Now that George Osborne has finally made it to 11 Downing Street and is planning his “Emergency Budget”, I hope he look seriously at reducing the headline rate of Corporation Tax in order to attract international businesses to the UK as well as stemming the flow of UK companies moving their tax residence elsewhere. The [...]
Before the recent election all the three main parties were saying that they “had no plans to increase or extend VAT”. In fact the Labour Party actually ruled it out, but then they knew full well that the chance of them being in power, even with Lib Dem support, was fairly negligible. So it proved. [...]
Just over a year ago I wrote about the visit to the Isle of Man undertaken by Vince Cable, then Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor who today was appointed Secretary of State for Business and Banking in the new Conservative – Liberal cabinet. Despite having been a stern critic of the island, calling it a tax [...]
As everyone must now know, Gordon Brown has finally set the date for the General Election for 6th May 2010. After recent months of a “phony war” the electorate finally has its chance to vote on the record of the Labour government in general and of Gordon Brown in particular. But not everyone realises that [...]
We now have official confirmation of what we have all known for months, if not years, the UK General Election will be held on Thursday 6th May. Since he bottled out of an early election following his unopposed “coronation” as Labour leader and thus also Prime Minister, it was clear that Gordon Brown was going [...]
One thing that can be clearly seen amid all the arguments over the status of Lord Ashcroft is that neither the press nor the politicians really understand the difference between someone being resident in the UK or being domiciled in the UK. It is rather painful to listen to the claim and counterclaim of so [...]
Some 100,000 employees of the state owned British Steel Corporation (BSC) caused the shut down of the company’s furnaces in protest at what they called a “derisory offer” of 6% pay increase from their management. The strike quickly spread to privately owned steelworks. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher condemned the strike – called by the Iron [...]
Back in June of 2008 I told readers of this blog about my discussion with Des Browne, who at that time, in addition to being Member of Parliament for Kilmarnock & Loudon had two Westminster jobs; that of Defence Secretary and Secretary of State for Scotland. A bit odd really to have two part-time jobs, [...]
I attended a very interesting meeting last night organised by the Isle of Man Junior Chamber of Commerce (“JCC”) at the Hilton Hotel. A packed audience was addressed by Chief Minister Tony Brown on the subject of the recent change to the VAT agreement the island has with the UK. This change is likely to [...]
In what may be seen as a final act of desperation by a morally, legally and financially bankrupt UK government, the Treasury, having failed to “crack down” on what it sees as tax avoidance by banks (the UK courts don’t agree with HMRC) has now come out with a “Voluntary Code”. Not only is this daft [...]
This is the UK government department, headed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which is responsible for managing the country’s public revenues. In recent years it hasn’t had the best of records (despite many ill-informed commentators promoting Gordon Brown as a “prudent” chancellor – HAH!!!) as can clearly be seen by anyone who looks at [...]
£130 Million wasted in yet another “quick fix” Labour initiative! Three years ago the Labour government announced that the UK Passport & Identity Service (part of the Home Office) had estimated that 10,000 false passports were issued every year. This was, they said, unacceptable and a new procedure which would see all new applicants face an [...]
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) next year Britain will have the biggest debt of any major economy. So much for prudent Gordon Brown. According to the IMF Britain’s budget deficit will be a horrendous £191 billion. This equates to £7,600 for every family in the UK. Not only is this much higher than [...]
Harriet Harman, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party but not (thank goodness) the official Deputy Prime Minister, has come up with the daft idea of teaching 5-year old boys that it is wrong to be a wife-beater. Hmmm. I’d have thought that the vast majority of 5-year olds would never have come across or thought [...]
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 is the Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that created the Financial Services Authority (FSA) as a regulator for insurance, investment business and banking. This was the Act by which Gordon Brown removed responsibility for regulating the banking industry from the Bank of England, a decision that [...]
The controversial tax which was introduced by Gordon Brown shortly after he became Chancellor has proven to cost far more to administer than the cash it has raised. Gordon Brown has long had the typical socialist view of business owners which sees them all as crooks only concerned with paying as little tax as possible. Tax [...]
The Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor has been a stern critic of the Isle of Man, calling us a haven for tax dodgers. He also demanded that the Isle of Man be closed as a ‘tax haven’ and for banks receiving investment from the UK Government to shut offshore operations. Despite that he accepted an invitation [...]
Official figures release today show that there have been massive increases in both personal and business bankruptcies as the credit crunch continues to bite. The lack of working capital, usually provided by bank overdrafts or secured lending together with the problems of obtaining credit insurance have been blamed for a 98% increase in companies going [...]
During World War Two the Czechs and the Poles came to the rescue of Britain and ultimately of Europe, making a great contribution to the war effort. It looks like they may save us all again! There is no doubt that without Polish and Czech pilots fighting with the RAF during the Battle of Britain, [...]
The UK Labour government has a well earned reputation for timing announcements it knows will be unpopular to coincide with major new stories so that the bad news gets buried. Remember the infamous memo on 9/11 “[today] is a very good day to get out anything we want to bury” sent by Jo Moore, advisor [...]
