The Belfast Telegraph featured an article yesterday where a KPMG partner in Belfast argued Ireland will never give up its low tax rate whatever Merkel and Sarkozy say and that Northern Ireland's tax rate must be cut as soon as possible.

KPMG are heavily invested in the plan to make Northern Ireland a tax haven so I am not surprised by the comments. They are, of course, amongst the very few who would gain from this plan which would be massively onerous for the ordinary people of Northern Ireland.

In response the Belfast Telegraph reported:

But anti-poverty campaigner and blogger Richard Murphy said that harmonisation was "inevitable" and called for Ireland to "stop looting other European economies".

"There is no way this tax competition can continue while the Eurozone is so desperate for cash, it is now not a case of 'if' but 'when'," he said.

"Ireland will be picked on, it can bluster all it likes but harmonisation will happen. We must question why Northern Ireland is so desperate to copy a system that is doomed to fail and does not work.

"Ireland has already had preferential treatment, it is time for Ireland to grow up and play its part in the international economy and to stop looting other European economies."

That about sums it up.