Not all of us at all dear – so stop blaming us all. Anyway the dire, death causing, unworkable NHS structures are far, far more in need of action than this relatively trivial knee patting matter. That is actually killing many people.

  3. Duncan
    November 7, 2017

    John

    Replace your liberal left leader with a Conservative who can then get on with the task of removing the UK from EU and kneecapping the BBC who’s become a law unto itself and the self-appointed agent of social change in Britain today

    Unless Tory backbenchers do their job of returning the Conservative Party to its true course then we are dead in the water

    We need to target, attack and disembowel all liberal left influence. The liberal left want to politicise all aspects of humanity and society. Such a state of affairs affords the left significant political and social control. The Tories have done little to combat this cancer, this poison

    The BBC and indeed the EU are at the heart of everything that is now wrong with the UK and my party, the Tory party, is partly responsible for that

    Act now, dispense with this appalling leader and help liberate this nation from the sclerotic grip of the left

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      November 7, 2017

      Duncan, never a truer word spoken. You have summed it up in a nutshell. This so called Conservative party will bring about the demise of this country and the wimps in the cabinet are behind it all. They got rid of Maggie when it suited them but we need them to show some bottle and do the same with pathetic May.

      1. Kenneth
        November 7, 2017

        Being BBC-friendly is good for a politician’s career (hence the make up of the cabinet) ….. but disastrous for the country.

      2. Hope
        November 7, 2017

        Quentin Letts asked to remove his poopy before going on a BBC programme. The organisation is rotten, unpatriotic and unfit for purpose. Another imposed unwarranted tax on ordinary people for a left wing socialist propaganda unit. If it wants to be this so be it, but not from public funds. It I should meant to be impartial, it will never be with former Labour ministers in charge.

        If it is as good as it claims take it off the public purse and strive on its own merits. No. more please.

      3. Lifelogic
        November 7, 2017

        Why do the Tories always choose these essentially dim & socialist, broken compass, wet, Tory PMs? They always prove to be total electoral (and economic) liabilities. Heath, Major, Cameron and now May? Has the party got a death wish – a moth to a flame? Do they not look at the recent history?

    2. Lifelogic.
      November 7, 2017

      Theresa May is just lefty ‘BBC think’ personified, wrong on almost every single issue – the over taxation, over regulation, gender pay drivel, climate alarmism, the size of the state ……. Not quite as wrong as Corbyn that is true, but another broken compass PM in the Heath, Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron mode that will end badly. Given she has lived under all these dire failed PMs one has to question why, at her age, she is so daft as to be copying them. Has she learned nothing from the experience?

      Is being a daft socialist just in the genes and she cannot help her inability to think. But why did she join the Tories? Just a career move one assumes as there is clearly not a Tory bone in her body.

      1. rose
        November 7, 2017

        I may be wrong but I get the impression she has no interest in business or trade, no curiosity about how wealth is created and retained; no sense of responsibility for providing the conditions in which the country may thrive. Only burning ambition, and a wrong-headed idea that personal power will be achieved and kept by sucking up to the other people who have no interest in wealth creation, only in its spending.

        1. Lifelogic.
          November 8, 2017

          Indeed, she thinks big government knows best. In reality big government is the main problem and not the solution.

    3. Peter Wood
      November 7, 2017

      Here’s an idea, since BoJo appears completely unschooled in other nations social mores, send him to finish Mr Davis’ job, of our departure from the evil empire, and put DD at the Foreign Office! I think Boris’ temperament will so frustrate the puppets in Brussels that we’ll be out by Christmas..
      (no disrespect to the poor lady stuck in Iran intended)

      1. rose
        November 7, 2017

        A pity to be taken in by the MSM traducing Boris. If they had a case against him they wouldn’t need to do that. He must really worry them.

        What they should be doing is getting to the bottom of why the lady is being held hostage and what the relevant factions want from us.

        The American hostages have been released but not the British ones. Why?

        If one has to blame a Western politician for this state of affairs, wouldn’t The Grand Waffler be a more sutiable choice? Since his Iran Deal we have lost all leverage and Iran is rampaging around the region at will.

    4. Chris
      November 7, 2017

      Agreed, Duncan. They just seem frozen in the headlights, awaiting their, and our, fate. I think people have a very good idea of what is likely to happen – a fudge Brexit, and a Corbyn government with the left tightening its stranglehold on our society and our lives.

    5. hans chr iversen
      November 7, 2017

      yes and then you are sure you will be loosing the next election.

      1. Nig l
        November 7, 2017

        Agree. This is some old fashioned view that I am sure never really existed and actually harms the Tory party because it reminds voters how nasty/uncaring it used to be. Even if it did there are not enough dinosaurs to achieve success. To be successful it has to embrace and engage with 21st century attitudes.

      2. Anonymous
        November 7, 2017

        The election does not matter if all we’re going to get is another shade of left. Corbyn will not be much worse.

        I am particularly miffed to hear that the Border Farce is to be cut back yet again – after the clear signal that was given to Parliament on immigration during the referendum.

    6. Tad Davison
      November 7, 2017

      I agree with you Duncan, and at the risk of being labelled a John Redwood apparatchik, I suggest the purge shouldn’t just stop there. JR would make a truly great Chancellor in place of the present incumbent who begins from a position of weakness because of his antithesis, albeit suppressed for the moment, towards Brexit. A person who cannot see what the rest of us can see, should not be head honcho at the treasury. JR is far and away more experienced and better qualified.

      The metric for judging these issues, is who has the strongest most logical arguments. JR is pretty well unassailable as is witnessed by readers and contributors alike each and every day.

      We just cannot have mediocre people in the highest offices in the land any longer. Things need to change unless the Tories are quite content to risk our nation’s long-term future.

