Jeremy Corbyn’s swipe at the Queen yesterday came towards the end of an appearance at the CBI conference where he was all pumped-up and boasty.
Boxers get like this at weigh-ins. The more they whack their glistening chests, the more publicity they gain.
We had flogged down to London’s Docklands, where the big finance houses have their skyscrapers, and you could as easily be in downtown Cincinnati as in England. It is a soulless part of the world. Hardly anyone was wearing a poppy.
Jeremy Corbyn’s swipe at the Queen yesterday came towards the end of an appearance at the CBI conference where he was all pumped-up and boasty
(And to those who have upbraided me for not wearing a poppy on TV’s Have I Got News For You last Friday, apologies. I was wearing one beforehand but was asked to remove it. I should have held my ground but wimped out for an easy life.)
Back to yesterday. The Confederation of British Industry was holding its annual conference, always an uneasy mix of globalising schmooze and good-citizen platitudes.
The CBI helps executives partake in ‘facilitated networking’. Such is big business’s idea of meritocracy.
Theresa May had spoken earlier in the morning. The PM had given a bland, uncontentious speech – basically, ‘we’re getting on with Brexit and will keep as much access to the EU markets for you as we can’.
She managed to overlook the rudeness of the CBI’s president, Paul Drechsler, who had just made a speech comparing her Brexit negotiations to ‘prime-time soap opera’.
Mr Drechsler, all beaver teeth and trans-Atlantic consonants, is a Remoaner; yet he urged ‘our Parliament’ to stop causing uncertainty over Brexit.
‘Our’ Parliament? Mr Drechsler himself is Irish.
Theresa May had given a bland, uncontentious speech at the CBI summit in London’s Docklands
When Mr Corbyn arrived an hour or so later, an ‘absolutely thrilled’ Mr Drechsler gave him a warmer build-up than he had extended to Mrs May. ‘He’s a great speaker and this is his natural zone,’ gushed Comrade Drechsler.
Mr Corbyn proceeded to announce that he had done brilliantly at the general election and that the CBI and its ilk should get used to the idea of renationalisation of former public companies.
Oh, and taxes were going to rise. ‘I knew you’d welcome that,’ he said, when the audience of multinational middle-management types heard his remark in bleak silence. His wisecrack met with some faintly sick laughter.
He was telling them heavy socialism was coming down the track and they, the capitalist swine, were gonna love it. It is possible the speech was made simply to give Mr Corbyn’s acolytes some footage to show Left-wing audiences ‘here’s the time Jeremy shoved it up the CBI’.
The longer Mr Corbyn spoke, the more confident he became. He even claimed Labour had ‘common ground’ with the CBI over Brexit.
The longer Mr Corbyn spoke, the more confident he became. He even claimed Labour had ‘common ground’ with the CBI over Brexit
Then a reporter asked about the Queen. Should Her Majesty ‘apologise’ after her name appeared in connection with the Paradise Papers of alleged tax dodgers?
Mr Corbyn, almost without hesitation: ‘Well, anyone who is putting money into tax havens should do two things – not just apologise for it but also recognise what it does to our society.’ As he spoke, he advanced down the stage, revelling in the moment.
The Monarch was not the only one who needed to raise her game, he made clear. Any form of tax efficiency was wrong. ‘We simply have to challenge the culture that there is something clever about avoiding taxation,’ he asserted. ‘It undermines every one of us.’
Note that he said ‘avoiding taxation’. That is quite different from tax evasion, which is illegal. Tax avoidance is reducing your tax bill legally by, say, topping up your pension, giving money to charity, investing your savings in ISAs, claiming business expenses and following most forms of tax advice from an accountant. Tax avoidance may even be as mundane as using a duty-free shop (and once we’re out of the EU, we should be able to do duty-free shopping again on trips to France).
Mr Corbyn must know the difference between avoidance and evasion. He chose to say ‘avoidance’.