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Could the Ashcroft furore speed up positive reform?
Posted by Claire Spencer (@thedancingflea)
Tuesday, 2nd March 2010
Living in the UK, reaping the benefits of doing so, and not paying its taxes is wrong, regardless of who you are and what party you support.
Perhaps there is a marvellous system out there that isn’t based on taxation, but: a) I am yet to find one that is couched in reality and b) even if I were to find one, we don’t have that system now – what we have is a system wherein our country is run on taxes. As such, I think it is a particularly worrying precedent that non-doms can have peerages, be admitted to the Privy Council or even be allowed to stand as an MP while failing to contribute their share. Never mind living in and contributing to the darned constituency, we shouldn’t have to press for our lawmakers to live in and contribute to our country! Letter of the law? Perhaps. Spirit? Perhaps not. But that’s tax law, riddled with loopholes, uncertainties and wriggle space, and sorting that is not something that Britain can do alone.
All of the three main parties have taken donations from non-dom donors, and as such, no-one from those parties can point the finger without having a serious think about whether that is a morally sustainable practice (HINT: it isn’t). However, Ashcroft’s influence (even dominance) over the recent history of the Conservative Party and its campaigns, and further, the fact that one of the conditions of his peerage was that he would make the UK his permanent home for tax purposes by the end of 2000, makes his a more serious case – his refusal to carry out his promise was hidden, obfuscated, as it belied the side of the Conservatives that didn’t match the make-up. So frankly, his latest, updated promise that he’ll do it if the Conservatives win the general election doesn’t exactly inspire me with confidence, much less his “confession”, which occurred just before he would have been forced into disclosure anyway. Let this be another nail in the coffin of Brand Cameron.
But more importantly, let this be another step down the rocky road to the Parliament that Britain needs and deserves. The support for preventing non-domiciled people sitting in Parliament stretches across all three main parties. We’re closer than we have ever been, so let’s stop wavering, and use this anger, energy and coverage to end a ridiculous precedent which allows our lawmakers to dodge our taxes. We deserve better than that.
