Hurricane Irma is continuing to batter the Caribbean. At a human level there can only be concern for tall those affected, and a desire that all that can be done to restore normal life in the places impacted will happen.
But the Caribbean is not a politics free zone, and nor is Hurricane Irma. I will leave aside the obvious global warming issues and the politics of that. I will mention instead that many of the places affected are tax havens. And many of them are British.
I sincerely hope that the UK government does supply all the assistance required to these places, as they will also do to those other places without such support. But I make the point that if we are to honour our responsibilities, then so should they. The British Caribbean tax havens can only exist because of the guarantee that the UK supplies, the legal system that the UK supplies and the regulation that we support. There is a cost to that. We will bear ours, but it's not unreasonable to expect that those places who need us to do so respond in kind. That means they deliver accounts on public record, registers of beneficial ownership of companies and trusts for all to inspect and new regimes of transparency in all that they do.
And for those who think this isn't the time to ask I would point out that even neoliberals think that the role of government is to act as a back stop. When the governments of the UK's Caribbean tax havens rely on us to take that role then now is precisely the time to remind them of their reciprocal responsibilities, whilst continuing to supply all the support that is needed.
Note: This blog has been referenced, and largely reproduced, in The Guardian this morning.
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Yon pension schemes o’ carles and quines;
I dinna fash; why shoulda?
I skimmed mah siller aff the tap
and banked it in Bermuda.
I’m maister o’ mah Paradise;
nae social obligations;
yir gumphrell’s wits permitted me,
tae steal the Wealth o’ Nations.
.
When I heard on the radio that the Royal Marines were on call in the area I thought about the local population and wondered if the Marine’s instructions would be to help the local populace or to secure the premises and data of all the tax avoidance schemes?
I hope that the locals in these areas are not forgotten.
The RFA Mounts Bay (crewed by RFA volunteers) has been on station in the area since June specifically to provide support to the people of the islands during the hurricane season.
At cost to the UK
[…] But Murphy calls on the islands, many of which are tax havens, to respond to tax-funded aid by being more transparent about the accounts of companies and individuals registered in their domains. In a blogpost he writes: […]
What a generous viewpoint.
These territories have been sponging off the UK tax payers for a long while.
Everybody who lives there knows this.
It looks to me like once again the UK tax payers are being asked to bail out the very wealthy.
I’d sooner let the place fall into rack and ruin. Let the fishing and farming communities re-establish themselves without the burden of banks.
That would be better for the UK economy and way of life.
I consider this a patriotic viewpoint.
I am generous
As a supporter of many charities I regret destruction in the Leeward Islands. The African Union offer of repatriation to West Indians in their ancestral homelands after the Haiti earthquake is still open so they should evacuate to Commonwealth state such as Ghana, free from hurricanes and earthquakes. As a member of a former RAF family, I deplore risk to RAF lives taking aid in a C5 hurricane. Why waste funds to rebuild sandbars, lagoons and beaches, formed by storms, for ungrateful islanders demanding aid from British taxpayers in tax havens rolling in funds from corrupt regimes including Nigeria. Most Caribbean islands advertise Citizrenship by Investment in airline magazines. Storms are blamed on climate change which occurs in cycles throughout millenia of earth history. Hurricane technology is easily applied . Drainage, water butts, maintenance of wetlands and bamboo cultivation to conserve river banks are all mitigating. Although annual hurricanes bring rain for 6 months, corrupt CARICOM governments are incompetent and individualistic, lacking priorities, ignoring crime, dependent on EU aid and wasting resources on flag-waving bureaucracy, entertainment, carnival, fashion, vice and bling while seeking reparation from the EU for historic events. Progress and development are stymied by discrimination against foreign investors, entrepreneurs and business, so commerce suffers. Instead of collaborating to develop a regional airline, several airlines struggle to operate. LIAT and CAL should deliver aid, including water manufactured in Trinidad, HQ of CAL. Everything is priced in USD in the airport in Antigua, HQ of LIAT, which refuses to accept currency of Trinidad & Tobago, the cuisine of which is on the menu of airport restaurants. Racial envy is rife. I donated a dinghy to rescue flood victims of storm Bret after the government in Trinidad refused a request from local authorities for a boat. I continue to help one Trinidad family of 7 left homelesss in a swamp infested with caiman and snakes after their 1-room shack was wrecked. Over 1200 died in floods in South Asia which did not seek aid.
Sally Radford PhD, FGS, C.Geol
Fellow of The Caribbean Academy of Sciences
http://www.bridgefield.org
I post the above without endorsing it