CLASS WAR IN THE EU

Class war has broken out all over the EU as a result of the Euro. The benefits of this misshapen currency flow to wealth and the big corporations. The sacrifices and austerity to make it work fall on the people. Result the old social democratic parties like our Labour Party whose idealism makes them loyal to the Euro are squeezed out and the angry people turn to the harder left and the unredeemed right.

The same thing would be happening here if Gordon Brown hadn't kept us out of the Euro. Instead we're getting a uniquely  British version as the Tory party, protectors of dosh and those who have it carry on their traditional class war by imposing the cuts, deflation and austerity required by the follies of the banks on the poor and unprotected

Sadly they've got away with it. Until now when the tax avoidance row is revealing exactly what wealth is getting away with and outraging the British sense of fairness.Tax evasion and avoidance (the one elides into the other) are a covert way of helping those who have to have more. It's all secret. No one knows. They don't have to pass legislation. It's a free gift.

So Tory government turns a blind eye to it .They believe that only the wealthy can save Britain and more importantly because with the deficit in overseas payments gaping they need money and corporations to come here to close it. So they don't want to inconvenience either.

Sadly the revelations by whistleblowers in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Jersey and Mexico forced the whole business onto the attention of the nation so government has had to pretend to deal with it. But very gently. Unlike the HS where two big accountancy houses have been massively fined and partners sent to jail  only one person has been prosecuted here and the tax avoidance industry which is bigger and richer than government's tax collection industry has suffered no sanctions. Less has been recovered from more evaders than in France or Spain. Offenders have been let off and others fined only a small percentage of their ill gotten gains. Don't want to frighten people off do we?

DOTAS the system for notifying schemes hasn't been made compulsory before schemes can be used. The Chancellor's dramatic tax of 25% on those accounting elsewhere for profits made here wont affect schemes centred on loans from Luxembourg or other subsidiaries so it wont work Worse the government has introduce its own  tax dodging scheme the Patent Box to help corporations reduce their tax bill. And of course there's the inevitable Tory touch. Newpeople have been brought into HMRC to deal with high level avoidance. But altogether that work only employs a tenth of the people involved in dealing with social security fraud.

Why not require all corporations and the wealthy to publish their tax returns. They do in Norway and we should here. Bugger commercial confidentiality. It's a matter of public responsibility