I was intrigued by a recent headline in Isle of Man Today that read:
The report said:
It may come as a surprise to many who know our streets aren't paved with gold.
But the Isle of Man has been placed in the top 10 by the World Bank out of 214 international economies in terms of Gross National Income (GNI) per head of population.
We are listed in eighth place ahead of the UK and US and beaten only by top-placed Monaco, Liechtenstein, Bermuda, Norway, Switzerland, Qatar and Luxembourg.
It took me a while to track down the data to back up this claim, but now I've found it, and here it is, issued by the World Bank in late September for gross national income per capita:
Note 'a' says:
2012 data not available; ranking is approximate
So the Isle of Man is issuing a claim to be the eighth most wealthy nation on earth on the basis of data that does not exist. So secret are they that information is not to hand. We just have to accept there word for it. And that of Monaco, Liechtenstein, Bermuda, Jersey, Guernsey, San Marino and Cayman.
What are all these places? Secrecy jurisdictions, of course. I define secrecy jurisdictions as places that intentionally create regulation for the primary benefit and use of those not resident in their geographical domain with that regulation being designed to undermine the legislation or regulation of another jurisdiction and with the secrecy jurisdictions also creating a deliberate, legally backed veil of secrecy that ensures that those from outside the jurisdiction making use of its regulation cannot be identified to be doing so.
Clearly the secrecy process works: they accumulate vast wealth so unaccountably that they claim credit for it without actually accounting for what it is. You couldn't make that up.
Nor could you make up the claim to nationhood when the Isle of Man does not, of course, enjoy that status.
But the sting is in the tail of the local newspaper story on the issue:
However, the World Bank statistics are not a ranking of personal income, ie the wages in our pockets. And while the economy as a whole is showing strong growth, the domestic economy is struggling.
The strong economic performance has been underpinned by continued growth in a number of business sectors, including e-gaming and engineering.
But while e-gaming showed strong growth of 16.6 per cent in real terms, and engineering up 10.9 per cent, other sectors have fared far less well, with construction down 5 per cent and retailing down nearly 20 per cent.
So in the make believe offshore world the Isle of Man is doing well and the real world down in Douglas things are not looking so good, which does again, of course, fit perfectly with the notion of the secrecy jurisdiction.
It's time for the Isle of Man to face reality: for all the hype it is a little island captured and abused by the finance industry for its own ends and they do not care in the slightest about the place or the consequences of their use of its ability to legislate in ways that abuse world economic stability that result in hot money flowing through its coffers. That's what this story relates, as it does for so many of the other tax havens on this list.
And that's why their abuse still needs to be opposed.
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“So in the make believe offshore world the Isle of Man is doing well and the real world down in Douglas things are not looking so good, which does again, of course, fit perfectly with the notion of the secrecy jurisdiction.”
It’s starting to fit here too…
On any scale of corruption the United Kingdom is well down the scale compared to this little horror.
If there’s no data to prove their claim, why is the World Bank including these places and ranking them on their list. If they can’t verify the claim, how can they support it. Is the World Bank stupid or what? I know who needs a kick up the pants…and I’ll give you a little hint; it’s not just the Isle of Man or the other secrecy jurisdictions.
Your comment that the Isle of Man is amongst the most secretive jurisdiction in the world is true — we should know!
Equally true is that it has been taken over by the finance industry to benefit the industry and a select few fat cats in its so-called “government” who turn a blind eye to opaque activities.
The PSG was somewhat surprised by your recent defence of the island and your refusal to publish our comments submitted in response — which being totally accurate could not have been construed as libellous or defamatory.
The PSG repeats its previous warning. Do not trust anything about this island (or places like it)
Well the Isle of Man is very, very rich indeed. It was declared at a public meeting of the Isle of Man Council of Ministers on Tuesday evening that there was $1.5billion in reserves.
“Isle of Man Government’s reserves are in excess of £1.5 billion, says Chief Minister”
Source: https://twitter.com/IOMGovernment about 18th tweet down.