      Tad Davison

      Cambridge

    7. Ed Mahony
      November 7, 2017

      ‘Unless Tory backbenchers do their job of returning the Conservative Party to its true course then we are dead in the water’

      The Tory Party needs to focus on Conservatism at its best:

      – Work ethic (i.e the Quakers and the great businesses they founded)
      – Public duty (charity work / being charitable towards neighbour)
      – With privilege comes responsibility
      – Patriotism (love of people, arts, nature, British humour etc ..).

      The real problem is that our country has lost real belief in God. We used to be a Christian country. 100 years ago, most people believed in God, Heaven, virtue, above all divine love (soft and tough love) sin, the Devil and Hell. Our great heroes Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Samuel Johnson, Sir Isaac Newton, Faraday, Wilberforce, Handel were all God-fearing Christian men and women. God blessed these people and our country when we turned to Almighty God as our source for inspiration, imagination and power. Now so much of the modern world is about making gods of ourselves, indulging in narcissism, and worshipping the gods of mammon (greed), socialism (envy) and social liberalism.

      Until we turn more to the infinite, loving (soft and tough love) Christian God, like Conservatives and others of the past, then we will be haunted by the Devil, but above all, by our own egos and selfishness (and I include myself in that as much as other people, all I can say from personal experience is that Christianity really works – not just for individuals but for society and a country as a whole – and many, many people from the past, including so many British Conservatives, from the past would agree with me).

    8. Lifelogic
      November 7, 2017

      How to do this with no majority, while avoiding the even worse Corbyn/SNP. That is the rather tricky challenge that May has unfortunately given them.

      1. Alison
        November 7, 2017

        Dear Lifelogic, the challenge is even trickier: Scotland voted in 13 Conservatives in the last election, a vast increase, and astonishing given the opprobrium with which Conservatives have been viewed for decades. There is strong disechantment in Scotland with Sturgeon’s government, and I don’t think the SNP will fare any better in any Westminster election in the next 2, 3 years (indeed, probably worse, if students are stopped voting twice, as some may have done … ). BUT Ruth Davidson seems to be quite pro EU, possibly because she thinks many of her votes depend on a pro-EU, pro-Single Market stance. She’s probably right at the moment, given massive ignorance and rose-tinted specs up here.

    9. M. Davis
      November 7, 2017

      …’BBC who’s become a law unto itself and the self-appointed agent of social change in Britain today’…

      Couldn’t agree more!

    10. Iain Moore
      November 7, 2017

      I was depressed, but not surprised, to hear May’s bit on sexual harassment. Here in wittering on about it being an issue of power had taken it straight out of the Cultural Marxist’s handbook, and in doing so has accepted the Feminist zealots argument. When ever she speaks, or sets policy ( like the energy cap) she comprises the Conservative’s argument while helping Labour’s interventionist big state ideology.

  4. Mark B
    November 7, 2017

    Good morning

    I could not help but notice that a lot of people, usually in the arts and the media, seem to want to take Irish or some other EU citizenship. The blame BREXIT but I cannot understand why they would do so ? Perhaps the answer to my question was contained within our kind host piece.

    I have also read that there is much disquiet at Auntie because the HMRC now demand that those employed there via limited companies must now pay the full tax. Perhaps Panarama can do a program on that ?

    1. Know-Dice
      November 7, 2017

      Mark B, too true. As far as the BBC goes the saying is – “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”…

      There was a strong rebuttal by the Chief Minister of the Isle of Man on BBC Breakfast this morning, that the likes of Lewis Hamilton had done nothing illegal in reclaiming VAT on his private jet, just like a builder would reclaim VAT paid on a pickup truck…

      It’s simple really – if you create complicated tax rules you will also create loopholes that people WILL take advantage of…

      1. rose
        November 7, 2017

        Yes, flatter, simpler taxes and most of this would go away. At the same time more revenue would come in. But we couldn’t have that because people must be punished.

      2. mike fowle
        November 7, 2017

        “It’s simple really – if you create complicated tax rules you will also create loopholes that people WILL take advantage of
”

        Too true. Nigel Lawson’s three rules of taxation, IIRC, were make them simple, make them low and make them universal. We have had a succession of chancellors who failed to learn this lesson.

    2. Roy Grainger
      November 7, 2017

      The Irish give a complete income tax exemption for “artists” which is widely defined to cover writers, actors etc. This has been in place for a couple of decades and is why several figures in the arts live there (or nominally live there). It is nothing to do with Brexit.

    3. Dave, Shinfield
      November 7, 2017

      It is called hedging, a standard business practise. Speaking to family, friends and colleagues all I can say is that many of us who are eligible for an Irish passport , in my case because I have an Irish grandparent, are seriously considering it. I wasn’t aware there were tax advantages to doing so.

      Given the antics of both sides in the EU negotiations , it seems prudent in case in the future my current employer has a great role in the EU that I wished to take advantage of.

      Given the international nature of many of the employers in the Wokingham and wider local area it’s not that surprising if you think about it. It’s just a way of reducing uncertainty.

    4. jonP
      November 7, 2017

      Mark B.. they take out other EU countries citizenship so that they can be guaranteed to move freely within the EU countries and live or work where they like. Not only that but their children and other family members into the future will be able to do the same. All this will be while UK passport holders are queuing up at immigration desks marked “others”

      On another note we see daily where HMRC have managed to make avoidance a dirty word- they have conflated it with evasion. as far as I know there is nothing criminal about tax avoidance. Surly those in parliament should be looking for clarification on all of this instead of whinging on the blog- JR please note

      1. PatW
        November 7, 2017

        JonP..well said..somebody should stand up to the HMRC they have become the high priests of late..untouchable

  5. Anonymous
    November 7, 2017

    No Labour supporter should avoid tax. They should be happy to pay even more than is due.

  6. Fedupsoutherner
    November 7, 2017

    When is something going to be done about the disgustingly biased and ruinous BBC? To think, we have to pay their vast wages, same as some of our treacherous politicians.

    1. Chris
      November 7, 2017

      As I have commented before, the BBC and its stance apparently suits Theresa May’s and the other Remainers’ agenda, and, as long as that is so, it will remain untouched. That of course raises extremely serious questions about May.

