Consultations with the finance industry and stakeholders, said Smith, had shown them to be opposed. Now there’s a surprise.
Smith and his colleagues must be told in no uncertain terms that the world has changed. Cameron hinted as much when he referred to “illicit finance”.
Of course, non-payment of tax is a major issue, but we also live in an era of international terrorism, drug gangs, trafficking in weapons, and politicians and officials wreaking untold damage to entire continents by their grasping corruption.
These, don’t forget, are our territories. They belong to Britain; they fall under our jurisdiction and sovereignty. Indeed, until 1983 they were known as the British Crown Colonies.
The names of the people who own and control companies registered in the Overseas Territories must be put in the public domain.
That’s the beginning. After that, the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, which are Crown Dependencies and have a different constitutional relationship with the UK, have to be required to do the same.
Only then, once we have put our own house in order, can we demand the same of the other, non-British-linked tax havens, among them Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Panama.
