Giving a platform to a critic of the Isle of Man

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From the blog of Richard Butt — editor of Isle of Man Today:

ONE reader of my blog, I was surprised to learn, is Richard Murphy.

Mr Murphy has been quoted in so-called liberal newspapers such as The Guardian and on the BBC decrying 'tax havens'.

He is director of Tax Research LLP and a tax advisor to the Trades Union Congress and has a website that dishes out criticism to the Isle of Man and many other places.

He has been a bit of a running sore for the Island's politicians, although whether they'd admit to that and give him further credence is quite another matter.

Anyway, he spotted me describing him as 'the blogger who's so angry about the Isle of Man' recently. He responded.

The result was an email correspondence and he's agreed to write a piece for our new Examiner Essay strand in the Isle of Man Examiner this week.

Of course, as with everything in any of our papers, the fact we've published opinions doesn't necessarily mean that any of the staff here at Publishing House agrees with them.

It's not our job to tell you what to think. We wouldn't want to. After all, we're not the Daily Mail.

I think that part of our job is our job to stimulate public debate.

I'm sure that some politicians and the great and the good will moan about our decision to give Richard Murphy a platform.

But he's been in the UK media a lot. Whether he has had an effect on the customs agreement and the UK's decision to unilaterally change it is something I don't know. If he has, that damage has already been done.

If there are holes in what he says, I hope readers will point them out. Public debate is, after all, a continuing process.

When the article's actually published I’ll link to that too!


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