Wouldn’t Cameron be better off closing this loophole than shaming individuals who, they I may not agree with them, have not broken the law.

Cameron was quick enough to criticise Jimmy Carr. I’ll be looking forward to his reaction when the press uncover similar tax arrangements among Cameron’s friends/family/close associates. Carr has done nothing illegal here. If something is deemed morally wrong by the government, then that government can legislate against it. Simple as that. Cameron’s reaction to this will back fire on him.

Cameron is probably pissed off that the elitist aspect of these schemes has been opened up to allow such common lowlifes as comedians in on the act.
Carr didn’t even go to Eton for god’s sake.
Where will it all stop? lol

I feel he has been very hard done by. I am not saying what he did was the right thing to do, but it was NOT illegal, many, many others do/did the same and he has been singled out in a very unfair manner. I’ve three reasons for that opinion.

First, tax legislation is riddled with holes that permit legal avoidance of tax – and not just in the UK.

If that is the case then people WILL take advantage of them, and really Jimmy Carr is a tiny fish among those who did and do. I can’t imagine that very many people, if told they could reduce their tax bill significantly – and totally legally – would say ‘No thanks, I’d rather pay’. If there are people who say ‘Now, what can I do to make sure I pay as much tax as possible’ well, I’ve never met them.

Secondly, I don’t believe that all of these so called ‘loopholes’ that permit tax avoidance and are availed of by individuals like Jimmy Carr are there accidently. I don’t believe it for a minute.

Many (most?) are there due to the lobbying of those in the financial sector and other powerful interests and are designed for the benefit of the wealthy and powerful. They may not originally have been designed in with the idea that an individual could avail of them – but they most assuredly were designed in to benefit someone and it pretty much certainly wasn’t the ordinary tax payer.

Finally, David Cameron should NEVER have commented on the tax affairs of an individual, that was just wrong.

It would have been easy for him to just say something about tax avoidance generally, and refuse to comment on any individual. It gave the Carr story wings and I really believe that it led a lot of people to believe that what Jimmy Carr did was illegal. Maybe they hoped they could deflect interest away from the real issue of serious inequities in the system and onto Jimmy Carr. I hope they don’t get away with it and that Cameron’s mistake comes back to haunt him.

Great Show. If you want to laugh watch it.

everyone given the opportunity would do the same! much bertie/ ruairi quinn calling themselves artists!!

Cameron just used him to deflect the media away from the way he’s running his country. He was in Mexico. It’s disgraceful the way Jimmy Carr was treated. He did nothing illegal. Britain is the world leader in controlling tax shelters, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, Gibraltar, and all there Caribbean islands. ,

Put it all in comparison. Vodaphone recently got off a few BILLION through similar tax avoidance after negotiations with the British government.
Its easy to have one guy to point a finger at, but not a big corporation with real and tangible effects on government revenues.

I wonder when Cameron will speak out against friends and family members exploiting the same loopholes?

Is there a single person out there who wouldn’t do the same? Think this has totally been blown out of proportion – he did nothing wrong, if I had his millions I would also be trying to hide it!!!

Carr is being very unfairly singled out in this case. It is a well known fact that Bono avoids paying huge amounts of tax in Ireland and does so with little objection from the government or people.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/chatterbox/2006/10/bono_tax_avoider.html

Its a great show and was top notch last night! Jimmy took it on the chin and accepted full responsibility.

Cameron has some cheek, after he is quoted as saying that Britain will roll out the red carpet for French tax exiles after Francois hollande said he’s looking to tax french millionaires at 75%

Have to say he took it on the chin well. In other news Georgie Thompson!!!!!

This whole thing is a farce, he did absolutely nothing wrong. I genuinely would not blame him if he moved his residency after this.

The funniest thing about it is, here and elsewhere he has taken a blasting from some of the very people championing those who haven’t paid the household charge, those who haven’t paid the charge themselves, tv license dodgers and those on welfare and the minimum wage who pay no tax themselves.

I’m glad for Jimmy that he’ll still sleep soundly on his millions at night though, while the bitter little people find something else that doesn’t concern them to get worked up about.

that was epic…fair play to him for coming on and facing it

Brilliant!

Goes to show what a screwed up system we live in. While the middle class and to a lesser extent the working class pay the majority of taxes, the rich and large corporations continue to lobby for tax loopholes that they exploit to the max to fuel the lavish lifestyles they lead and then they want us to idolise them for it. And there answer is more neoliberalism policies of less taxes for them cause they contribute more to society. The fcuk they do.

Priceless he knew it was comming :)

It was a greedy and selfish act, however he owned up to it like a man! Doubt that Cameron would show the same class! Fair play!

I laugh at everyone here on their high horse. Quit bullshitting at the end of the day you or me would have done the same! And anyway he has done nothing illegal. And this coming from Cameron who left his child at a fecking pub lol

Saying sorry and admitting fault is ok but will he pay back everything that he owes ? No good otherwise

can’t get over people thinking this is ok! wether its legal or not its wrong! which he admitted himself. this is the attitude that has this country in bits…everyone wants everything for nothing. the poor millionaire got exposed