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Cameron claims the government is tackling tax avoidance whilst Osborne is going out of his way to promote it

Conservatives, Tax avoidance 21 Responses »

Jan 052012

David Cameron claimed today, when speaking about tax avoidance, that:

“With the large companies, that have the fancy corporate lawyers and the rest of it, I think we need a tougher approach.

“One of the things that we are going to be looking at this year is whether there should be a general anti-avoidance power that HMRC can use, particularly with very wealthy individuals and with the bigger companies, to make sure they pay their fair share.”

He said the government was doing its bit to cut the rate of corporation tax – and businesses should recognise they “should pay that rate of tax rather than try to avoid it”.

Well of course I agree. But he either has no clue what he’s talking about or he’s ignoring the fact that his government is one of the biggest supporters of large corporate tax avoidance there’s ever been. As I explained in a report I wrote for the TUC last May, In December 2010 George Osborne announced the biggest tax loophole ever deliberately introduced for large companies by a UK government when he announced that any UK company moving its treasury function out of the UK to a tax haven would have its tax bill on that treasury operation cut to 5.75%. The cost is estimated to be more than £800 million a year, and it was all designed to be a direct shot in the arm for the Crown Dependencies and Cayman.

And Osborne has also abandoned residence based tax – creating vast numbers of new loopholes for multinational corporations.

Cameron has to walk his talk on this issue before we believe him on this issue. Right now no one should. He’s simply not telling the truth.

Cameron’s choice: the UK is now a tax haven

Conservatives, Economics, Europe, Uncategorized 52 Responses »

Dec 102011

Cameron made his choice yesterday.

I make clear, the direction of travel in Europe is not one I like. But he simply chose to leave. And he did so for all the worst reasons.

He chose to support the City.

He demanded the right to exploit the working people of the UK on behalf o the City.

He demanded the right to undermine the economies of Europe and the regulation it wishes to establish over errant banks.

Cameron’s choice was a simple one: he declared the UK a tax haven. A land for the very rich. A land where abuse is not just tolerated but encouraged. A land where the ordinary people are treated with contempt.

It was the wrong choice. It was made for the wrong reason. It’s a choice we will bitterly regret.

When silliness is a crime

Conservatives 30 Responses »

Dec 022011

Last summer two youths said on Facebook that they and others should meet up to loot a shop.

They never did loot.

No one else met them.

They went to prison. For a considerable period.

Jeremy Clarkson on Tuesday said on national television that strikers should be shot in front of their families.

So far he hasn’t been arrested, let alone charged with inciting the murder of 2 million people.

Who committed the bigger crime? Clarkson, by far.

Why has he got away with it? Because he’s a mate of the Prime Minister who said it was just ‘silly’.

Like the Bullingdon rioting, I guess?

This is a divided society. Clarkson reminds us that is so. And why we have to stop it. I remain of the view he should now be under arrest and that a case should be taken with all haste to bring him to justice. Because I don’t think he was being silly. I think he was inciting violence. Deliberately. And for his own political ends, and those of his mate, David Cameron.

Welcome to the Nasty Party. They gave themselves the name. And it fits, perfectly.

It’s class war – declared by Osborne

Conservatives 4 Responses »

Nov 302011

That’s what Polly Toynbee says today:

Class war, generation war, war against women, war between the regions: George Osborne’s autumn statement blatantly declares itself for the few against the many. Gloves are off and gauntlets down, and the nasty party bares its teeth. Here is the re-toxified Tory party, the final curtain on David Cameron’s electoral charade. No more crocodile tears for the poor, no more cant about social mobility or “the most family-friendly government” or “we’re all in this together”. Forget “vote blue go green”, with this mockery of husky-hugging. Let the planet fry.

She’s right.

As I’ve just said on air in Northern Ireland, whatever Osborne could do to make things worse, he has done.

He set out to use the downturn to destroy the public sector and all that most value in society.

And that is exactly what he is doing.

He is saying he doesn’t care about the elderly, the poor, the unemployed, school leavers with no hope, those on low pay, the environment, the green belt anmd so much more.

All he cares about is exploiting labour so that profits grow.

And yes, that is class war. He declared it.

If Osborne was right markets should be pushing UK interest rates upo strongly today – but they won’t

Conservatives, Economics 5 Responses »

Nov 292011

George Osborne has said since before coming into office that beating the deficit and curtailing debt is vital.

Today he will admit he’s going to fail to do that in this parliament.

He’ll say he’ll overshoot by £30 billion. Others by much more. Since all Osborne’s forecasts so far have been far too optimistic I’ll go for the ‘much more’.

