A decade ago an article like this would not have happened.
It does now.
Don't say changing moods is not possible.
This is Simon Jenkins in the Guardian today (edited, of course):
Osborne is the scourge of public sector unions and condemns tax avoidance, yet he refuses to end the scandal of crown tax havens, from Jersey to the Caymans, that enjoy the benefits of British citizenship while enabling individuals and corporations to evade British tax. Last week the European Union lectured Britain on financial regulation, while harbouring on its borders such fiscal black holes as Monaco, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The thesis, accepted by governments of all parties, that the rich should be allowed to escape tax for their "wealth-creating potential" has surely been exploded by the credit crunch. It is not the kind of wealth Britain can afford. If Goldman Sachs dislikes paying British taxes it should go to Dubai, not just the first-class lounge at Heathrow.
The control of public expenditure is never perfectly equitable. It is war by other means. But when large sections of the public are being asked to bear the burden of cuts in their standard of living — largely through the action and inaction of government — they are entitled to see at least a semblance of fair play.
Just because lobbyists say bonuses and tax havens are "essential to Britain's recovery" does not mean they are. The government's tolerance of both is more than stupid. It induces cynicism in the public realm and recruits fair-minded people to the cause of St Paul's protesters and public sector strikers. Nothing is more crucial to national wellbeing at a time like this than a sense of equality of misery. The British government derides Greece and Italy as countries where taxpaying is "voluntary". It appears to be voluntary in Britain too.
He's right.
Creating this awareness has taken a lot of effort. Now we need action to address the issues. When will people get serious about the Tax Gap? It's entirely possible to do so. But only the Greens take it seriously as yet. That's to their credit, and none to anyone else.
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Dear Richard Murphy
This may interest you:
VIDEO CLIP AND TRANSCRIPT OF WARREN BUFFETT’S OPENING STATEMENT BEFORE THE SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE HOLDING A HEARING ON ESTATE TAXES.
I will limit my remarks to three points.
The first relates to the intellectual dishonesty employed by those who use the phrase ‘death tax.’ This term is clever, it is Orwellian, and it is, if you’ll pardon the expression, dead wrong.
More than 2.4 million Americans will die this year. About 12,000 of them will leave an estate that will be taxed when the exemption goes to $3 million, as Senator Grassley mentioned. It will be 9600 estimated and it’s been 19,000 when the exemption was (lower.)
That means that 99-and-a-half percent of estates will be tax-free. You would have to attend 200 funerals to be at one at which the decedent’s estate owed a tax. Indeed, far more people who die receive a large tax benefit. I don’t think that’s generally understood. Namely, a stepped up basis on appreciated assets.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/21791804/VIDEO_AND_TRANSCRIPT_Warren_Buffett_s_Statement_to_Congress_on_Estate_Taxes
Another joins the 99% ?
Unfortunately it is something of a nonsense to the Crown Dependencies as people who “enjoy the benefits of British citizenship”. What does it mean? For example Irish nationals enjoy almost identical rights within the UK to a British national and that even goes as far as voting rights. We all know EU citizens in general have similar and sometimes even better rights than British Citizens as well. For example, they were able to bring in spouses under 21 through treaty protections when British Citizens were unlawfully prevented by the UK Government from doing so.
The truth is that I can’t think of any real benefits to British Citizenship that aren’t afforded by many other nationalities in equal or greater measure. Britain simply deludes itself if it believes that British nationality is of some exceptional value.
You delude yourself
A great many people aspire to have the passport for very good reason
I note that whilst I have given good examples why it isn’t that valuable you haven’t as yet announced any of your “very good reasons”.
Try reading half a million words on the Crown Dependencies on here for a start
Then come back if you need clarification
One of the most interesting points made by Simon Jenkins was that our political crises can no longer be defined, or I would suggest be resolved, by conventional left v right politics. Where once the two tribes routinely paraded solutions based on a left or right perspective, all our political parties have been captured by neo-liberal economics and become to fearful to resist the financially powerful.
Now that the neo-liberal economic model has effectively consumed the poor and vulnerable, it has no choice but to continue on up the economic scale in search of sustenance. The higher it reaches into the middle class or hard working family groups, use whichever phrase suits your politics, the more “ordinary” people of all political persuasions realise that they are truly in it together and that 99% v 1% is the real battle around which politics needs to coalesce.
Simon Jenkins may well be an old-school Tory but he gets this change where, sadly, the Labour Party does not.
So far I fear you’re right