Can anyone else boast such an achievement. I don’t think so. I think the Isle of Man would be elevated to Number One if the World Bank chaps had been at that meeting. So maybe it is best to keep our bushel under our hats.
And the people of the Isle of Man. Are they seeing the benefit of that?
Many people on the Isle of Man are seeing benefits of this. For example, since we became so very wealthy this past 10-15 years the number of lawyers or ‘Manx advocates’ as they call themselves, has risen from around 25 to over 200 (Isle of Man population 85,000). They can charge £200-£500 and more per hour. Also there are many such as civil servants who couldn’t hope to be employed at such a high salary and pension as they do, anywhere else in the world. So I would suggest there are indeed some people who are seeing the benefit. Likely to be a few more seeing benefits once the reserves run down, but let’s face it, that is such a long way off as to not really mean anything today.
You think lawyers represent the people of the Isle of Man?
How sad a world view is that?
Some are indeed seeing a benefit – but very clearly at cost to others
Oh, and I forgot to say that it was also declared: Isle of Man has gone from one of poorest countries in Europe to 8th in world over past 30 years, says Chief Minister.
Go down a few more Tweets. So I can’t see why you people are so dubious.
I don’t see any claim in the bit that you published that the Isle of Man has claimed to be a nation in the last few hundred years.
The Isle of Man has been continuously democratic for over one thousand years, rather longer than anywhere else, including the UK (England had a gap after 1066 and in the 1650s) or your nominal home country, so your claim that is a place “that intentionally create regulation for the primary benefit and use of those not resident in their geographical domain” requires me to ask how you can assert that the regulation is not designed for the primary benefit of those resident within the Island?
But as a matter of fact it is not a nation
Yes, but why do you say “the Isle of Man is claiming to be the most wealthy nation …” when it doesn’t claim to be a nation?
Even granting journalistic licence over the point that wealth is not the same as income.
That wasn’t my main point – the democratic Isle of Man has designed regulations to suit its voters
To claim the Isle of Man has designed regulation to suit its voters is utterly naive
The Isle of Man has been completely captured by the financial services industry – even the article makes that clear
To claim anything else is far more naive. The only state expected to do otherwise is Vatican City!!
As one of a dwindling number of true Manx left on the island, I find this revelation revolting. The government of ‘ independents ‘ has been only too eager to jump on the austerity bandwagon. Falling over itself to hit the weak and poor, whilst driving down terms and conditions of employment in the public sector. Decent public services such as transport and the post are naturally being touted for privatisation.
The island is a beautiful place but sadly over populated with nasty, shady, on the make, people and politicians. As a native it’s my dearest wish to witness our tax haven activities cease. Sadly there’s no desire in the UK to end the situation here, nor in any other Crown Dependency engaged in tax avoidance. There’s certainly no desire amongst the spivs who run all things Manx to change the status quo, they’re all doing far too nicely out of it.
I think you may be confusing “nation” and “nation-state”. The Isle of Man is a nation, but it isn’t a nation-state.
It is neither
It is a Crown Dependency
You probably need to look up the definition of a nation, and here it is from the OED:
“A people or race distinguished by community of descent, language, history, or political institutions.”
I think everybody could agree that the Isle of Man has most, if not all of these.
It is a Crown Dependency, not a nation
It is both a Crown Dependency and a nation, but it isn’t a nation-state because it doesn’t have sovereignty.
A nation-state is defined as “a sovereign state of which most of the citizens or subjects are united also by factors which define a nation, such as language or common descent”.
You will note that the word “sovereignty” is included in the definition of a nation-state, but not in the definition of a nation.
I dispute it is a nation
Cornwall could claim nation status on that basis
While, for a change, I agree with you, Mebyon Kernow does make that claim!
Whatever it is called, the UK was kind enough to profer an extra £200million or so per annum in common purse VAT payments for years. The Isle of Man is swilling in it. With so much money here, maybe one day the UK will be a dependent of the Isle of Man. (It’s just a thought worth thinking about.)
You may well recall I might have played a significant part in ending that abuse