    2. Gary C
      November 7, 2017

      Clipped from a Government response to a petition.

      ‘The government will maintain the BBC funding model for the duration of this Charter period. . . . . . . . The new BBC Royal Charter came into effect in January 2017, . . . . . . . . the duration of this new 11 year Charter period.’

      Unfortunately it looks like the obnoxious and treacherous BBC will be about for a while yet.

  7. APL
    November 7, 2017

    JR: “Tax havens in the EU – why does the BBC miss them out?”

    Selective and misleading stories on the BBC – Why has this nominally Tory administration not dealt with the BBC despite being in government for seven years?

    1. APL
      November 10, 2017

      John, it really is a problem. The Tories get in to power, and all you give is is a insipid form of Socialism.

      We’re happier because it isn’t the red- blood running in the streets type of Socialism, that Corbyn or the ego maniac Brown would have – given enough time – imposed on us.

      But right wing, nor Conservative the Tory party, most emphatically is NOT.

  8. Richard1
    November 7, 2017

    Exactly. This story is rubbish, typical BBC- Guardian ignorant leftist drivel. In all the pieces so far, inc the interview by John Humphreys with Labours John MacDonnell I have not once heard the BBC point out that a U.K. resident pays income tax and CGT on their global gains and income irrespective of where their investments are located. mcDonnell – who really appears completely ignorant of the subject he’s talking about – is now proposing a withholding tax. Of course he wasn’t questioned properly by the BBC on this, but it seems any international investor investing in the U.K. will have to pay some additional withholding tax. That should reduce FDI in the U.K. rapidly towards zero. McDonnell should have a look around the world at those countries which can’t attract international investment. Zimbabwe is a good one to start with, and of course his old favourite of Venezuela.

  9. alan jutson
    November 7, 2017

    Selective reporting of the facts from the BBC, surely not !

    Time to call a halt on its funding from any outside organisation other than its license holders if it wants to retain and be known by its original name.

    Many of our friends like ourselves, do not now view the BBC news as its proven to be so biased, with reporters trying to make the news than simply reporting it.

    1. stred
      November 7, 2017

      It doesn’t take long to hear tosh on the BBC. Politics Lunchtime just had a Labour prattler called Barry on saying that Mz Patel could not possibly have met Mr Netanyahoo while on holiday, as it would have taken too long to arrange a meeting. It must have been some underhand goings on and he demanded an enquiry. Israel is a small country Barry and the top people can communicate very quickly. Barry, he could have been round in 10 minutes if he wanted to discuss trade or just say hello.

      1. rose
        November 7, 2017

        They just can’t bear the sight of someone hardworking who pays her own way and uses her initiative to benefit her country and others. Just think how much she has saved us. A very efficient operation. But it seems it has gone down badly with the Control Freak in Downing St who doesn’t seem able to do her own job and doesn’t want anyone else to do theirs. No Cabinet minister must write in the paper, or make a speech, or even meet anyone, lest something be achieved and the electorate notice.

  10. oldtimer
    November 7, 2017

    BBC reporting on the issue reflects the selective standards we expect to see and hear. If McDonnell’s comments are to be taken seriously it would seem that ISAs are under threat from Labour because they are tax avoidance scheme.

    1. Roy Grainger
      November 7, 2017

      It has been reported Hammond doesn’t like ISAs either.

    2. Iain Moore
      November 7, 2017

      They seem to have it in for Lewis Hamilton , I suppose someone earning enough to buy himself a jet is a target for their politics of envy. The fact that someone who is domiciled abroad (UK and EU) has a right to claim back their VAT hasn’t been allowed to intrude their reporting of it.

  11. Iain Gill
    November 7, 2017

    Politicians manipulate all the time, make things more complex, make it easier for those with expensive legal and accounting teams versus those who cannot afford them. Tax havens are no different. Plenty of our channel islands play these games.

  12. Richard1
    November 7, 2017

    Good to hear the Government confirm that existing EU third party trade deals such as that with South Korea will novate to the U.K., contrary to the fake news out about by Continuity Remain – and repeated here by the blogger ‘Helena’. No such country has indicated any desire to do anything other than continue existing trading arrangements with the U.K.

    1. Richard1
      November 7, 2017

      And good to hear that the US thinks we can do a trade deal with them within months – so long as we do not Remain unduly beholden to EU regulation.

    2. zorro
      November 7, 2017

      I fear that Helena will soon be in need of a ‘safe space’ to escape these facts.

      zorro

  13. Rob Jump
    November 7, 2017

    Yet another witch hunt against people that are not breaking any laws. Brainwashed statists demanding money for the state to waste or use to fund illegal wars. As far as I’m concerned preventing money being stolen by the state is something any moral person should do to the furthest extent of their ability.

    1. Anonymous
      November 7, 2017

      Not if you’re a lefty luvvie you shouldn’t. You should be paying tax in full and then some more.

    2. eeyore
      November 7, 2017

      Rob Jump – well said. The state is but the parasitical mistletoe on the oak. Every tax pound lost to it is a pound gained for the real economy. If you seek serious tax evasion, look not to the super-rich but to the millions of ordinary people who can’t afford middle-class morality and have to cut corners to survive.

      Viewed in this light, anyone with an ounce of humanity will find it deeply sinister to note the current drive among Western governments to abolish cash so all transactions, even the smallest, become traceable.

  14. Iain Moore
    November 7, 2017

    The BBC’s reporting of this has been pretty disgraceful, it seems that having invested so much in the story it is motivated to cash in and exaggerate every bit, just like a trashy tabloid, but where as it might be accepted practice of a trashy tabloid, it isn’t in an organisation which is supposed to be impartial. There should be questions about the BBC’s joint investigations with the likes of the Guardian . I do not see how it is acceptable to have the BBC linking up with a newspaper group that is left wing.

    1. Mitchel
      November 7, 2017

      It’s a revolving door – BBC,Guardian,Channel4.

