Government announcement of the Spring Statement CASHBACK
Published on 24 March 2022
Mr Sunak’s Spring Statement was far less impressive than his rhetoric has made it appear. Once again a senior member of this administration reaches a Gold Standard in rhetoric, but at best a Bronze one in achievement. The claim does not stand up to examination […]
Original IREF article of 16 March 2022 accessed on 21 March 2022
Published on 23 March 2022
The EU recently announced partial financial sanctions on Russia, designed to keep payments for energy moving. The EU accepted the contention – disproved below – that a bank either gets cut off from SWIFT, the global financial telecommunications network, completely […]
Original Brexit-Watch.org article
Published on 18 March 2022
Our Brexit-Watch.org article last week showed how tax-leveraged leasing through Ireland was a major contributor to the BigTech and Biotech companies minimizing their corporation tax payments:https://www.brexit-watch.org/irelands-fear-of-depending-on-foreign-companies-tax-receipts-is-unfounded-for-the-wrong-reasonsWhilst Rishi Sunak’s much-trumpeted minimum 15% global corporation tax rate won’t have any effect at all, the Kremlin has intervened by passing a law […]
Brexit-Watch.org article of 14 March 2022
Published on 16 March 2022
Ireland’s corporation tax receipts continue to rise, thanks to their ‘Celtic Tiger’ business model:
https://www.brexit-watch.org/irelands-fear-of-depending-on-foreign-companies-tax-receipts-is-unfounded-for-the-wrong-reasons
This was already costing the UK £10 billion a year in lost corporation tax in 2016:
Ireland’s takings have increased by 386% between 2009 and 2021; that implies at least a doubling of the […]
Brexit-Watch article where this piece was originally published
Published on 7 March 2022
The UK’s financial sanctions over the Ukraine invasion fall well short of cutting Russia off SWIFT, maxing out on the usual self-congratulatory hyperbole whilst opening up significant risk. When we should be distinguishing our PR approach from that of the Kremlin, we instead get […]
What is SWIFT? Screenshot of its homepage
Published on 26 February 2022
As already published on Facts4EU and Brexit-Watch
It has been reported that Chancellor Scholz has rejected the proposal that Russia be cut off from the SWIFT system as a punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. The Guardian has disseminated misinformation that it would anyway do little […]
Published on 26 February 2022.
Article previously published on Brexit-Watch.org on Friday February 18 2022.
Recent news coverage of the football clubs Derby County, Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers has slightly lifted the veil on the murky financial jiggery-pokery of the English football industry but it goes nowhere near far enough. Further research since my first article […]
Published on 17 February 2022
We have compiled an analysis of the British Business Bank’s investment in Bolton Wanderers via its ‘Future Fund’.
Many questions remain open, such as how much the general public has invested, what shareholding we own, and what rights and obligations are associated with it.
Some of these points are academic: the original £5 […]
First published on brexit-watch.org
Published on 14 February 2022
Doubts have recently been raised about the financial competence of those who manage the national finances on behalf of all of us. The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has – belatedly some would say – come under fire for the losses to fraud through his Bounce Back Loans scheme: the […]
Most of my contribution appeared on Facts4EU.org
Published on 11 February 2022
On the second anniversary of the UK’s leaving the EU, it was worth relecting on what had been gained, even if Theresa May and now Boris Johnson could claim very little credit for it.
Here were my First Eleven of benefits, which made up the bulk […]