Channel Televsion covered my speech in jersey on Monday.
The report - and an extract from an interview with me - is available here.
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Some negative comments about Mr. Murphy on this blog possibly posted by stooges from the financial services industry.
One PSG member tried to post the following but the moderator censored it….
“Go on, stick your heads in the sand. Your island has been high jacked by a pernicious financial services industry which will be your eventual ruination. They don’t care sixpence for Jersey and its real people – their only interest is the lax regulations afforded to them by a corrupt government. Once their evil practices are prohibited they will simply move somewhere else leaving you to starve. Pity.”
Perhaps Jersey News and channelonline tv are in thrall to the government/financial industry?
@Premier Shareholder Group
The comments are going to be negative, of course
It does not pay to be out of step in Jersey
And the party line is all is well – whatever the disaster about to break
Of course the comments are negative
PSG, it’s unlikely to be censored, the truth is they are often very slow in putting comments up. Go read the ThisisJersey website, there’s no shortage of people attacking (and defending) the finance industry.
And Richard, it’s not that “it doesn’t pay to be out of step in Jersey”, its more that there are hardly any jobs for educated people outside the finance industry (something you acknowledged in your speech) and so if you are intelligent and speak against the finance industry, well, you’ve talked yourself out of the only job that may have been available to you.
Much like if I had gone to a coal mining area in the 1950s with a placard saying “coal is dirty, close down the mines”, I would have struggled to get a job and would have been regarded with bewilderment and suspicion.
Honestly, the finance industry is fairly dull and it would be good to do something more fun and creative and meaningful. Many people in the industry agree with that. But while you are happy to try to change the world, many of us prefer to live in it. Not least because we have worked very hard to ensure that the money in Jersey is compliant with international standards, which we have no part in setting.
@mad foetus
Toe the line
Don’t speak out
Do as you’re told
Don’t question the greta and good
Remember – this is the one party state of finance
Is that what you’re saying?
No, I’m repeating your comment that there aren’t any jobs outside the finance industry and making the fairly obvious point that if you hate the finance industry you are unlikely to be employed in it.
BUT! Can I congratulate you on using “toe the line” rather than “tow the line”. Good to see standards being maintained.
Tax havens’ days are numbered, at least in the present form. They can look forward to being a little more tourist friendly, as that may well be their next line of business as governments close down their illicit trafficking in tax evasion.
Richard its not the Channel Islands thats avoiding tax its the Onshore customer. Now if you are saying we should change our laws just to help inforce taxes elsehwere then you are being really silly.
Tourism is long gone, in Jersey. The island once had something like 30,000 tourist beds. Most of those hotels have been demolished, and replaced with tiny apartments, for the bank’s minions.
The prime locations for hotels, out of town, have also been replaced with expensive apartments for the bank’s high earners.
So, even if many tourists were inclined to come here, instead of taking cheap holidays further a field, there simply would not be any where to accommodate them all.
Tourism has now been reduced to mostly low-volume, weekend spa break, visits.
Despite this Jersey Tourism has just squandered £1m on a pointless TV ad campaign. My guess is that they real motivation, is to pay-off the media, and keep them onside over Jersey finance, and not to attract tourists at all – they won’t come, same as they didn’t come last year!
Jamie
No, the idea is not that the island changes its laws to help enforce taxes elsewhere. It’s merely necessary that all jurisdictions have a true and fair relationship and that vehicles and transactions are as transparent as possible to allow the market to work as efficiently as possible for the widest possible number of market users.
In that ideal, more people will become more well off, society will benefit through revenue, and governments can become more accountable through an enhanced sense of public empowerment in the systems and constructs around them.
The cynicism you espouse destroys society.
@Jamie
But as the EU has noted in rejecting zero / ten – all your tax laws are created for the benefit of those not in your island. That’s what a tax haven is. You crete them to undermine law elsewhere
So of course we can demand you change them
It is why you have no choice but do so
Please stop playing dumb. It does not become you
Oh – and since tax is a predicate offence for money laundering every time you help someone evade tax (that is every time a bank withholds money under the European Union Savings Tax Directive by the way, in my opinion) a predicate offence occurs
It really is time Guernsey started prosecuting for that
Richard
I am sure you must be aware that automatic exchange of information under the EUSTD has been signed up to by Guernsey and that it becomes fully effective in July of this year. In due course we will see whether you are right or wrong with your accusations.
Do you not think it odd that any customers of banks who are currently suffering the withholding tax deduction are not panicking and moving their accounts, knowing that their details will very shortly be handed over to their country of residence? Is it perhaps because they actually have nothing to fear? Surely if you were right then thousands of accounts would have been closed and moved to other jurisdictions outside the scope of the EUSTD? The hard facts are that this just isn’t happening. It defies all logic and human behavioural patterns for you to be correct with your analysis.
@Rupert
I’m sure they’re not panicking
As we well know – and as the BBC proved – the banks are more than capable of telling them how to get round the obligation
Do you really think we’re stupid?
Or are you as naive as you seek to appear?
And do you know that outside your own goldfish bowl no one believes you?
This comment has been deleted as it did not comply with the the moderation policy of this blog. The editor’s decision is final.
I had indicated the debate was closed