The Paradise Papers show that about £10m ($13m) of the Queen’s private money was invested offshore.
It was put into funds in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda by the Duchy of Lancaster, which provides the Queen with an income and handles investments for her £500m private estate.
I applaud the BBC for putting this not only as the top story, but as a full page spread on the BBC News homepage. It’s HUGE news. Oh wait a minute, Elizabeth II is the monarch of both Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, and this is just another republican propaganda campaign by the BBC.
Craig at Is the BBC biased? notes….
Dan has investigated the BBC’s pension fund and found that it invests with the world’s largest hedge fund.
And guess where that hedge fund holds its funds? Yes, the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven.
Dan himself notes however that “it’s unfair to attack the BBC for this without the context that all hedge funds are in tax havens” before adding, “…which is why the BBC’s reporting is unfair”.
No sense of irony from the BBC who get their own funds via extortion with menaces. Who knows where their riches are invested.
I’m no republican and it is a bit mad that so much wealth is kept in a few families ,the so called aristocracy.But the new wealthy are the public sector managerial class and don’t serve any useful purpose .At least the Queen is actively promoting Britain.Charles ,not so much.
“On Panorama tonight, how an out of touch elite, with open contempt for most people, steals money off the poor and vulnerable under threat of prison and uses it to pay themselves obscene pay packets. They justify their pay by saying they deserve it, but tonight we expose how utterly dire so much of their programming has become . . . “
Comrades! Our liberal media elite are standing with the Bolsheviks as together they storm the winter palace. What a scandal! The shock revelation comes today that the rich have a lot of money! Anyone get the impression that there’s a multi-faceted conspiracy to give Corbyn a leg up into Number 10. Then of course this nasty Brexit thing could be avoided.
Yes, it’s the Pot calling the Kettle black and once again the total hypocracy of it is lost on the BBC.
No doubt the BBC sees its £3+ Billion tax, sorry License Fee, each year as a Socialist Tax whereby they redistribute it.
Erm,….. .among themselves.
If only we could see where the money goes in the BBC Black Hole…….
What the BBC don’t grasp is that a silent majority of Brtish people still believe in the Monarchy so this blatant attack on Queen Elizabeth will only alienate them more.
Once again it’s the BBC pumping out its own agenda and shooting itself in the foot.
Asiseeit
Now that these terrible things about the so called monarch have been revealed something must be done .
Remove her image from public places and things comrades . Rename ships and pubs. Stop covering the actions of her family – benefitting from grannies legal tax scams.
Al beeb must be breathing a relief sigh that the Texan didn’t should alli s snack bar before pulling the trigger
Whether we like or dislike very wealthy individual, corporations, etc using tax heavens, at the end of the day they are just minimising their tax bill. Listening to the reports so far, non of those mentioned, as far as I am aware, have done anything illegal. However, the hack on the legal firm must surely have been illegal, yes?
England –
It was funny listening to humph pretending to not know the difference between avoidance and evasion . With £650 000 a year coming in I would have thought he’d be fully up to speed with avoiding 40% tax on his pile of licence fee money.
I predict the next instalment will involve a footballer , a conservative mp( brexiter) but strangely no beeboids or the guardians cayman island account.
Republican BBC?
Oooh er, they’ve been passionate Democrats for the last three years.
🙂
I’ve missed/ avoided the BBC furore on this subject, deliberately.
Two questions I have:
1. Was the information gathered legally?
2. Is there any hint that the Labour party might start to pay tax?
Just to answer my own question, as I found it at the foot of an article in one of this morning’s papers.
No, the information wasn’t gathered legally. It was hacked and subsequently distributed via a compliant german media.
There is a big putsch going on now trying to implement “social justice warriorhood” change in Britain – to replace English & British culture, and white English Christian men. The BBC forms part of those leading the putsch but they have a lot of careerist or opportunist politicians singing the same tune including Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41877151
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41881125
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-41876597/jeremy-corbyn-abuse-of-power-often-hides-in-plain-sight
Campaign to replace English Culture includes:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/41763158/trolled-for-asking-for-more-writers-of-colour-at-cambridge
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41749939
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41664459
The BBC (and others) are running name and shame campaigns – all to put the Social Justice Warriorhood agenda at the forefront of public and political life – here is another example:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-41882083
The aim is to get more women, more BAME, more Islam, more queer, more disabled, less white, less Christian, less indigenous English, less straight white male, into positions of power. We are moving into a period where identity politics and spin and celebrity not competence nor science nor engineering nor traditional values are the decisive factors in political and public life.
5 relevant points:
1. The Queen is Head of State in Bermuda, so if she can’t put her money there who can?
2. The Queen and the Duchy of Lancaster are not subject to income tax, so no income tax has been avoided.
3. The Queen actually voluntarily pays an amount equal to the tax on her worldwide income, less the Sovereign Grant
4. The Guardian which is running this story has long benefitted from being owned by an offshore trust and has profited from that to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds.
5. The BBC has a pension fund which is invested in hedge funds located offshore which are invested in several companies which engage in systematic tax avoidance, such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and eBay.
I’m not an expert on finance but I seem to recall someone explaining last time this “offshore tax haven” stuff blew up that funds in places like Bermuda have more to do with access to dollar markets than tax avoidance.
Can’t vouch for it though. Perhaps the level-headed John Redwood will cover it in his blog.
It’s interesting though, isn’t it, how the “internationalist” viewpoint seems to come and go.
“that funds in places like Bermuda have more to do with access to dollar markets than tax avoidance”
True!
Also, when used for this purpose, practitioners have the right to manage their tax using any dual tax treaties that may exist.
International and cross border tax arrangements are extremely complex and well outside the capability of the ordinary BBC hack.
Thanks for confirming that. I wasn’t completely certain.
Half the news, all the time !
As much as half?
Interesting points on the subject from John Redwood:
Tax havens in the EU – why does the BBC miss them out?
It would be superb if Her Majesty could round off her great reign with one last service to the nation. Take the figurative head off the BBC. Or at least castrate them. First strip them of their title [British]. They are unfit. Then put a stop to the public funding.
I don’t receive Sky Sport because I don’t want it so I don’t subscribe. Neither do I want the So-Called BBC.
I would love to ” PoppyCheck” all bBC staff entering its buildings…………….all those with no poppy…..here’s your P45.
That would soon cleanse this Republican viper’s nest.
You could also replace the word British with Savile ……………in its title…………..
S
I think you’ll find they pay for their poppies and reclaim it on expenses like many MPs do.
They will wear their poppies whilst false reporting on British Army behaviour against our enemies in various wars as well of course of going after former soldiers who had the courage to kill IRA terrorists and their supporters.
Like Harrods, the Queen has already snubbed the BBC. ITN did the last two Xmas broadcasts for the Queen, and Sky are doing this years and next years. And the Queen chose ITV to broadcast her 90th birthday celebrations. What she says in the Broadcasts is free from any political advice from those outside of The Crown. The Crown’s powers are exercised either by the monarch personally or by her representative in each of the Realms, on the advice of the appropriate local ministers, legislature, or judges, none of which may advise the Crown on any matter pertinent to another of the Crown’s jurisdictions. This makes the Queen personally independent from everyone else when deciding what to say in a Xmas broadcast to the Commonwealth. And also why constitutional interference from the European Union is thought to have convinced the Queen to support Brexit.
On the sad day when The Queen passes , or her husband , al beeb will be straight to the griefathon with an expensive autocue reader doing the whole false boo hoo and no one will mention tax avoidance .
Not strictly BBC bias but given that the Guardian is the BBC print-arm, I feel really indignant about this latest load of tosh from the boy that is Owen Jones.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/07/paradise-papers-bankrupt-social-order-tax-avoiders
Point No1: Lewis Hamiton isn’t tax resident in the UK, so owes no tax. In his second paragraph Jones seems to recognise this, so deflects the argument to say he’s avoiding european tax too. Utter bollocks! He’s not, and Europe in the form of the EU has no tax raising capability.
Point No 2: How does Jones feel about being paid, and taking money from a tax avoider?
Point No 3: I’ve noticed over recent times that the quality of Guardian articles has simply dived. They were poor before, but they print some absolute dross these days. Jones and Abi Wilkinson seem to compete to write the worst rubbish.
No wonder buyers are so few.
So I go on the internet to watch the Cenotaph, and this year the broadcast is not available outside the UK (I’m in Spain).
Go to the BBC World Service radio broadcast and it’s James Naughtie. Absolutely unlistenable with this utter disgrace of a biased broadcaster.
David Dimbleby though would have been a privilege. Everything the BBC should be.