Fat cat scandals

Posted in Janine's blog on Mon, 25/06/2007 - 18:21,

Fancy a billion quid between you and your mate? Pierre Lagrange and Noam Gottesman are in line for what the papers call a 'windfall', surely one of the greatest under-statements of our time.

And what are they doing to 'deserve' this bonanza? Floating their company, that's what. They are hedge fund managers, and will trouser 135m quid in cash and 340m quid in shares. That should help to maintain the standard of life to which they are accustomed, living in country mansions and London pads worth millions each.

Only a bonkers system like capitalism could make a few so rich while others starve. And could pollute people's minds so much to imagine that anyone 'earns' these obscene sums simply by shrewd investment gambling.

Meanwhile, it seems that only a small fraction of Britain's mega-rich are paying income tax, as the rest find ways (or pay accountants to find ways) to avoid paying something they could easily afford and which, thanks to Gordon Brown, ain't much anyway. According to the Evening Standard, 400+ people based in the UK earn, or have enough capital to make, more than ten million quid a year. But only 65 of them paid income tax. Their fellow fat cats' tax evasion is costing the Treasury up to two billion pounds a year.

Oh, isn't there a phone line which you can ring to snitch up cheats who are ripping off the great British taxpayer? I think I'll give them a call. Or is that for grassing on your neighbour for doing a bit of cash-in-hand cabbing, rather than the mega-rich who are living it up at everyone's expense?!

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