These are my links for February 6th through February 7th:

• The Royal Gazette – Bermuda – "Realising his campaign vow to "shut down the tax havens" will be on US President Barack Obama's back burner for the foreseeable future, according to CNN political pundit Roland Martin.

  Mr. Martin, the guest speaker at the Bermuda International Business Association annual general meeting lunch at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess yesterday, also suggested that the phrase was simply designed to glean support in the campaign and would not necessarily translate into action, now Mr. Obama was in the White House."

  Sounds like the man delivered what the audience wanted to hear

• Welcome to Jersey Finance Online – Statement from Geoff Cook in response to the BBC Panorama Programme "Tax me if you can" broadcast 2 February 2009 – Oh dear

  They don't like it

  The do something about it

  Stop facilitating tax evasion for a start

Sarkozy has said: We will go to the 2 April London [G20] summit to obtain structural decisions, this is clear … My negotiating margin on
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These are my links for February 5th through February 6th:

• Tax Justice Network: UK fraud office halts Kenya probe – Another case of the UK not wanting to know what's going on
• donpaskini: The Children's Society vs the Taxpayer's Alliance – Lovely blog showing the Taxpayer's Alliance in its true light
• Tax Justice Network: Dutch royals look to Guernsey – Tax abuse by the Dutch royals

  I was pleased to assist this story

• FT.com / US / Politics & Foreign policy – US explores converting stakes in banks – "US officials are examining ways gradually to convert government stakes in banks into ordinary shares as banks accumulate losses, according to people close to the discussions."

  You might as well say they're on the way to being nationalised

• BBC NEWS | Politics | Tory backer Laidlaw stops funding – Throw him out if he has not met the conditions for membership

  Paying tax is a condition of membership

  And HMRC should get on and produce a Finance Bill clause that says all members of the House of Lords are resident and domiciled in the UK – period.

• Caribbean tax haven climate getting chillier – JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM – Some believe Obama is serious

  I think they're right

• Local blog sites shutting down. – Channel Island Forums UK – Interesting that there is debate here about some blogs in the Channel Islands being forced to close because of the aggression used by some who comment on this site.

  Taking and managing comments on a blog is a time consuming activity. I do believe that there are some who comment aggressively with the deliberate intent of closing debate to their advantage. Its interesting to note that this has been noted in the Channel Islands as well.

• New EU trade commissioner Lady Ashton calls for final push on Doha trade talks | – "Lady Ashton, the new EU trade commissioner, has called for a final push on an agreement to free up world trade, as the cornerstone of efforts to avert protectionism and a possible slide into economic depression."

  Wrong, wrong, wrong

  The result will be Lindsey, Lincolnshire times 1,000

  This is a recipe for social disruption the world over

• FT.com / Columnists / The Accountancy Column – Fuzzy oversight will not solve standards issue – A contribution to the debate

  But actually the only answer is to bring the IASB under international control and away from being a private company dominated by the Big 4 and financial services

• Tax Justice Network: Piggery and jealousy in Switzerland: referendum – Millionaires in Switzerland are jealous of each other's tax privileges. So says a new story in Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung (rough English web translation here) – about an interesting new development: a referendum on Sunday in the Canton of Zurich on whether or not to accept special tax privileges for foreigners.

I have the following article on the Guardian’s Comment is Free site today: As the Guardian’s tax gap series has progressed, it has become increasingly
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The Coop Bank has adopted an ethical policy on tax. TJN have blogged it here. Well done to the Coop. Moves are going in the
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The Guardian has named Barclays the UK’s biggest tax avoider. And rightly so. They’ve featured here often. Roger Jenkins of Barclays is the person they
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I note that the UK’s Accounting Standards Board ‘Inside Track’ publication for January 2009 makes some very off suggestions. It says: Staff plans to submit
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EDM 665 GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER’S TAX GAP SERIES 03.02.2009 Taylor, David That this House applauds the Guardian’s serialised coverage of the tax avoidance industry and its
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EDM 674 BANKS AND TAX AVOIDANCE 03.02.2009 Mitchell, Austin That this House is concerned that banks financed by the UK taxpayer through credit, loans, guarantees,
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