Hypocrisy or Stupidity

Members of the Primate Order Considering Taxation Reform

Labour MP Chuka Umannu of the Treasury Select Committee is moaning that Barclays only paid the equivalent of 3% of its profits in Corporation Tax last year. The rate is 28%. Apparently, Barclays offset their losses from the previous year against the tax bill. That is a bad thing for the Left as Tax is a Good Thing because it means that Town Hall Chief Executives and Diversity Coordinators can have salaries competitive with Premier League footie players.

So it follows that the tax system should be altered to remove any loopholes or allowances. Er, the tax code more than doubled in length between 1997 and 2010 when Labour were in power and it's the longest in the world. It's sooo hard to solve a problem when there's only thirteen years available.

That would be the Barclays that didn't need bailing out with taxpayers' money, the Barclays whose President and Group Chief Executive, Bob Diamond, popular Lord Mandelson claimed was the unacceptable face of capitalism a month before the election last yearand then helped prepare for a Treasury Select Committee grilling in January this year.

Why doesn't Chuka Umannu demand that Anthony Charles Lynton Blair opens the curtains on his network of companies and partnerships to ensure he pays every last penny of tax due? After all, he's "a kind of straight kind of guy" with nothing to hide from his Cabinet.



It's suddenly gone very quiet.