As the Guardian noted a day or so ago: EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier is due to publish a draft law in November to curb what he sees as a conflict of interest when auditors check the books and supply lucrative consultancy services to the same customer. Auditors, KPMG , Ernst & Young ,
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The Labour Party conference is over. Overall those on the left have reasons for hope, even if being cheerful isn’t on the agenda right now. Ed Balls made some sensible suggestions on the economy; Ed Miliband signalled a clear change in direction and a big idea on the economy that has the capacity to resonate with millions of people way beyond normal
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Can I recommend this article by Tess Riley of UK Uncut and one of the found not guilty of causing criminal damage in Brighton at the close of her trial last week? She offers an erudite explanation of why those who protested acted as they did, concluding Acquitted or otherwise, we know that we are not the criminals in this situation. Acknowledging alternatives
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I note the Jersey Evening Post reported yesterday that: EUROPE could force Jersey to introduce a capital gains tax, one of the UK’s foremost critics of tax avoidance has warned. The introduction of such a tax, which could mean Islanders would have to pay tax on the sale of property and businesses, could be the
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Readers of Left Foot Forward have voted Owen Jones, academic and author of “Chavs: the Demonisation of the Working Class”, as the most influential leftwing thinker of the year 2010/11. He came ahead of Caroline Lucas, Tom Watson and Polly Toynbee to take the top spot. The full results are listed below: 1) Owen Jones (Academic,
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Just seemed worth a quick revisit today

The Guardian reports this morning when discussing what the good businesses Ed Miliband has been talking about might look like : More transparency about how much tax firms are paying is also critical. Harriet Harman, Miliband’s deputy, used her conference speech to urge more action on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which demands multinationals operating in different
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A Robin Hood Tax – a financial transaction tax – is back on the agenda thanks to the EU, and rightly so. I wrote about this in 2010 in a joint publication called ‘Taxing Banks‘. In it I set out the data supporting such a tax, estimated how much it would raise and suggested – contrary to
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As the Jersey Evening Post says today: JERSEY is now ranked in the top ten worldwide locations for providing wealth management and private banking services. It is ranked in eighth position overall and is fifth placed in Europe behind London, Zurich, Geneva and Frankfurt, according to the latest Global Financial Centres Index released this week.
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