      I see Ian Katz,editor of Newsnight(a show I have long since stopped watching) has just left for Channel4.

  15. Bert Young
    November 7, 2017

    I lived and worked in Bermuda for 10 years ( in education ) ; while there I was fascinated by the listing of 2 US companies that received huge revenues but employed no-0ne . I pursued my interest – encouraged by a prominent individual ( he was once the Chairman of the Conservative Party ), and eventually wrote a paper I called ” The Use of Profit Sanctuaries “and had it published . The US parent organisations simply re-invoiced some of their international clients via a ” Paper” office in Bermuda and stored up massive profits there ; of course it was a tax dodge and these ” offices ” were subsequently closed . I have no squabble with places like Bermuda who attract international businesses , employ skilled people and genuinely add to its local economy ; what I disagree with is the blatant use of off-shore locations that simply exploit tax regulations .

  16. acorn
    November 7, 2017

    “Since the mid-1990s, multinationals based in the United States have increasingly shifted profits into offshore tax havens. Indeed, a tiny handful of jurisdictions — mostly Bermuda, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands — now account for 63 percent of all profits that American multinational companies claim to earn overseas, according to an analysis by Gabriel Zucman, an assistant professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Those destinations hold far less than 1 percent of the world’s population.”

    The EU put a stop to the “Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich” scheme in 2015, but existing US corporate schemes continue till 2020. But, as ever on this site, everything is the fault of the EU and/or the BBC.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/world/apple-taxes-jersey.html

    1. Edward2
      November 8, 2017

      The question should be…is it illegal?

      It is up to politicians in America and elsewhere to change the law.

      Perhaps President Trump’s propsosed tax rate reductions will get corporate America to return onshore.

  17. JJE
    November 7, 2017

    You are a man with a hammer for whom every problem is an EU nail.

    1. Lifelogic
      November 7, 2017

      Nearly every problem is either an “EU nail” or a UK government nail!

  18. Rien Huizer
    November 7, 2017

    International tax avoidance schemes used by entities that can afford good tax advice and the cost of establishing the required structures tend to use respectable (like Ireland, Luxemburg and The Netherlands -to name a few) and less respectable domiciles to end up with the desired result. Much of this has to do with the willingness of the local (respectable) tax authorities to attract especially MNCs to their large portfolio of tax treaties. One reason The Netherlands was until recently the largest foreign investor in the US was Holland’s suitability as a “respectable” holding company centre. There are forces at work in many countries like Holland to reduce that kind of generosity. Within the EU this is no longer considered acceptable and, like bank secrecy protecting private tax dodgers, likely to become less attractive.

    But keep in mind that the host country has a net benefit, that it tends to be legal and it is up to the country foregoing revenue to take remedial action. Countries haven no morals, more or less, they have democratic accountability or some equivalent way of governing that results in popular compliance. Voters and other stakeholders do not expect their governments to provide free lunches (EU cooperation is based on self interest in cooperation, not Danes or Lithuanians being proud of a shared culture history and other nonsense and foreign aid tends to support the national interest in some way). So we should discard the fake moralism of the media and wonder whether this is a problem and one worth solving .

  19. hans chr iversen
    November 7, 2017

    because their focus were UK tax payers and celebrities

    1. Anonymous
      November 7, 2017

      I’m particularly keen to hear about the tax arrangements of Left wing celebrities who encourage redistributive policies but who don’t pay towards them.

      Also companies which exhort our Government to keep the borders open. They seem to want nationalised (state subsidised) workers and privatised (off shored) profits giving nothing towards the infrastructure that helped create those profits.

    2. hefner
      November 7, 2017

      No, the focus is much more international than the UK. In Germany for example Sixt, Deutsche Post, Siemens, Allianz, Bayer, Deutsche Bahn, Meininger, Gerhard Schroeder, in France Dassault and numerous others, in Sweden the president of their CBI, …
      It should be understood that the “system” works only with this type of lubrification, and the “poor little ones” paying their regular taxes.

    3. John
      November 7, 2017

      So why not mention that the Likes of Apple, Amazon, Starbucks do much of the tax evasion via Luxembourg and instead mention these companies but exclude ‘Luxembourg’ in the reports?

      Still when we leave that won’t be our problem, will it. Who’s problems it will be? No one’s as EU countries are happy to pay it, have a tax haven and the Brits are not and they won’t be funding it any more. Everyone’s happy.

  20. Mick
    November 7, 2017

    After watching the EEA debate in Parliament yesterday I’m even more convinced that we should have another General Election soon so as to get rid of all the “I believe in the referendum vote”especially the Labour Party who are going against what it said in there manifesto , they would i believe to be all but wiped out north of The Watford gap

  21. Kenneth
    November 7, 2017

    Problem is that the BBC has abandoned its news service and is now a campaigning organisation and is, imho, the most powerful political operator in the UK

    1. M. Davis
      November 7, 2017

      Hear! Hear!

    2. Lifelogic
      November 7, 2017

      The endless BBC propaganda is hugely influential in shifting the electorate to the loony, green crap, high tax, big government, politics of envy, PC left.

      With newspapers almost no one buys the Guardian, but with TV we are forced to pay taxes to have this drivel rammed down our throats. The Guardian sells only about 3% of what the middle of the road (paid for) press sell. I suspect most of these Guardians must be given away to students or at airports, after all who would buy one?

      1. Lifelogic
        November 7, 2017

        May clearly get her agenda from the BBC.

      2. rick hamilton
        November 8, 2017

        The BBC are said to be one of the Guardian’s biggest subscribers. They advertise their vacancies in it and whenever BBC World TV wants to quote newspapers it is almost always included. I’m sure they read it to find out what line they should take on any issue.

        It was well said that the BBC is the real opposition. Opposed to practically anything British especially Brexit. They seem to think it is their sacred mission to mock and sneer at their own country. The licence fee is like being forced to subscribe to the Guardian before being allowed to read any other newspaper.

