I’ve had my twp penny’s worth on the Queen’s Speech and Claude Carpentieri makes a very good point on the Hagley Road to Ladywood blog.

“In Britain”, Gordon Brown said yesterday, there could never be “one rule for some and another rule for others”.

But Brown wasn’t talking about the country’s feudal structures. He wasn’t on about Prince Charles and his untaxed £16 million income from the Duchy of Cornwall. Nor was the Prime Minister referring to Britain’s annual £25bn lost from tax avoidance (according to the Observer, the sum would be “enough money to increase old-age pensions by 20 per cent”). How about Britain hosting 35 tax havens out of a world total of 70? And would the Prime Minister do whatever it takes to stop billionaires like Mohammed al-Fayed “negotiating the amount of tax he paid with the Inland Revenue”?

Hat Tip: Chicken Yoghurt.