As UK politicians publish details or their financial affairs,indignation approximately tax avoidance should not blind us to the huge inequalities of wealth in our societyThe prime minister makes the bland declaration that “we should defend the good of every British citizen to make money lawfully” when no one has disagreed (PM comes out fighting in row over tax affairs, 12 April). But his statement to parliament falls down as a defence of those who lawfully park their cash abroad with the intention of legally avoiding UK tax. Slavery was defended in parliament because it was lawful; so was racial discrimination in South Africa. All too obviously, and law and justice are not always the same thing. Good government requires its prime ministers to understand that the obligations of landed country gentlemen,which are taught at Eton and other private schools, voluntarily to donate to charity and provide food banks, or fall a very long way short of a solidarity with those in,or on the edge of, hardship, and which is written by parliament into the laws of the UK.
Rev Paul Nicolson
Taxpayers Against Poverty• In 1945 when Clement Attlee moved into 10 Downing Street,he gave the house he had lived in to the Ministry of Housing to serve with the homelessness problem. In 1997 when the Blairs moved into No 10, they sold their house in Islington for nearly twice as much as they paid for it. But Mrs Blair is said to have complained that they had to sell it too early and could have doubled their money again whether they had waited. The Blairs now own 10 houses and 27 flats valued at £27m.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com