As the Guardian reports: Doctors have voted overwhelmingly to ballot the profession on industrial action to protest against the coalition’s plans to overhaul the NHS pension scheme. Delegates at the British Medical Association’s annual conference in Cardiff voted by 87% to 13% in favour of a motion that will see the union seek the views of its 140,000 members about
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The Treasury has announced the next stage in the reform of the UK’s controlled foreign company legislation today. I have said most of what needs to be said about this here, for the TUC. There are three planks to this policy: a) Cutting the tax rate of UK companies b) Cutting the tax base of
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I have mentioned the fact that I was in exchange with Conservative MPs at yesterday’s hearing of the Treasury Select Committee. Such was the time they spent questioning me we did not have time to discuss what might be done about the risk of perception of conflicts of intrest on the part of treasury ministers on tax matters. As
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I have no comment to make on this news. None at all. Well, except don’t ask George Osborne to be your advocate.

I couldn’t have imagined how sensitive the Tories are about George Osborne and how keen they are to protect him. I made what I thought was a perfectly clear point before the Treasury Select Committee yesterday when I said that the timing of the announcement of the Vodafone tax deal almost a year ago just a week before Osborne
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The Telegraph (of all the unlikely papers) ran an article on the above theme yesterday. 1 Hyde Park for those who do not know it is the new block of flats located in London that is now the most expensive in the country. One has gone for £136 million. They quoted me on the subject saying: “This is conspicuous
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The Jersey Evening Post has noted yesterday that: Profits in the [Jersey] finance industry last year were at their lowest levels since records began, according to official figures released today. The level of profits at £605 million fell by 25% last year from £809 million in 2009 and plummeted by 60% compared to 2008 when
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I support those on strike today. I think they are right to protest about the plans the government is making to reduce pension rights. They are arbitrary. Worse, as Nigel Stanley of the TUC pointed out yesterday when writing for the False Economy blog, all they really amount to is a pay cut. His argument is so well put
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For those interested I am giving evidence to the above committee this afternoon at 4.15pm. It is live streamed on the internet. My evidence is on the tax gap and why I think HMRC is not tackling it effectively.