I just noticed — this blog is four years old today.
5,162 posts
14,231 comments
A lot of friends made
A lot of people annoyed
Much change created (ask the Isle of Man)
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Many more via RSS (can’t be bothered to pull that one out tonight)
Has it been worth the effort?
Oh yes.
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Well I’ve lived on the Isle of Man for nearly 15 years now and the only thing that has changed is our economic growth. That has continued to boom or certainly to grow, Richard.
This comment has been deleted. It failed the moderation policy noted here. http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/comments/. The editor’s decision on this matter is final.
Keep on keeping on. The Isle of Man is a nasty corrupt little place. Pleasant enough scenery, at lest where it’s not been developed by hand in glove developers with more than a little partnership with the governing cabal, but inhabited by people who for the most part have been happy to predate off Britain.
By providing a tax dodgers haven (and they have) while at the same time poncing off the British tax payer it was well past the time the whole rotten thing was exposed and finished with.
Now what is needed is to go the whole hog. They want independence? The British government should bow to their demands. All of them.
Border controls between Britain and the Island, MOT test on all Manx vehicles brought from the Isle of Man before they go on our roads, MOT tests on British vehicles returning from the Island, especially motorcycles, because of how they may have been damaged as a result of there being no national speed limit on the Island, passports required for people traveling to and from the Island, and even a surcharge on transport links between the Island and Britain because of the ease of entry that people have into the Island necessitating additional security vetting.
The Manx have been our parasites for more than long enough.
Keep on keeping on Richard, the more people here in Britain realise what’s been going on the more support you have and so will everyone else who supports you in this.
Roger, you obviously dislike the Isle of Man (and that’s a fairly easy statement to make!), but do you really think your proposals would make any difference? Your MOT “ideas” are hardly going to bring them to their knees, and neither will passport controls.
Hi Rog,
How’s Norfolk?
Cheers
Happy Birthday.
“Has it been worth the effort? Oh yes.”
And that considerable effort does not go unappreciated.
@Strategist
Thanks
Richard
It’s not just being a tax dodgers haven that the Isle of Man is responsible for. It’s also a place for no end of nefarious goings on. This article relating to Iranian sanctions busting shows connections that may or may not be significant.
From the item :-
“One such concern, Smart Day, was traced back to companies in the Isle of Man linked to a British shipping consultant, Nigel Malpass. Mr Malpass could not be reached for comment yesterday. He told the US newspaper that he had set up companies for Irisl in the past but had since disassociated himself.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7146440.ece
The New York Times don’t seem too keen on what’s been going on either. :-
“The rest — 73 — are now on record as owned and operated by companies that do not appear on the blacklist. The companies are located far from Iran, in places like Malta, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Germany and the Isle of Man. In all but 10 instances, however, records and interviews established definitive links between the ships’ new registered owners and Irisl.
The companies are either run by Irisl officials, set up at their behest or wholly owned by Irisl, corporate records and interviews show. Most of the companies’ ships are now operated and managed by three newfound Iranian companies that can be found not at the addresses provided to IHS Fairplay, but at Irisl facilities in Tehran.
The Amplify’s registered owner, for instance, is a Hong Kong corporation called Smart Day Holdings, which in turn lists as directors a company in Samoa and another on the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man company, Shallon, is part of a network set up with the help of Nigel Howard Malpass, a British shipping consultant who serves on the boards of Smart Day and companies connected to 43 other ships previously registered to Irisl, records show.
And the shares of many of those companies are held by yet another Isle of Man company, Woking Limited, which records show is wholly owned by none other than Irisl.
“I did used to be involved with Irisl,” Mr. Malpass said in a telephone interview, adding that while he had set up companies at the company’s behest, he had since “disassociated” himself.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/world/middleeast/08sanctions.html
Maybe it’s time the British Government took an interest into what the Isle of Man has been associated with in addition to being a tax dodgers paradise and if the accusations made such as this have merit to just what extent the Isle of Man flag has become a Flag of Convenience. Or judging from some of what’s been going on is true maybe that should be a flag of PUBLIC convenience.
Mnay thanks, Richard Murphy. I have a lot more to say….soon