The government announced yesterday that:
On 12 May, the Prime Minister will host the Anti-Corruption Summit to step up global action to expose, punish and drive out corruption in all walks of life.
The summit will seek to galvanise a global response to tackle corruption. As well as agreeing a package of actions to tackle corruption across the board, it will deal with issues including corporate secrecy, government transparency, the enforcement of international anti-corruption laws, and the strengthening of international institutions.
It will be the first summit of its kind, bringing together world leaders, business and civil society to agree a package of practical steps to
- expose corruption so there is nowhere to hide
- punish the perpetrators and support those affected by corruption
- drive out the culture of corruption wherever it exists
OK then, do this:
- Full country-by-country reporting for all multinational corporations
- Do a proper public register of beneficial ownership in the UK backed up by supporting evidence from banks who undertake checks on the companies they provide services to
- Impose the same on our Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories.
If said this was the goal then I might believe David Cameron is serious.
Until then, let's be clear, his words are not worth the paper they are written on, as his failure to act yesterday showed.
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The funny thing about the panama papers is that ministers and other MPs have been publishing their tax returns.
But the point is that if they have been involved with offshore tax avoidance it is unlikely that anything would be included in their UK tax returns
So what does publishing their tax returns achieve?
Perhaps it satisfies an uninformed public?
Agreed
As I tweeted recently – the aim of the tax avoider is to keep such activity off their tax return
Another thing
The Times front page carries an article about Georges family business Osborne and Little paying dividends but not paying corporation tax.
Surely they understand that dividends can be paid out of accumulated reserves despite the current year recording a loss?
A search for the company accounts at companies house, now available online for free, shows the above to be the case.
Interesting article from Global Research as an illustration of just how corrupt capitalism is now, was before and (if it survives much longer) always will be.
“That’s the problem with the Peter Mandelson view of being comfortable about some people being ‘filthy rich’. Some people are filthy rich because millions are dirt poor.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/neoliberalisms-world-of-corruption-money-laundering-corporate-lobbying-drug-money/5519907
The Tory Party is funded by the wealthiest in the country and any moves against the means by which many of them attain their wealth will damage the Tory Party and likely result in a lot less funding. No way, is Cameron going to go the whole nine yards any more than would Tony Blair. Cameron will drag his feet as he has done for the last six years, deliberately so. He got rid of the best talent within the HMRC who had the expertise to follow the paper trail and they will not be replaced. He can and will procrastinate right through till 2020 but make all the right noises(he excels at that) while doing so.
When David Cameron announced in June 2015 that he wants a “…global purge of the cancer of corruption” I wrote to him to tell him my story of massive corruption involving High Court judges, the Director of Public Prosecutions,other senior CPS officials, the SFO, police, IPCC and many other massively corrupt officials. Though my letter was signed for on receipt at Downing Street, there has never been any reply.
Cameron wants to talk about corruption with top world officials but he clearly has no intention of actually taking any action against corruption in Britain.