Guernsey press on Brown: playground bully
The news we broke here recently about the UK's letters to the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories has been noticed in the secrecy jurisdictions. Jersey's response seems to have been one of bravado:
"Senator Le Sueur did not seem fazed by the letter. He described it as ‘fairly non-committal’
By contrast the response from Guernsey, in a local editorial, recognises clearly that the letters appear - though we will be watching closely for signs of slippage - to mean business. The response has been to engage in name-calling, a common tactic of those who have lost the argument.
"What makes this playground bully ‘watch it, or else…’ approach worse is Mr Brown’s further threat that ‘it is vital to the interests of the Crown Dependencies’ that they meet any new international standards on tax avoidance.
By switching emphasis from illegal evasion to perfectly legal avoidance, Mr Brown seeks further to make these islands’ position untenable by introducing another unquantifiable ‘acceptability’ test."
Britain's government has taken on the agenda TJN has been running with for some time - and has appeared to embrace it. Avoidance, and facilitating avoidance, is harmful and wrong.
"Senator Le Sueur did not seem fazed by the letter. He described it as ‘fairly non-committal’
By contrast the response from Guernsey, in a local editorial, recognises clearly that the letters appear - though we will be watching closely for signs of slippage - to mean business. The response has been to engage in name-calling, a common tactic of those who have lost the argument.
"What makes this playground bully ‘watch it, or else…’ approach worse is Mr Brown’s further threat that ‘it is vital to the interests of the Crown Dependencies’ that they meet any new international standards on tax avoidance.
By switching emphasis from illegal evasion to perfectly legal avoidance, Mr Brown seeks further to make these islands’ position untenable by introducing another unquantifiable ‘acceptability’ test."
Britain's government has taken on the agenda TJN has been running with for some time - and has appeared to embrace it. Avoidance, and facilitating avoidance, is harmful and wrong.
posted by TJN at 11:45 am
2 Comments:
Why not just re-take the Channel Islands and be done with it? When the regional assemblies are set up they can go in the South-West Region and be run from Bristol. If we sent in a task force that would be the end of the matter.
One slight snag - under the UK tax system there would be so much unemployment that it would cost the government a fair bit in welfare payments. But surely worth it?
This blog wasn't suggesting a takeover, but also we don't follow your argument why there would be more unemployment. While on the subject, have you ever been to a Crown Dependency and investigated its politics in depth? Have you any inkling about its politics? (and no, this isn't John blogging today). Why not take a look at what has been happening to a Jersey senator recently. If you investigate, you'll find that this kind of thing is par for the course. http://stuartsyvret.blogspot.com/2009/04/blog-under-attack.html
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