Money! Money! Money! at No.10

Arturo was mumbling a tune to himself. It took me some time before I recognised it! Abba! Then I found myself singing along:

Money, money, money

Must be funny

In the rich man's world

It's a catchy number, you'll agree.

"So - mi old pal, what do you think? Is it always 'funny' in 'the rich man's world'?" Arturo asked me.

"A fair bit of dosh goes a way to relieving the pains of life!" I replied.

"It stirs the pot nicely in the political world too. In fact it's stirred up quite a storm. I've enjoyed myself enormously!" Arturo grinned pointing at various laptop screens.

To be sure this week has concentrated on 'the rich man's world'. It all started with The Observer on Sunday 8 February. David Leigh, James Ball, Juliette Garside and David Pegg wrote

Part 1 The Leak:

HSBC’s Swiss banking arm helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars of assets, doling out bundles of untraceable cash and advising clients on how to circumvent domestic tax authorities, according to a huge cache of leaked secret bank account files.

The files – obtained through an international collaboration of news outlets, including the Guardian, the French daily Le Monde, BBC Panorama and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – reveal that HSBC’s Swiss private bank:

• Routinely allowed clients to withdraw bricks of cash, often in foreign currencies of little use in Switzerland.

• Aggressively marketed schemes likely to enable wealthy clients to avoid European taxes.

• Colluded with some clients to conceal undeclared “black” accounts from their domestic tax authorities.

• Provided accounts to international criminals, corrupt businessmen and other high-risk individuals.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/08/hsbc-files-expose-swiss-bank-clients-dodge-taxes-hide-millions?CMP=share_btn_tw

Names, facts, figures and accusations are all there for you to read! And they sure are startling! And worrying not just for those named and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs but also for our politicians.

The Guardian continued the story, written by the same intrepid journalists:

Part 2 The cash machine

Part 3 The tax vehicle

Part 4 The political donors

Part 5 The unsavoury clients

All splendid stuff that had Arturo salivating with delight! The BBC Panorama programme on the same story had the heading:

Panorama - The Bank of Tax Cheats - Panorama Reporter Richard Bilton reveals how Britain's biggest bank helped some of its wealthiest customers dodge tax and asks why these tax evaders have not been prosecuted.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b052sk1h/panorama-the-bank-of-tax-cheats-panorama

And Richard Bilton certainly didn't pull his punches either! Watch it on the BBC i-player.

The upshot of all this was accusation, accusation, accusation! It culminated in the furore that is PMQs during which Ed 'Hello Gromit' Miliband used his opening question to draw attention to all the shenanigans that had been flying round. He commented that only an hour earlier, a story had come out linking the HSBC tax avoidance scandal with several Tory party donors. He said that these donors had between them given the Tory party nearly £5 million.

In his response, 'Boy David' Cameron attempted to justify himself and his party.

Several exchanges later Ed 'Hello Gromit' Miliband said:

The Prime Minister cannot get away from it: he is a dodgy Prime Minister surrounded by dodgy donors...

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm150211/debtext/150211-0001.htm#15021185000005

Ah me! Ah my! What a can of worms has been opened! Needless to say, we are relishing the situation. Now, we discover that Hush-Puppy Man - Ken Clarke has emerged from his cigar-smoke-filled-bunker and gave an interview to The Observer's Daniel Boffey: who wrote:

The Conservatives have been rocked in the past week by a potentially toxic combination of allegations of tax evasion by clients of the HSBC bank, whose chairman, Lord Green, became a Tory minister; tax avoidance by party donors; and leaked details of the secretive black and white fundraising ball.

Boffey went on to quote from Hush-Puppy Man - Ken Clarke:

“The solution is for the party leaders to get together to agree, put on their tin hats and move to a more sensible and ultimately more defensible system.”

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/14/ken-clarke-tory-party-shun-wealthy-donors

Tin hats, eh? Don't like the sound of that!

Margaret 'Flog 'em' Hodge, that stalwart defender of ethical financial propriety, chairs the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. This week, she was interrogating senior officials from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs about the HSBC tax evasion story. After listening to some of the responses, she exclaimed:

“I can’t begin for the LIFE of me to understand that pathetic response, quite frankly!” she snapped. And: “Honestly, I want to put a BOMB under you guys!” And: “Are you telling me to BELIEVE that?”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11406838/Sketch-I-want-to-put-a-BOMB-under-you-guys-Margaret-Hodge-batters-HMRC-over-tax-evasion-claims.html

As Arturo would say: "Yum! Yum! Things are getting juicy!"

Tonight, Arturo's pal, Toscanini, who lives in the basement of the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane has invited us round for a bit of nosh! He told us that lots of grub had been left over after the Tory Black and White Ball. It seems the Ball had been held there specifically to raise funds for the Tory party. Toscanini said that people were willing to pay thousands of pounds to sit next to a Minister - any Minister!!! They were so engrossed they didn't eat up their caviar and anchovies! So much the better for us! Yum! Yum!

Bye