NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE A week that started of with Ed Miliband setting out to castigate offshore jurisdictions like the Isle of Man as tax havens has backfired spectacularly with both the UK Labour Party and the Conservatives embroiled in the continuing scandal of their failure to act over HSBC and the ?Switzerland Billions?. The UK Channel Four News piled on the pressure tonight by pillorying spokesmen for both parties for failing to tackle the issue and contrasted the attitude taken towards benefit cheats with that adopted towards tax evaders ? many of whom who are ?in bed? with the two political parties. Sadly whilst the UK political parties are on the back foot the offshore jurisdictions seem to be resisting the temptation to pile on the pressure. Spokesman for the Isle of Man government (and others) are falling over themselves to point out that their regulatory regimes are ?whiter than white? when everyone knows that in the murky world of tax avoidance/evasion nothing is as it seems. What is apparent though is that the whole festering dung-heap of tax evasion starts and ends in the City of London with places like Switzerland and ?the offshores? useful conduits for the crooked financiers of WC 1. Meanwhile in a new development the issue spilled over to question time in the Dail when Gerry Adams castigated what he called the ?Golden Circle? of HSBC, tax dodgers, the (Irish) revenue and the government. Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, blustered back that the ?revenue commissioners? had adequate powers to deal with the situation. He was less adept at explaining how only a tiny percentage of the over 3 billion owing in evaded tax had been recovered. For the UK the situation is much worse only £135 million pounds have been recovered from what some estimates say is over £20 billion pounds secreted in the accounts! Bizarrely in the past several years when UK treasury officials have been gerrymandering the UK/IOM VAT agreement as part of the ?attempt to balance their books? the same government and HMRC have been turning a blind eye to the outright criminality of those that some believe are significant contributors (in terms of donations) to the two main parties. J B Moffatt (Mr) Director of Information 10/02/15 (Please note that replies to correspondence received by the League and posted on CL News are usually scanned hard copies. Obviously every effort is made to ensure the scanning process is accurate but sometimes errors do occur.) ISSUED BY THE CELTIC LEAGUE INFORMATION SERVICE The Celtic League has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It works to promote cooperation between these countries and campaigns on a broad range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, monitors all military activity and focuses on socio-economic issues Internet site at: (voir le site) (voir le site)