These vile tax havens have had their day

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Nick Cohen is on form in the Observer under the above title saying:

Stopping tax exiles milking places such as Sark for their own benefit should not be a tough choice for Labour

As he notes:

Perhaps I am being over-optimistic, but I sense that ministers realise the need for change. Alistair Darling criticised the Isle of Man last month for asking the British taxpayers whom its banks exist to short-change to bail out its financial system. He also ordered an inquiry into tax havens. Admittedly, a former functionary of the Financial Services Authority, which let Britain down so badly, is leading it, but maybe ministers will ignore his findings, which I think I can safely predict will be timorous in the extreme. Talking to them, I get a sense of renewed radical self-confidence. Ideas that were impossible to contemplate in the bubble seem common sense now.

If they were to decide that Sark and the failed economic model it represents were not so quaint after all, they would be on the side of the honest taxpayers and international progressive opinion, and against African dictators, tax-dodging multinationals, money launderers, organised crime and the Barclay brothers. Labour is talking a great deal about the need to make 'tough choices' at the moment. This is not one of them.

Quite so.

Disclosure: Nick quotes me in the article. I did not talk to him during its preparation.


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