        1. Lifelogic
          November 8, 2017

          Exactly – they always want higher taxes, more government, more NHS, more enforced “equality”, more red tape, more climate alarmism, more absurdly expensive “renewables” and of course more anti-competitive BBC TV licence fees. They even run endless adverts for charities, BBC programmes and other BBC products.

          They often set the whole tone of some political debates in an absurd way.

  22. Bob
    November 7, 2017

    “Tax havens in the EU – why does the BBC miss them out?”

    maybe the BBC has a pro EU agenda?

    1. hans chr iversen
      November 7, 2017

      or maybe it was because it was made for a UK audience more interested in Brits evading tax in the UK

    2. NickC
      November 7, 2017

      Bob, Who’da thunk it?

  23. Monza 71
    November 7, 2017

    Journalists have somehow managed to fabricate the impression that any investment that uses the term “offshore” in its title is a tax evasion scam.

    Nothing could be further from the truth but of course the BBC in particular is far more interested in making the news itself and promoting its left of centre agenda than in telling the truth. Lord Reith would certainly not approve.

    Why is it news that HM The Queen’s investment manager put ÂŁ10m in funds of which HM could not possibly have knowledge of ? The only possible newsworthy point is the fact that she has lost a lot of money on two of those investments !

    Then we have Lewis Hamilton, one of the top five F1 racing drivers of all time, four times and 2017 World Champion and a proud Brit to boot. His purchase of a business jet through an Isle of Man company is standard practice as is the reclaiming of the VAT for what is primarily a business tool. The BBC puts on screen pictures of Lewis enjoying private use of the plane but deliberately fails to point out that his advisers would always ensure that he personally pays his company a charter fee every time he uses it for private purposes.

    This is deliberate misrepresentation to fabricate a story from nothing and cynically smear one of our most successful sportsman’s reputation.

  24. hefner
    November 7, 2017

    Why are the BBC and the “Paradise papers” not addressing Dublin and Luxembourg?
    Could it be because the BBC is not one of the original investigators of these papers? Nor the FT, the DT, Times, nor any of the tabloids. More importantly, because most of the papers come from the company Appleby with offices in Bermuda, BVI, Cayman, Guernsey, HK, Isle of Man, Jersey, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Shanghai.
    Who can find a common thread in most of these locations? Tough, tough, tough.

    1. Hope
      November 7, 2017

      You are correct that most papers have bases in tax havens. I am not sure your point in relation to the BBC is accurate in that there is no reason why it should not report the facts in a balanced impartial way at its charter demands. Also the way it pays its staff might be a sore point (if ed)it was complicit with avoiding tax when paying them. It is a state broadcaster as such should uphold the moral and legal liability to pay tax in an open transparent way. Which of course it has failed to do and been shamed into doing. The same for paying men and women, the polically correct Beeb ready to jump on anyone else rather than look in e mirror. Anyone would think these are the standards of socialists equality for everyone else not me.

  25. Denis Cooper
    November 7, 2017

    The EU’s European Stability Mechanism is based in Luxembourg:

    https://www.esm.europa.eu/sites/default/files/20150203_-_esm_treaty_-_en.pdf

    “ARTICLE 31

    Location

    1. The ESM shall have its seat and principal office in Luxembourg.

    2. The ESM may establish a liaison office in Brussels.”

    It also has tax exemption under Article 36.

  26. Ian Wragg
    November 7, 2017

    Both Labour and the BBC are hypocrits. The BBC for paying stars through production companies and Labour funded by unions who use offshore investments.
    The Tory party appears to be in terminal decline as they make no effort to expose them.
    Like Brexit, silly stories and false information but no rebuttal from Central Office.

  27. William Long
    November 7, 2017

    I do not see this as any sort of problem requiring guilt by individuals so long as they are doing what the law allows them to do. If the Government has a problem with it, it is up to it to change the law. It is just as immoral for Governments and political parties to expect people to pay tax that legally they do not owe as it is for individuals to evade tax they do owe.
    I saw a report on Sky News that I found ironic in view of the BBC’s holier than thou attitude, about actors on a BBC series receiving their pay through an offshore company that then made lons to the individuals concerned, loans not being taxable.

    1. Anonymous
      November 7, 2017

      Not if they are Left wing celebrities who encourage socialist policies. They are hypocrites and want people poorer than them to pay for their ideals.

      And not if they are corporations who encourage open borders and who want all of the profits and none of the costs of those policies.

      For that matter no banker, trader or politician who has been involved in the sell off of British industry to foreign buyers – or those who have profited from the sale of ideas created by British universities… nor musicians or actors who honed their craft whilst supported by the British state…

      1. Anonymous
        November 7, 2017

        Not one person has mentioned the word *patriotism* throughout all of this.

  28. MikeP
    November 7, 2017

    And BBC wouldn’t have dared to mention that a certain Jean-Claude Juncker was Luxembourg PM at the time of these tax regimes gaining favour.

    1. stred
      November 7, 2017

      Or that, according to Europarl, Junkers has arranged things so that his Dutchymen have a far higher income than other EU countries and receive, relative to income, 4651E per head of population from net EU expenses and the UK pays 195E and Holland 195E. In fact, more than the poor new EU countries.

      1. stred
        November 8, 2017

        error. UK pays 163E

  29. Nig l
    November 7, 2017

    Sideways but current. So now we have confirmed what your contributors have been telling you for months, by an op poll in the DT public confidence in the PMs negotiations at its lowest and many people think we will be worse off after Brexit.

    I know you are giving your best but does any one in the Cabinet care? Do they realise? I am lost for words which is probably a good thing at the moment because I am totally fed up with being led by a piece of wet lettuce.

    Re the topic. Pinocchio award to Corbyn.

  30. Lifelogic
    November 7, 2017

    The BBC (perhaps because of not having to compete due to the anti-competitive licence tax) does not seems to realise that private companies “have” to compete to survive – and that tax competition is a large part of that.