And what Osborne has always said is that if he fails to deliver that cut in the deficit then the markets will panic, the interest rates we pay will sky rocket and the economy will spin out of control as money pours out of London.

Instead we have rates lower than Germany.

And they won’t change today.

That’s not because Osborne’s getting a vote of confidence.

It’s becasue Osborbe was wrong.

The markets never demanded that the deficit be cleared with undue haste. The markets never demanded 20% youth unemployment, a crash in demand, a threat to well-being that is the harbinger of real instability and a massive increase in benefit payments because the government wantonly cut services people needed. All it needed was confidence that the government can pay. That’s all that matters to it. And Labour had, before the crisis, left the UK with very low debt at less than 40% of GDP, and very long repayment terms at 14 years on average. And Brown had refused to let us join the Euro. As a result the markets had all they needed in April 2010. And as a result of that sound foundation they still have.

All that’s happened since is that Osborne has trashed the domestic economy for no good reason and certainly not because the markets demanded it.

Beware market fanatsist: they’re very dangerous people.

Remember George Osborne was the man who wanted us to copy Ireland in 2006. That’s how good his judgement is.

Conservatives, Economics 12 Responses »

Nov 282011

I well remember when George Osborne said if only the UK was more like Ireland all its problems would be solved. Oh for the heady days of 2006, eh, George? When you wrote in The Times of the “Irish miracle” that “stands as a shining example of the art of the possible in long-term economic policymaking”.

Think what a mess we’d be in now if George had been in charge then.

And remember that tomorrow when George blames everyone but himself for the mess he’s made now he’s in charge here.

Failing to tackle tax evasion is a choice to support criminals – and it’s one that politicians have made

Conservatives, HMRC, Tax evasion, Uncategorized 22 Responses »

Nov 252011

I made a speech at a TUC rally a year or so ago when I said the following:

If we spent the money that the government proposes to spend on tackling benefit fraud on beating tax cheats then I can tell you this with absolute confidence we wouldn’t get back £1 billion a year. We would get back £20 billion a year.

And by chance that’s the annual investment that we need now if we want to turn this economy around to create the jobs we so badly need – and which would create the wealth and generate the tax – all the tax – we need to clear the deficit.

Which is exactly why we don’t need cuts.

But the Conservatives won’t do this.

And I’ll tell you why.

They would rather the tax cheats of this country have this money than the pensioners of this country have this money.

Better that the cheats have their ill-gotten gains, they say, than the children of this country get the education they need.

And the better the accountants, the lawyers and the bankers have this money they say than the sick, the unemployed, the disabled, the public servants and the defenders of this country have it.

That’s the Conservatives’ choice. It’s a choice to support tax cheats.

It’s the wrong choice.

You know that.

I know that.

Together we must fight them.

We must fight for fair taxation.

We must fight for the jobs of those who will collect tax.

And we must fight so that the honest people of this country can have the money that the Conservatives will give to the cheats.

That’s the fight we have on our hands

And friends that is the fight we must win.

I stand by that analysis.

My logic is a simple one, but one that is rarely said. By choosing to leave money in the shadow economy – which is what the government is doing by choosing to cut staff at HMRC – it is deciding that it is better that criminals - because that is what tax evaders are – have money than do children who need education, pensioners who need to keep warm, those on benefits who simply can’t make ends meet, the disabled who need services, armed forces who need kit and so much more besides.

I make it clear, this is an explicit choice by our politicians right now: they are choosing to support criminality.

They are doing so because they think the consumer spending of criminal tax evaders is more important to the economy than meeting the social needs of the young, the poor, the disabled, the vulnerable, those who defend and protect us and those who ensure that these services are delivered.

And let’s be clear: in making that choice they’re saying they think that money paid to the government is wasted. But they’re wrong! tax does not disappear. It is not a black hole. It is spent! It is spent on supporting these groups in society who need to spend to meet their needs and in paying the public servants who support them. So it directly supports consumption too. But consumption by different people. Tax collected supports consumption by those in need and those who work for an honest living. But the government is choosing instead to support consumption by those who steal to pay for it.

The choice the government is making by reducing the resources to tackle tax evasion is therefore a simple one. They’re saying they think criminals are more important than honest people in real need. And that criminals are more important than people who work for an honest living.

That’s why they choose to ignore £69.9bn of tax evasion in the UK a year.

That’s why they’re sacking tax inspectors.

And they’re wrong to do that. Because in doing so they’re ignoring the biggest single criminal activity in the UK, and the one that’s tearing the heart out of our society and our economy.

And that’s why tax evasion has to be tackled. Now.