Tuesday 5 April 2016

Spanking some BOTs

Post-Panama Papers, people seem to be waking up to the novel idea that the British government might conceivably be able to exert some influence over what goes on in British Overseas Territories, rather than shrugging and muttering "Nothing to do with us, guv":
Corbyn argued that the government should tell administrations in places like the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands: “Hang on, you are a government of a British dependent territory, a crown territory, you must obey UK tax law, you must not become a harbour for tax avoidance and tax evasion.”
So sez Jez.

I'd just like to take the opportunity of reminding anybody who cares* that I was into this before it was cool:
I still wonder whether the precedent of what Britain did to the Chagos Islands opens up another possibility. If the UK government has the power to deport the entire population of one of its overseas territories and send every single man, woman and child into exile for 45-odd years, maybe for ever, why can't it decide, in the national interest, to shut down the tax havens operating in some of the other ones?
Me, last February**. Good to have you on board, Jez.


*i.e. nobody, probably.

** Well, linked back to last Feb - I started wondering why HM govt couldn't do anything about this back in 2013.

0 comments: