Tax avoiders cannot be persuaded to change their attitudes

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David Cameron faced questions over his tax affairs in Parliament this week. (Getty Images)

Sir Tony Baldry, commenting on the Panama Papers leak, came out with the Smart Alec comment that because the directors and shareholders of his British Virgin Island-based company Westminster Oil came from the USA, UK and Kazakhstan, then "whatever jurisdiction was chosen to register the company would inevitably have been 'offshore' to a number of the shareholder and directors". This nicely sums up the arrogance of tax avoiders and their friends, and their contempt for those who pay their taxes in full. No amount of mere exhortation by politicians will change these attitudes.

Gordon Whitehead
Scarborough

In February, Mary Cameron signed a petition against the closure of children's services in Oxfordshire. Why then, instead of giving her son £200, 000 when he seemingly has more than enough to meet his needs, didn't she donate it to her local hospital which obviously doesn't?

Sarah Pegg
Seaford

Mathew Norman's insightful piece on David Cameron's apparent lack of empathy with less privileged people reminds me of a story circulating some years back about the Eton schoolboys who were asked to write an essay on a poor family. One young blade wrote "The Smith family were very poor. Their butler was also very poor, as were their chauffeur, their gardener..." Mathew, you hit the nail right on the head.

Patrick Cleary
Honiton, Devon

Cameron on tax avoidance: 2012, Jimmy Carr was morally wrong; 2013, countries must work together to clamp down on tax avoidance; 2014, firms that exploit tax loopholes must damn well pay; 2016, my father's tax affairs are private.

Terry Maunder
Kirkstall

The Prime Minister has belatedly admitted accepting £200,000 as a gift rather than receiving it via his father’s estate, or later via his mother’s. This is suggestive of a shocking reluctance to hand over 40 per cent of this money through inheritance tax, as any right-thinking citizen would willingly have done. But it doesn’t end there. David Cameron has yet to confirm or deny that, as many already suspect, he is a non-smoker. He has failed to provide evidence that such abstinence is motivated solely by health concerns. We must surely conclude then that this is at least in part a deliberate and cynical act of tax avoidance, quite unworthy of anyone in public office.

John Riseley
Harrogate

I assume Jeremy Corbyn has cashed in all of his ISAs.

Martin Oakes
Tewkesbury

I knew Jeremy Corbyn was a man after my own heart - willing to publish his tax return, but can't find it.

Susan Alexander
Frampton Cotterell, South Gloucestershire

Remain campaigners should spell out the risks of leaving the EU

The Government's booklet about the EU referendum is measured and unexceptionable, and outlines some of the key advantages of remaining in the EU. But in being careful to accentuate the positive, its only serious caution is about the likely difficulties of creating acceptable new trading partnerships, even in the medium term, to keep our export industries churning. More really must be said by the Remain camp about other significant Brexit dangers. It is not just mild economic uncertainty that we face, in an already very uncertain world.

First, there is the crucial importance of London's financial services to the British economy. If major foreign banks relocate to mainland Europe, the damage to our balance of payments could be disastrous, never mind the loss of thousands of highly paid City jobs, with other knock-on effects.

Second, many foreign-owned manufacturers, particularly in our very successful automotive industries, are here mainly because they need an EU base. If companies like Jaguar/Land Rover, Nissan and Honda were forced to move to Eastern Europe, there would be a dramatic effect, not only on direct employment and the local economies, but also on a host of dependent suppliers.

Third, what markets hate most is uncertainty. A loss of confidence in the British economy and in the London stock market, and a serious fall in the value of the pound could quickly lead to a downward spiral. The ratings agencies are already getting twitchy about the UK economy; with significant downgradings, the cost of government borrowing could soar, interest rates would rise, companies would cut back on investment, and, more to the immediate discomfort of ordinary people, there would be renewed chaos in the mortgage markets. Tax evasion by the very rich is an issue that needs tackling, but to devote so much energy to arguing over politicians' tax bills when we face such a momentous national decision is really bizarre.

Gavin Turner
Gunton, Norfolk

Leaving aside the glaring fact that Brexit is not some major “leap in the dark”, whatever Honest Dave tells us to the contrary, let us consider the nature of the idea itself. Once you are pretty sure you have found the right person, you may well marry: once you find what you think is your perfect holiday location, you have to go there to find out. How many have not gone for a new job or a promotion or a change of house without one or two butterflies?

You cannot spend life sitting on your hands dithering. When an opportunity beckons we must grab hold of it as there may never be another.

Les Arnott
Sheffield

It’s hard to be exact as costs vary, but overseas aid at 0. 7 per cent of GDP is roughly £13bn per annum. The net cost of the EU to us is around £7bn. It would seem to be something of a bargain. The EU does a noticeable amount of good raising standards in Europe, unlike overseas aid, which breeds corruption and for which there is very little good or return to be seen. It is strange that there is so much public indignation about the EU budget while the much larger aid budget is ignored.

Rosanne Bostock
Oxford

A recent report in the media detailed the arrival of the first tanker loaded with US shale gas to Rafnes in Norway. The British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe opines that cheap shale gas (for shale is cheaper and more abundant than North Sea gas) should transform manufacturing in Britain because it brings down energy costs and provides cheap raw materials like ethane. No doubt David Cameron would wish us all to be ignorant of the fact that the US and Norway are not in the EU, as this import obviously rubbishes his unfounded claims that the UK could not flourish outside the EU. It is mind boggling that our Government is not encouraging the building of modern efficient and relatively cheap gas-fired (CCGT) power stations, yet still pursuing absurd and economy destroying EU climate change targets. Indeed, why are Scottish wind farms being paid millions when they are not providing any energy as a direct consequence of high winds?

When David Cameron falsely claims that if we leave the EU then Europe will cease trading with us, he should be made to remember Churchill’s wise words: “We are with Europe but not of it. We are linked but not compromised. ” Unfortuantely for all of us David Cameron is not a Winston Churchill.

Dave Haskell
Cardigan

Not everyone believes health is the responsibility of Government

Ellie Mae O'Hagan states in her otherwise excellent piece on the latent anger of the public that it is the duty of a Government to provide adequate health care. I am an ardent supporter of the NHS but we should not forget that there exists a substantial belief on the political right that it is no part of a Government's responsibility to provide health care at all, that at it should all be left to the market, private provision and we should all take out medical cover through insurance.

This belief reaches its apotheosis among the more fundamental Republicans in the USA and Jeremy Hunt's attacks on junior doctors. The parlous state of NHS finances should serve as a reminder that, nearly 70 years after its foundation, the health service of which many are so proud is not a given among all our elected representatives.

Derek Watts
Lewes

Justin Welby is in good company

Christ had two Dads too.

Mick Humphreys
Taunton

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