In his article Pin-Striped Pirates George Monbiot explains how by the British Government’s ownership of tax-havens supports crime and is killing millions in developing countries. George opens his article:

If you want to know why Britain has never completed the process of decolonisation, look at two lists side by side. One is the official register of tax havens, compiled by the OECD. The other is the list of British overseas territories and crown dependencies. Over a quarter of the world’s tax havens are British property. More than half of Britain’s colonial territories and dependencies are tax havens. Strip out Antarctica, the military bases and the scarcely-habited rocks and atolls, and of the 11 remaining properties, only the Falkland Islands is not a recognised haven. The obvious conclusion is that Britain retains these colonies for one purpose: to help banks, corporations and the ultra-rich to avoid tax.

As George writes the website Shelter Offshore, which helps people to avoid their obligations to society, rates Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man as the top tax havens.

Why does this matter? Well here’s a list, I compiled fro George’s article.

1) Tax havens are used to divert money from developing countries, Christian Aid estimates $160 billion a year, the Pope suggests $225 billion and the US research group Global Financial Integrity proposes $900bn.

2) We the tax-payers are robbed when taxes the rest of us pay are avoided.

3) Tax-havens have been a major contribution to the current financial crisis,

Tax havens set out deliberately to “undermine the impact of legislation passed in other jurisdictions”. This is their core business, and this is the threat they pose to the world. Source: The Guardian.

4) Organised crime depends on tax-havens, as George writes anyone who wanted to stamp out drug smuggling, kidnapping, gun-running and fraud would start by shutting down tax havens.

5) At least one Government department has become involved – The Inland Revenue signed a PFI transferring its buildings to Mapeley Steps registered in Bermuda and owned by Mapeley registered in Guernsey, which the FT reports, claims not to have paid tax in any of the jurisdictions it operates.

Read more on these points in George’s article.

I’ve only one thing to say to the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, stop the carnage close the UK’s tax-havens now.