pwa wrote:Oldjohnw wrote:pwa wrote:So some of you think we are not living in more enlightened times and we haven't progressed from times when ordinary people did not have a vote, ordinary kids did not go to school, urchins swept chimneys and tended mechanical looms, women's rights hardly existed at all, capital punishment for theft was normal, etc, etc ? Don't you think you might have lost some perspective?
I don't believe that either I or anyone else said that we are not living in more enlightened times. We were pointing out that there are still huge issues around and we have to continue to fight.
Agreed. We have come a long way but we have a distance still to go.
Of course we have progressed, but progress has been resisted by the reactionaries at every step.
The method of resistance has varied of course, and when reform has been achieved
they have often had to accept it, while working to reverse it.
The idea that we have reached a happy enlightened state and have no need of further reform is a way of resisting.
Think of the NHS and the Welfare State.
Think of the undemocratic House of Lords.
The Duke of Westminster is one of the richest people in Britain.
The privileged people work hard, often covertly to hang on to their money.
The UK is an ideal place to keep your ill gotten gains, e.g. Russian oligarchs.
Money can be kept secretly and untaxed and reforms are resisted very effectively.
Britain has been described as the “greatest enabler of corporate tax avoidance in the world” after it was revealed eight out of the ten jurisdictions with the highest corporate tax haven scores are British territories.
Research by the Tax Justice Network found the UK and its “corporate tax haven network” to be by far the world’s greatest enabler of corporate tax avoidance, with scores of its territories and dependencies landing in the top 10 offender list.
The British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Anguilla, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey all appeared on the list, with the UK as a whole ranked in 13th.
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/8-out-of-the-10-biggest-tax-havens-are-british-territories/30/05/