From Top-hats to Panamas.

The British are, to be diplomatic….. eccentric. They love the Royal family, the Aristocracy, the Establishment, their glorious, imperial history, yet are scandalised when they learn that their leader, voted in with a whopping majority, has been, diplomatically put, jurisdiction shopping to keep his wealth safe from the taxman.

Of course tax avoidance is morally repugnant, and through rigorous rules and enforcement responsible government has made it next to impossible for the average Joe to avoid his fiscal obligations.  Because the lower classes are, as we are told so often, little more than a bunch of work-shy skivers and scroungers. Give them an inch…

The P.M in top hat and tails. How quaint, how very, very British. The Old Boys rabble rousing in the House. How quaint, how very, very British. The Establishment hoarding riches whilst avoiding taxes. How ghastly, how very, very un-British.

The Channel Islands, Gibraltar, the British Virgen Islands. And Panama, it seems. Tax havens for the rich, so often mentioned, but never really challenged. They are seen as part of a job-lot – if you want capitalism, then you have to accept that the wealthy will hide their cash from the stealing hands of governments. Small print, a side effect; deal with it.

So now the nation is ‘shocked’ to hear that their jolly good chap Prime Minister has been benefiting from these practices all his life. Unacceptable!

Yet these loopholes have been denounced over and over again to no avail. The good old British voter has once again decided that any idea of change in the status quo is just incompetent, wet, left-wing rhetoric. Play safe, let them rule over us.

It’s a bit late now for moral indignation and feigned surprise. If you vote for the perpetuation of an elite class, if you decide that it is unwise to meddle in their successful affairs, then you should not fall into the hypocrisy of mock outrage.

You made your bed…