Manx Radio is the official government radio station of the Isle of Man.
On Monday it's midday programme ran a slot that was advertised as follows:
After Mandate at One we're joined in the studio by and expert in investigative journalism - something that some people think is sadly lacking in the Manx media. Prof. Mike Jempson is a journalist, author, university professor and trainer, with over 35 years experience in print, broadcasting and public relations.
During this slot, the presenter, Stuart Peters said:
In the Isle of Man we are like a family and we can squabble amongst ourselves but we don't like it when other people throw rocks at us and there's this bloke from this Tax Justice Network, Richard Murphy who is constantly having pops at the Isle of Man and the tax regime here to the point where we are all really rather bored of it to the point where we wish there was a wet ops department in the government that could go and take him out.
The reference to a "wet ops departnment" is to a KGB assassination unit.
I guess he thought he was being funny but a couple of weeks ago the US went into a state and assassinated a man.
Does the Isle of Man now allow its media to be used to endorse such actions in the UK when my only 'crime' is to ask people to pay the right of tax in the right place at the right time?
Or is state sponsored terrorism part of the weaponry they're willing to use to defend tax haven activity now?
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In the circumstances I would take this further than just this response, Richard. Whether it was intended or not this is incitement to violence aimed at a named person – and using a public medium to do so is entirely unacceptable.
Peters is an idiot and a dangerous one. I spent time on a General Staff on the banks of the Elbe not long after Stalin’s death. The last thing we needed was a fat mouthed fool around.
given a young chap was jailed for tweeting he would blow up an airport- this would appear similar. you should indeed take it further.
sorry my mistake – he was convicted and fined, not jailed.
Richard – if you would like some of your prejudice against the offshore tax avoidance/evasion industry confirmed, I suggest you check out the latest Baxendale-Walker case.
Baxendale-Walker v Middleton and others – [2011] All ER (D) 242 (Apr)
I don’t have access to a free version of the case, but it is available on LexisNexis if you subscribe to that and no doubt it will be on Bailli in due course.
Adam, this link might work.
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2011/998.html
This decision by Mr Justice Supperstone seems to be more about Mr Baxendale-Walker and his relationship with the Law Society that about tax avoidance/tax evasion. Although it does refer to various complex aspects of certain parts of the UK tax code, it might well be the case that you do not need to read this decision in order to provide support for maintaining an attitude of prejudice against the types of arrangement discussed.
Thank you – my favourite line was
“As regards these latter allegations, it is correct that my view was, and remains, that Mr Baxendale-Walker’s EBT schemes were devised in such a way as to require a breach of trust by the trustees of the EBT in order to achieve their purpose.”
Oh! Tough talk from someone sitting on their backside in a comfy radio studio.
I notice he says “We don’t like it…”, and not “I don’t like it…”, as if he is the voice of the people, and their esteemed leader!
But more seriously. Someone who works in media/broadcast should have complete respect for other people’s rights to voice their opinions, and protest. Even if they don’t agree with those opinions. This is basic stuff, surely?
I have had personal contact with this Stu Peters via the fact that he is in my business at least twice a week. Biting my tongue here (and avoiding possible libel laws etc) i will say only this: his insidious views on certain matters have a slant not entirely a mile from a certain dictatorial monster from the 1930’s. If he thinks his jocular beardy type “panto villain” is papering over the obvious grotesque cracks then he is very much mistaken ! We are, as we speak, looking at ways of keeping him away from our personal space (can’t say much more here).
And I, as a tax payer, am also endorsing this beast via the medium of my Income Tax !
Shocking …
Richard, Peters is a moron. Apart from clogging up our airwaves with spurious nonsense, he writes a risible column in the equally risible IOM newspapers. In a recent column he boasted of being a Tory – enough said.
Wouldn’t mind if he was Manx but he’s not, he’s English and what we call a ‘comeover’ and only been here 5 minutes, don’t know what gives him the delusion that he can speak for the Manx. He’s just typical of the pointless detritus which lands, uninvited, on our shores.
“I guess he thought he was being funny but a couple of weeks ago the US went into a state and assassinated a man.”
We Manx are a small peaceful nation who have never assasinated more than a few herring, stop worrying Mr Murphy
Isn’t this just a bit of a bore? It is typical of our modern era that a media presenter ends up saying daft things and an accountants gets flustered by them. Aren’t there much more important things in life? Silly, yes, important, no.
Perhaps you’ve never been on the receiving end of such a threat.
I assure you it’s not pleasant. And if you think it’s a fuss, ask my wife for her opinion.
And I note there are people willing to act on such matters – look at what’s happening in Scottish football
So this is very important.
Which is why I will be reporting it to the police, today
Sanctimonius twat, Mr Murphy.
You’re just lucky someone on Manx Radio was silly enough to say something that’s given you a chance to gert up on your self-appointed soapbox. You must have thought it was Christmas, birthday and budget day all rolled in one.
