Letters: Can a sponsor of tax havens accuse Google?

These letters appear in the 1st Febuary 2016 edition of The Independent

Google agreed to pay £130m of unpaid taxes over 10 years (AP)

Why condemn Google? Many of the richest corporations and richest individuals across the world are avoiding tax by using British tax havens.

The British government allowed and encouraged the creation of tax havens from the Isle of Man to Gibraltar and from the Channel Islands to the Cayman Islands. In all there are 16 British tax havens.

The richest people in Greece use British Tax havens to avoid due tax in that bankrupt country. The UN and organisations across the world have asked the UK government to impose sanctions and exclusions upon these disgraceful protectorates or members of our Commonwealth.

Yes, we should condemn the corporations and the people who fail to pay fair taxes in the nations within which they trade, but we should also demand that our government serves notice upon these British havens that make tax avoidance possible.

The UK governments past and present are entirely responsible for creating and continuing to give protection, succour and support to these places. While they exist, the rich will use them.

Martin Deighton

Wickham Market, Suffolk

I find it odd that David Cameron is dedicating his debate with the EU to trying to prevent migrants from coming to these shores and claiming welfare, as though it were they who were a significant drain on the UK economy or who had been responsible for the 2008 crash, while simultaneously failing to try to reach EU-wide agreement on multinational tax avoidance and business corruption, which unquestionably costs all our countries billions and was most certainly a major contributory factor to the economic crash of 2008?

It strikes me as being an odd set of priorities, symptomatic of the kind of mind which would blame refugees for being forced from war-torn countries or which would blame the disabled for being a drain on the number of available bedrooms in a country facing a housing crisis.

Julian Self

Milton Keynes

Can I suggest that every taxpayer in the UK write to HMRC requesting a meeting to discuss how much tax we would each like to pay?

Julian Sanger

Beccles, Suffolk

Politicians in hard hats

Can anybody explain who makes the decisions for politicians to pose in hard hat and hi-vis jacket, undertaking some mundane task to the barely concealed contempt and amusement of the people who really do the job (Amol Rajan, Letter from the Editor, 30 January)?

Is it the PR person who believes that pictures of their man (it is almost always a man) as would-be “man of the soil/building site/factory-floor” will endear him to the voting public? Does the man himself believe that such pictures enhance his machismo, or make us believe in the vast range of his technical ability, or show how attractive he is in luminescent yellow, safety goggles and hard hat?

Perhaps the PRs and the men should be told that, regardless of their respective beliefs, all the pictures show is a prat in a hat.

John Crocker

Cheltenham Gloucestershire

This household suffers from the same “absolute hatred” of George Osborne in a hi-vis vest as affects Amol Rajan.

It is a source of wonder that men who were sent to the top private schools in this country can be so lacking in statecraft, but instead look to short-termist solutions to this country’s intractable problems. They are most definitely not gentlemen, but rather reflect the other stereotype of a public schoolboy – the caddish bounder.

The hijacking of the hi-vis vest is only the latest manifestation of cynical grandstanding that has replaced proper leadership.

Kerry Larbalestier

Ipplepen Devon

I have just learnt that Terry Wogan has sadly died. Within minutes, David Cameron is out getting his equivalent of a verbal selfie, as are numerous other MPs you’ve never heard of.

On Thursday, Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane died. Most people probably haven’t heard of him though they may recognise “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love”. Cameron probably hasn’t heard of him either, but, even if he had, he knows most people haven’t. So: no political gain, no comment.

So RIP, Paul, and thanks for those albums, Surrealistic Pillow, After Bathing at Baxters and Crown of Creation, which were part of the soundtrack of my youth.

T Maunder

Leeds

The unexpected ascendancy of The Donald must surely be influencing our own home-grown buffoon, The Boris, not least in the hairstyle our lad would be wise to adopt in future.

Will he risk appearing to be aping The Donald in his narcissism, or will he take the sensible step of tidying himself up before the similarity becomes too obvious?

The sensible advice must surely be for him to start trimming, by degrees, now.

David Hindmarsh

Cambridge

Excellence on the radio

Fiona Sturges (28 January) rails against the alleged snobbery of Radio 4’s Reith Lectures, only to substitute her own inverted snobbery, which displays, among other things, a profound contempt for learning and academic excellence.

I fail to see why every programme on BBC TV or radio dealing with difficult or challenging subjects should be compelled to reach out to a wholly fictitious mass audience. There’s nothing wrong whatsoever with popular shows such as The Monkey Cage; they certainly have their place in the schedules. But surely, there must also be a place in public-sector broadcasting for programmes dealing with specialised subject matter that are highly technical and will only ever appeal to a minority audience.

After all, don’t “Oxbridge-educated fossils” pay their licence fee, too?

David Marsland

London SE19

The politics of selfishness

Andrew Kinder is right to castigate those on the left for their arrogance, if they hold in contempt those that do not have similar beliefs (letter, 30 January). The right, however, cannot be totally absolved from this crime either. Their contention that lower taxation and a smaller state are wholly desirable and that the private is superior to the public sector, is asserted as though it were unquestionable.

It seems to me that most people who vote for the Conservatives do so out of self-interest. They perceive that they will be personally better off, or at least not worse off, under the party of David Cameron. Conversely, a number of those on the left would financially, at least, be out of pocket if they were able to achieve their aims, a society which tried to bring about a greater equality of opportunity and living standards, a properly funded NHS and decent public services and infrastructure.

What should we look for in our politics: selfishness or altruism? It was clearly the latter in 1945, when this nation achieved some great things. Must we resign ourselves, for the foreseeable future at least, to it now being the former?

M T Harris

Waltham, Lincolnshire

Where to site wind turbines

We should certainly be encouraging more wind turbines, as Baroness Brown suggests (23 January). A location alongside motorways would make sense in some locations, but in many places they would be inappropriate.

A bigger opportunity would be to locate them on industrial estates. By definition, such sites will be well provided with services and any noise generated by the turbines should not be a problem in this business environment.

A positive planning approach to such provision could help restart our wind turbine industry, which is currently in danger of foundering.

Michael Gwilliam

Norton-on-Derwent North Yorkshire

Scent of flowers in winter

Lovely to read Anna Pavord’s article this weekend on scent in the garden (30 January).

We, too, have a daphne “Jacqueline Postill”, which has been flowering for well over a month and filling the garden (and beyond) with its gorgeous perfume. It is certainly helping us get through our grey, wet winter, even standing up to gale-force winds.

I first encountered it at Holehird Gardens in Windermere. Obviously happy in our Cumbrian climate.

Pam Wilson

Grange over Sands Cumbria

Regional grammar

In Errors & Omissions (30 January), Guy Keleny says: “Nobody would write ‘Why cheap oil would make I richer’.” He obviously has never lived in the West Country.

Michael Short

St Leonards-on-Sea East Sussex