    It is up to governments to set a sensible, competitive, fair, clear, simple and low tax regimes. Not to behave as now like a greedy & hugely wasteful parasitic black hole.

    Carney (on Preston on Sunday) did a very good job of showing why he should not be in the job this week – he said the BoE could not do anything about productivity – well it was BoE and government incompetence over bank regulation that damaged productivity hugely from about 2008. He and the government could get some real competition going in banks instead of the current rip off middle men. Almost everything he said was wrong and Preston’s questions were little better – delivered with his usual slow & irritating delivery.

  31. Epikouros
    November 7, 2017

    Tax competition like all competition is very much to be applauded as from it comes better and more efficient practices. Philip Hammond would do well to take note of other countries tax practices and see the benefit or otherwise of them. As you suggested he should in your recent article about the changes the USA are likely to make to their tax regime. If he did then perhaps the UK would not have to worry about tax havens as our tax environment would be adequate so that UK citizens would be happy to do business and keep their money here. We should not decry tax havens but try to emulate them as I believe was being touted by members of the Conservative party not so long ago as another benefit of Brexit.

  32. Denis Cooper
    November 7, 2017

    Off-topic, yesterday’s half-baked Commons debate on the European Economic Area may be read here:

    http://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2017-11-06/debates/FEEE4AD5-7465-47A4-97CA-A9B41B9DCAD9/EuropeanEconomicAreaUKMembership

    The euromaniac Stephen Kinnock, who has now become another Remoaner hero on a certain Remoaner blog, got his motion passed nem con:

    “That this House believes that for the UK to withdraw from the European Economic Area (EEA) it will have to trigger Article 127 of the EEA Agreement; calls on the Government to provide time for a debate and decision on a substantive motion on the UK’s continued membership of the EEA; and further calls on the Government to undertake to abide by the outcome of that decision.”

    I could make numerous criticisms of what was said in the debate, but for the moment I will limit myself to just one point about Remoaners’ inconsistency of thought.

    Those who insist that when the UK leaves the EU it will automatically and immediately be excluded from all of the EU’s present external trading arrangements cannot logically also claim that the EEA Agreement will somehow be an exception, and so the UK could simply decide unilaterally that it will stay in the EEA and all the other parties will have to accept that, and the necessary changes to the Agreement, whether they like it or not.

  33. Peter
    November 7, 2017

    I think the location of the tax avoiding countries is a secondary issue.

    Of more interest is the fact that major corporations and rich individuals avoid tax while the average person gets clobbered.

    Inheritance tax is a further insult. (named rich estate ed) estate is tied up in trusts thus avoiding estate duty while the average house owner in London will now be within the IHT threshold and is unlikely to have trusts set up seven years before they die.

  34. Peter
    November 7, 2017

    The other BBC documentary that was of interest was the Peretti documentary on ‘the super rich and us’ – how the middle class share of the country’s wealth is disappearing and how renting is replacing home ownership.

    ‘Trickle down’ is a myth. Increasing inequality can lead to social unrest in due course.

    1. Pragmatist
      November 7, 2017

      Peter, if there is ever any social unrest in the UK it will be extremely energetic, long-lasting and massive as our stomachs are literally full and overflowing and have been for many decades.
      The discarded half-eaten takeaways on my town streets from just one Saturday night with masses of poor young people spending a fortune on booze could feed Argentina’s poor for a week or more.
      British people are whiners, whingers and cause great merriment of such by the millions of EU nationals striving to get here, also many worried they might have to leave this island hunger and poverty trap.
      CAPTCHA MADE ME VERIFY OVER 20 SETS OF PHOTOS ON THIS ONE MESSAGE

      1. forthurst
        November 7, 2017

        You need to go to Specsavers! (I was right first time)

      2. Peter
        November 7, 2017

        Britons are phlegmatic. They are known far and wide for their stiff upper lip. If you want excessive emotion you will need to look abroad – or at foreigners resident here.

        Cheap food and binge drinking should not fool you into a belief that the bulk of the population are continuing to prosper. Far from it. There is a continuing transfer of wealth from the masses to the elite. In the words of George Carlin ‘….and now they are coming for your retirement money. And they’ll get it. It’s a big club and you ain’t in it!’.

        Hence the rise of populist movements in the Western world as populations gradually realise traditional political parties have let them down.

    2. Mitchel
      November 7, 2017

      Google “Financial Capitalism v Industrial Capitalism” by Professor Michael Hudson.

      In fact anything by Michael Hudson-for an explanation of how we are being/have been reduced to debt slavery.

      1. Peter
        November 7, 2017

        Yes, the return of the return of the rentier class.

  35. Denis Cooper
    November 7, 2017

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/07/exclusive-poll-shows-public-have-lost-faith-theresa-mays-handling/

    “Exclusive poll shows public has lost faith in Theresa May’s handling of Brexit negotiations”

    This is not so surprising when those leading the Department for Exiting the European Union cannot be bothered to fight back against the tremendous flood of propaganda which is being directed against the very purpose of its existence.

    That is where my loss of faith is greatest, not in Theresa May’s handling of the Brexit negotiations but in David Davis’s handling of the Brexit public relations.

    This morning Sky had a Spanish nurse on screen saying how he was scared of what might happen to him and his family after 17 years living and working in this country. I look to see what David Davis’s Rapid Rebuttal Unit has to say in response, but of course there is no rebuttal unit of any kind and so there is no response of any kind.

    1. Chris
      November 7, 2017

      You are quite right to highlight repeatedly this hugely worrying situation. It would appear that May et al are not concerned about issuing rebuttals, and that raises the obvious question “Why not?”. I believe the true reason to be extremely concerning.

      1. Chris
        November 7, 2017

        Reading the reports on the most recent poll about confidence in Theresa May and her ability to deliver Brexit, I think the time has come for Brexiteer MPs to table a vote of no confidence in her. This really cannot go on. These apparently pathetic attempts by May to effect Brexit are quite beyond the pale, in my view.

