Quote of the day: the descent of Britain

From Jonathan Ford's Financial Times review of Richard Brooks' book The Great Tax Robbery, a book about how the UK is increasingly turning itself into a tax haven (something that TJN readers will be wearily familiar with.)

"While the government is only too happy to put the populist boot into the tax affairs of Jimmy Carr or Starbucks, it is rather cagier about the curious twists of policy that allow swaths of the corporate tax code to be written by companies with help from the very accountants who design avoidance schemes.
. . .
Britain, far from ruling the waves, may be condemned increasingly just to waive the rules. At the end one is left with a slight whiff of nostalgia – for the days when governments could crack the whip over even the biggest companies."

It's a really positive review. Our quote of the day in bold. Right on the money.

(On the same subject, also see Over Here and Undertaxed.)