The Clunking Fist and the Prying Eye

The Swiss government has buckled under combined pressure from other Western nations to allow greater access to their banking books (BBC), ostensibly for the purposes of catching tax evaders. That is clearly not the main aim, however, because withholding taxes (like PAYE for earned incomes, and the withholding on interest) would solve most of the tax issues without the Clunking Fist needing to smash a neutral country into submission. No, this bullying of Switzerland is simply about Labour's war on privacy and their extension of government control.

So let us be clear what has happened here. The government has declared war on people who seek financial privacy by moving their finances out of the country; and that on the day that we hear politicians are allowed to hide their financial interests from us by means of blind trusts (BBC).

Labour: one rule for you, no rules for us.