        1. The Prangwizard
          November 7, 2017

          In my view Mrs May does not wish to deliver Brexit. Calls for her to show leadership are futile in this context. She is the architect of our destruction. She is a globalist, and socialism is at her heart.

          1. stred
            November 8, 2017

            A cuckoo in the Brexit nest.

        2. Peter
          November 7, 2017

          Shapps challenge was the Brexiteers’ opportunity.

          I can only assume they did not have the numbers or the inclination to remove Mrs. May.

          The recent scandals are – if anything – useful to those who wish to delay Brexit. They further weaken the government.

          1. Chris
            November 8, 2017

            Just what Nadhim Zahawi has jus apparently claimed, according to one report (Boris and Patel targeted by Remainers hopeful of bringing down the government and derailing Brexit). There is no doubt that there has been an extensive and intensive campaign by the Remainers to obstruct and delay. It all looks ruthlessly organised, reminiscent of the Campbell/Mandelson days. Our weak, “rudderless” and basically Remainer government doesn’t know what has hit it, and is floundering. Brexit will be the victim of all of this disgraceful manoeuvring.

          2. rose
            November 8, 2017

            It is all being co-ordinated for the fouling up of the Withdrawal Bill. Some of the ammunition is 15 years old; some goes back to August; but it is all coming out now.

    2. Justin Time
      November 7, 2017

      “This morning Sky had a Spanish nurse on screen saying how he was scared of what might happen to him and his family after 17 years living and working in this country.”

      I saw it too and was surprised. Surprised how Sky News can find someone in the NHS of any nationality who is afraid. But then, as journalists, they would not have a story with someone who felt content in any regard.

    3. Iain Moore
      November 7, 2017

      It would be nice if they started off by saying that these migrants only have a fear of what may happen to them, not through anything thing Brexiteers have proposed or said, or the Government for that matter, but it is the direct result of the scurrilous fear mongering engaged in by the Remainers, who in an in a completely unprincipled way have sought to exploit the concerns of these people. The people in charge of Brexit should be out their shaming these Remainers, instead, as you say , we hear nothing, with the field being left open to their unremitting pro EU propaganda.

    4. a-tracy
      November 7, 2017

      I thought DD might see this as his last chance in politics to make his mark Denis before he retires but alas no he’d rather go out like Gordon Brown a Master in his own Memoir very disappointing.

      May is letting this Westminster Crucible get away from her, show some leadership woman!

    5. CvM
      November 7, 2017

      Sadly pretty much the entire governments communications capability on a whole range of topics seems to be lacking. Not helped when ministers often disagree with each other in public or, in the recent cases of BoJo & Patel make fools of themselves.

      Also a shame that this nurse thinks that way, what nonsense has he been listening to that suggests he may in any way have a problem? All sides in this situation seem to be fact light.

      1. rose
        November 8, 2017

        They have not made fools of themselves. The Media have presented it to make it appear thus. Not very difficult for them to do. Pay more attention to what they are actually saying and doing and less to what the Media say.

        The object is to derail the Withdrawal Bill. Why else do you think all this dirt is being thrown now?

    6. Adey
      November 7, 2017

      My rebuttal – The EU citizens came here for the money and not love for the UK. Now the going has got tough, they want to bogg off. Fine. They came here freely and they can go freely. Get the frebbies in their country – NOT
      We don’t want mercenaries. If after 17 plus years they have no loyalty to the UK then they can only be classified as freeloaders. Rebuttal over.

      1. Denis Cooper
        November 8, 2017

        He doesn’t want to bogg off. He has a family, children at school, etc and saw them all as settled here indefinitely if not forever. Like the Swedish wives of two people I know he could easily have become a UK citizen but may have seen no need to do that with the UK apparently firmly fixed in the EU.

  36. bigneil
    November 7, 2017

    It’s nice to see that after all the shouting when the Panama Papers was first announced – but only one name came out – that this one has already let loose a lot more than one name. Can the rich really get any lower?

    1. A different Simon
      November 7, 2017

      As Leona Helmsley put it “We don’t pay taxes. …Only little people pay taxes” .

      Ordinary Britons know friends and family members who are being refused routine NHS treatment on the grounds that their local trust “does not have the funding” .

      They associate this with the rich cheating by using tax havens and it rightly offends their innate sense of fair play .

      Tax on labour and capital wouldn’t have to be as high if HM Govt taxed land properly as recommended by Adam Smith , John Stuart Mill and Winston Churchill .

      The greatest proportion of the blame must surely rest with politicians for failing to eliminate loopholes and favouritism in the tax system rather than individuals for taking advantage of the deficiencies .

      1. rose
        November 8, 2017

        The greatest proportion of the blame must attach to the politicians who have made a cat’s cradle of the tax system. They aren’t bringing in more revenue that way either. Just have flatter, simpler taxes and the loopholes wouldn’t be there.

  37. Sir Joe Soap
    November 7, 2017

    So why doesn’t somebody in government point out these facts when the BBC and Labour bring them up?

  38. nigel seymour
    November 7, 2017

    Absolutely zilch interest in tax havens!
    What does surprise me is that Priti P has not been sacked. I remember Liam Fox having to bow out for what I consider to be the lesser offence of dragging his boyfriend around with him…Israel is arguably the most sensitive middle east subject on the planet and PP appears to have taken it upon herself to act like a PM??

  39. Derek Henry
    November 7, 2017

    Here’s a current list of US Treasuries.

    Ireland is 3rd on the list with 307 billion.

    http://ticdata.treasury.gov/Publish/mfh.txt

    Incredible when you think about it and these companies are just waiting for a tax holiday before they move their earnings back to the US

  40. Bob
    November 7, 2017

    BBC insisted Quentin Letts remove his poppy before appearing on HIGNFY.
    Can you bring this up in the 2oth Nov. TV Licence debate?

