The Chief Minister has said he will "resist all attempts" from the UK Parliament to create a transparent, public register of beneficial ownership that could reveal who owns assets in companies registered in Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories such as Jersey. The Labour Party and (it is believed) a significant number of Tories are due to vote in favour of an amendment to the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill by Labour MP Margaret Hodge due to be debated in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Gorst's response to this attempt to end dodgy secret ownership of companies based in tax havens like Jersey? This is "unconstitutional" and "impossible to force on our island without our consent". His defense of Jersey's system was that we already have a register of beneficial ownership - one that isn't publicly accessible (wouldn't do for the plebs to be able to see where the 1% are hiding their dosh). I find it amazing how shamelessly Gorst hides behind constitutionalism to defend a broken, immoral system that hides the wealth of the rich and helps them avoid their most basic responsibility to society. Our finance industry is a machine that enables the rich and powerful to evade paying into the society that enabled them to become wealthy, actively starving other nations of what's rightfully theirs. Gorst's shameless constitutional defense is pretty disgusting - I'm not usually Mr Pro-Britain, but if there's one thing the UK Gov. should be forcing on us, it's this.
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