I received a mail from Gordon Brown today.

Yes – he who was the UK’s Prime Minister.

It was embedded in an appeal from that Avaaz crowd to whip up a frenzy amongst the Illiterati demanding that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE.

Eight years ago as UK Prime Minister and chair of the G20, I tried to end the injustice of global tax havens. But as the “Paradise Papers” leak shows, trillions are still being siphoned off to dodge tax in the most shadowy places in the global economy.

Now by my understanding of things, taxes are governed by laws set down by governments and if one country wants to gain an advantage over another then that’s fair.  Ireland constantly gets shit thrown at it for having a low rate of corporation tax, but in return for that we get investment and employment, and those employees then pay tax.  If another country doesn’t like that then maybe they should lower their corporation tax rate and stop bitching at us?

Note incidentally the emotive use of words like “dodge” and “shadowy places”?  That appeals to the Illiterati all right.  Anything to stir up a bit of righteousness?

But now we have a chance to stop it — through an international agreement that outlaws tax havens and imposes penalties and prison sentences on tax evaders. And the G20, the leaders of the world’s biggest economies, can make it happen.

Now this idiot was a Prime Minister – a leader of his country – yet he doesn’t know the difference between tax avoiders and tax evaders?  There are already penalties and prison sentences for tax evaders because tax evasion is generally illegal.  Tax avoidance is perfectly legal as are most if not all the accounts mentioned in the so called Paradise Papers.  He is implying that those mentioned in the papers were doing something illegal which they weren’t.  If he is worried about tax avoiders then that’s because tax laws are incredibly complex and full of loopholes.  Adding yet more laws is hardly going to change anything, and if anything will just make things worse.

It’s one of today’s greatest injustices, allowing the richest to stand aside while the rest of us pay for health, education, and protecting the most vulnerable.

Just suppose for one moment that all these people did pay the full rate of tax in their own countries.  Would those gubmints then reduce taxes on the rest of us, which is the implication deep within all this whinging and whining?  Would they fuck!  It would just be additional revenue to piss away on pet projects and feather their own nests.

I abhor tax in all its forms though I do grant that there is a need for a certain level just to keep essential services running.  But gubmints world wide just see tax as a way of dipping their greedy hands in our pockets and taking what’s rightfully ours.

I consider it a perfectly normal right to avoid tax and I do it at every opportunity.

And the same goes for evading tax, and I don’t give a shit if it is against their laws.

They get more than enough from me as it is.