  41. hefner
    November 7, 2017

    I’ve got an ISA, you got an employer’s pension scheme, he got a SIPP, they got a trust registered in the UK for which they recently got their Legal Entity Identifier with the London Stock Exchange Plc.
    All these “vehicles”are registered in the UK as part of British banks, UK insurance companies, UK investment platforms. More often than not they include unit trusts, investment trusts, ETFs, VCTs, a lot of these investment products likely to be part of the UCITS brigade.
    Are these the same things that sit in the overseas (most of them former British Empire possessions) under names, which are not those of the actual owners/beneficiaries?

    Hey, JR, is your amalgam holding steady in this particular cavity tooth?

  42. Turboterrier.
    November 7, 2017

    Sadly we have to except it is what the BBC is all about.

    Totally not fit for purpose, has been allowed to run on a free rein for so long nobody is big or strong enough to haul them in.

    And they know it.

  43. Tabulazero
    November 7, 2017

    Is this a hamfisted attempt at spinning the paradise papers into some kind of anti-Brexit rant ?

    1. John
      November 7, 2017

      Tell us the positives of the Luxembourg tax haven.

      Don’t be negative about others, just tell us why you want Luxembourg to pay less tax even though their average earnings are 70 k.

      Tell us the benefits of the EU rather than your rants.

      1. hefner
        November 8, 2017

        Have you considered things like “Cost of living index by country 2017 mid-year” . Have a look on http://www.numbeo.com

      2. Tabulazero
        November 8, 2017

        Simple answer for a simple mind, John: why should the UK and the Channel islands have all the fun ?

        1. John
          November 8, 2017

          They don’t have all the fun. They are in competition with Luxembourg and Ireland as well as many others. Seems like the EU and Junkers Luxembourg’s tax haven don’t like competition. Do you agree with his non free trade socialist vision?

  44. English Pensioner
    November 7, 2017

    I note whenever I buy anything from Amazon, the credit card payment is processed in Luxembourg.

  45. nigel seymour
    November 7, 2017

    Sacked Labour minister Carl Sargeant found dead.

    Interesting in the light of all the allegations of sexual abuse in Westminster. I have to say, I’ve never heard of the man and know nothing of him. So, political/personal accolades are coming in and he appears to be a really mighty man and we should all owe him a great debt of gratitude?

    Let’s see what the political press dig up…

  46. hans chr iversen
    November 7, 2017

    So where exactly does Appleby have offices?

  47. Michael Peters
    November 7, 2017

    This was a report about a leak from Appleby. Do they have any EU offices. If you would like to look at their website – http://www.applebyglobal.com and select locations do you see any EU offices? There is your answer.

  48. John
    November 7, 2017

    Luxembourg has average earnings which are between 2 and 3 x that in the UK yet we pay a higher proportion to the EU than Jean Claude Junker’s Luxembourg and they are the preferred EU tax haven.

    BBC only stretched to criticise Ireland, though mostly the UK but never went near Luxembourg. I sense some direct influence from the EU here. Junker and the EU dislike Ireland taking Luxembourg’s tax haven business and all we say on the BBC was about Ireland Corporation Tax which is where it under cuts Luxembourg. I don’t think those at the BBC are that knowledgeable of the EU to be that precise. I suspect they are under instruction.

  49. BertD
    November 7, 2017

    We can launch ourselves as a tax haven big time after march 2019..in fact that is probably the only way we’ll have left- if our london financial world is to survive..so riddle me that.

  50. Michael
    November 7, 2017

    It’s not the BBC we should be challenging.. it’s the mad tax laws we have in this country..i would say that the more tax government collects the more they have to waste..so we need more avoidance schemes not less

  51. DragE
    November 7, 2017

    Don’t understand why the government is not publishing the secret brexit study..it’s not looking good..saw Liam Fox on TV this morning defending Boris and the Iran bysiness..but shouldn’t Fox be out there busying himself with overseas trade deals..it doesn’t look good

    1. rose
      November 8, 2017

      I’m glad someone is defending Boris.

  52. Chris
    November 7, 2017

    Is the PM’s office really feeding The Sun et al with news that Priti Patel is to be sacked tomorrow morning? (Tom Newton Dunn tweet suggests this is going to happen). this government is useless. I don’t for one minute believe that key individuals in government didn’t know what Patel was doing. This looks like a set up to me, with the prime aim of bringing down the government.

  53. agricola
    November 8, 2017

    The BBC has a political agenda and it is not a conservative or an even handed agenda. You will only hear from them that part of any story that suits their agenda. It would appear that they have such concern for their righteousness on the subject of tax havens that they refuse to hand over all the information they have to HMRC. You would think that, were they so morally concerned with the sin of avoiding /evading tax, that they would be only too happy to help put right the wrong. etc ed

  54. Andy
    November 8, 2017

    Is there anything at all that you and the other insane hard-right Tory pensioners do not blame on the EU?

    Just curious – because, ironically, my generation (the next one) blame most of our problems on insane hard-right Tory pensioners.

    It’s amusing that you haven’t yet figured out the electoral consequences of this for your party.

    1. rose
      November 9, 2017

      “Is there anything at all that you and the other insane hard-right Tory pensioners do not blame on the EU? ”

      Yes, just for a start:
      Comprehensivisation, which Ferdinand Mount described as the nastiest con trick ever played by the middle class on the working class; and the doubling of universities under Harold Wilson, which was further extended by John Major and Tony Blair. The Germans meanwhile, and the Japanese, concentrated on training and skills.

      Also thoughtless immigration, started by Harold Macmillan, continued under his immediate successors, discontinued under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, but started up again in spades by Tony Blair.

      Finally, printing of money and running up of debt, again started by Harold Macmillan but taken in hand by Margaret Thatcher.

      All of these irresponsible policies will have a far nastier impact on the younger generation and succeeding generations than on the people you insult.

      PS the entry into the EU itself was not the fault of the EU but of dishonest and manipulative politicians and media here.

Comments are closed.