If you REALLY believe this is an incitement to terrorism you must be even more stupid than you appear to be based on all your previous blogs put together.
Actually I have Richard – looking down the barrel of a UVF revolver in Northern Ireland in 1972. Having experienced the real threat of a gun deliberately pointed at my head from 3 feet accompanied by a threat of its use I would say that what Stu Peters said is silly, very stupid. But these things are better left to wither on the vine not given further air time. By all means go to the police if you feel your life has been threatened but from experience making this sort of thing public is frankly stupid as it does not defuse the situation it exacerbates it. I am sure the police will tell you something similar.
Perhaps you’ll sleep better knowing that the Manx government does not have the resources to fund illegal military operations. You can thank the low taxation for that.
First, you read it like the Manx Government using it’s official media arm to issue a fatwa against you.
Oh come on! If the Manx Government wanted to shut up they’d hire you as a consultant.
Next, you’re Osama Bin Laden and the IOM is the USA. The thought that they may have a Special Ops team baring down on you, or anyone is a laughable bit of hyperbole. This is a small country without an army, one customs boat, heck, the buses can’t go out if it rains.
Then it’s an incitement to terrorism.
You compare it what is happening in Scottish Football, but that encapsulates two very emotive subjects – football and religion, and touches on the Northern Ireland situation. You’re talking about a disagreement over tax rules. And what terrorist gang is Stu inciting? There were a few bits of Manx Nationalist graffiti last year but generally anti-Finance Sector. Who’s left the military wing of the Junior Chamber of Commerce.
If your genuinely worried relax, the comments weren’t meant literally, even if they were there’s no one who would or could act on them.
But is the real case here that you saw a pompous quote from a DLT wannabe and thought “I can do better than that, I see your indignant pomposity and raise you an inflated sense of my own importance, some hyperbolic hysteria and a great dollop of sanctimonious clap-trap”.
If you think tax isn’t emotive then you’ve missed most of the point of politics.
And it takes one idiot and a jiffy bag…
Yes I do take this seriously, and rightly so
So should you. That anyone could think such a comment on their state owned radio station by a state employee when discussing the importance of investigative journalism is shocking
Russia ‘takes out’ journalists. I wrote a critique of your government and the same is suggested on its state owned radio station and you think that’s not an issue of concern?
Bizarre is all I can say
The point of politics is not to tax it is to provide services to the public, tax is a means to an end.
Is your quote accurate? The why you’ve got it’s not even a disagreement about tax that is prompting his wish that you be taken out, but boredom. The apathetic never killed anyone.
At worst this is a case of poorly chosen words – you’ve got to remember this is a local radio dj. To read this as a threat to you have to twist the meaning somewhat. I think there’s a bigger danger here, Manx Radio is remarkably cautious in it’s reporting, stiflingly so at times. If a reasonably innocuous comment can be used by a mischief maker for a report to the police, they’ll use it as an excuse to narrow the range of opinions expressed and scupper investigative journalism further. In fact sometime in the future on MF Stu will use this incident as justification for the non-reporting of some story.
On the Isle of Man, the wisdom of the government using tax payers money to help fund Manx Radio is often questioned. It is, afterall, a commercial station. Perhaps this incident will cause the Government to re-think, and hopefully this will lead to a reduction in tax. Fingers crossed.
I see the berks from ‘Comeovers Corner’ (aka Manx Forums) are out in force on this one. Yet more examples of the detritus, previously mentioned, polluting our island.
Richard,I might challenge your opinions,but I agree the remarks were most offensive,and making suggestions of the need to kill someone,and naming them,is disgusting-but sadly not unparalleled. I recall seeing o TV in recent years, two left wing supporters saying they`d wished they`d killed Thatcher-and it seemed to be quite acceptable,and certainly unchallenged.Never- in my book-whoever or whatever their views.Do you have any idea of the Law on such comments?
Please go to the police immediately. He should, at the very least, be persuaded to issue a grovelling apology and give you an invitation to ‘bore’ the Manx listener with something that could enlighten him.
Meanwhile, you are a hero for bringing the information about how we’re all being robbed, stitched up and farmed into common knowledge and mainstream politics, in language fit for ordinary people.
Thanks.
And go to the police.
[…] I blogged my concerns about comments made on Manx Radio yesterday. […]
The astroturfers are out in force today.
Hmm.. considering a US congresswoman was shot in January of this year, and the row that ensued over hate rhetoric from the Right Wing which some consider at least partly responsible for whipping up and encouraging an environment in which a man with a gun felt he should act in the way he did, leaving Mrs Giffords in a coma and six others dead, I think it was extremely ill advised for Mr Peters to make that remark. A mentally well person might be most unlikely to act on such sentiments, but a mentally ill person may be more likely to, and not need access to a gun either. One need only review the online rants against you as a person rather than against your arguments in certain quarters to suspect that some of those making such comments really do hate you.