From the Guardian this morning comes this observation on the process that has lead to Cameron putting tax abuse at the heart of the G8 summit:
There is at minimum a dawning realisation that for too long the world has been operating a corporate tax system built at the time of the League of Nations and predicated on taxing the products of immobile and identifiably national factories built with bricks and mortar.
The piece, with which I broadly agree, concludes saying:
Paul Collier, Cameron's adviser on the G8 put it more simply saying that what we need is a statement from the G8 saying the world's leading economies will do whatever it takes to bring an end to what he calls the evil of corporate opacity. Above all greed has to be shackled once more by new laws and the constraints of conscience.
That's about as much as we could hope for at the G8.
But will we get it? And will country-by-country reporting on the agenda?
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And will Paul Collier feel able to continue as Cameron’s adviser when we don’t? You know what will happen, Richard. Warm words about a major breakthrough. But if you audit the implementation of pretty much anything that the G8 have promised over the last decade the score card is pretty dire (ditto the OECD). So, we may get a statement. And country-by-country reporting may be on the agenda, but I don’t hold out much hope for action in the short to medium term. But one thing we can be pretty sure of – Cameron will be long gone as PM and a politician by then.
Ivan
I share you pessimism
And I live in hope
Richard
>>> “what we need is a statement from the G8 saying the world’s leading economies will do whatever it takes to bring an end to what he calls the evil of corporate opacity. Above all greed has to be shackled once more by new laws and the constraints of conscience.”
Wow! Cameron’s adviser said that?
“Whatever it takes” is a phrase of some resonance – and the financial sector is not used to it being used against them.
Who is this guy Paul Collier? I think we should be told…