Difficult business

ON TUESDAY, the House of Commons was considering Budget resolutions and the economic situation, a debate veteran left-winger Michael Meacher used as an opportunity to launch a bitter attack on what he termed 'offshoring'.

Specifically, he referred to the Crown Dependencies by name and the UK Treasury's expectation of recouping half a billion pounds-worth of taxation from undeclared income.

'That shows the sheer scale at present and it is unacceptable,' he declared. The MP, once described as Tony Benn's vicar on earth, is among a growing number of politicians in Europe and beyond dedicated to ending the tax competition these islands provide.

That hostility will increase as governments seek to take more money off their people and jurisdictions with 20% income tax and no inheritance or capital gains taxes increasingly show them up.

And while the services provided here are perfectly legitimate, the ethics of avoidance will also increasingly be questioned.

In that context, the chief minister's comments to the House last week about all Guernsey's birthdays and Christmases coming together if only we could secure even a tiny fraction of China's booming economy were perhaps unfortunate.

China represents a brutally repressive regime with no regard for human rights, scant regard for the environment and a hatred of freedom of expression or uncensored news.

Is that really the sort of business partner this Bailiwick wants to be associated with?

Across the globe the view is that economically no one can afford not to – but at least that's dressed up by suggesting it provides an opportunity to influence China's rulers for the better.

Guernsey has no such fig leaf: just hand over the money, no questions asked.

Given China's occupation of Tibet and determination to impose its own culture there, the sense of unease is heightened. What if someone had taken the view 60 years ago, 'well, the Germans might be sending islanders to Biberach but we can still turn a profit?'

For many islanders, this is straying into money without morality territory and is not comfortable.