Snowden Ridicules David Cameron For Defending 'Private' Matter of Panama Papers Leak


If he made his comments in private, Cameron wouldn't look bad, and Snowden wouldn't have anything to point out.

I deduct Cameron needs encryption. I think with a garbage-can over his head he will finally have found the fine line between encryption and censorship.

Edit: I RFTA'ed and found its his spokeswoman that said "That is a private matter, I am focused on what the government is doing."

Which actually makes sense. It is a matter private to the Cameron family, that doesn't mean its not in the public interest though.
 
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Maybe it's a UK thing, but I fail to see what the big deal is. What he did is perfectly legal. They are making it sound like no politician has ever lied to the press about anything ever.
All the media does now a days is ass blast anyone who has opposing views to them/their corporate leadership (who I'm willing to bet is involved in lobbying with these politicians to start with), and make anyone who fails to comply with their ideology look bad.
This is why I stopped watching/reading the news.
 
haaahaaa, cameron sucks big time!
only privacy for the rich/powerfull and none for the people? NOOO! it has to be the other way around.
we need transparency of politics and huge corporations and privacy for the people, because privacy is the 'power' of the weak without a lobby.
 
Maybe it's a UK thing, but I fail to see what the big deal is. What he did is perfectly legal.
David Cameron has publicly castigated other people, such as comedian Jimmy Carr, for benefiting from legal yet morally dubious tax avoidance measures. It turns out he has benefited financially from such things himself. Do you see the problem now?
 
What's morally dubious about not paying more taxes than required?
 
No. Those are two different things.

Edit: Cameron was right to not pay too many taxes. He was wrong for publicly scolding other people for doing the same. People criticising him frequently get this backwards.
 
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Questionable laws that define how rich people pay much less taxes than average "normal people" have to?
I would like to see that (I'm taking legally), this year alone I ended up paying Uncle Sam about ~2x what the "normal person's" income for the year is. I don't have a lot of tax write offs, or deductions, but regardless it gets to a point where it makes people like me question rather taking a higher paying job/position is actually beneficial financially. I mean If i'm going to be placed into the next tax bracket, I would essentially not be making any more income for the amount of responsibilities I would gain.

Although you cannot really complain too much about tax loop holes that the Govt puts there themselves to begin with.
But what do I know, I'm just another Free Market Capitalist.
 
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What's morally dubious about not paying more taxes than required?

Tax justice is an incredibly difficult philosophical issue requiring genuine nuanced thought rather than black & white logic.

For instance by 'required' do you mean required by law or by fairness (broadly speaking ability to pay)?

Do you think it's fair for everyone to pay the same tax (actual total amount), or to share the same tax burden (same percentage of income)?

If it is morally right to pay no more tax than as required by law do you not see a moral issue where wealthy people can afford to pay expensive tax lawyers to lower their tax burden, but less wealthy people cannot?

The Jimmy Carr example is an interesting one, Jimmy Carr hired an accountant to deal with his taxes, the accountant said 'I'll make it so you have to pay as little tax as possible in a 100% legal way', Jimmy said 'OK', and left him to it. The accountant used the K2 scheme.

Here is broadly speaking how K2 tax avoidance scheme works :

UK earners 'quit' their job
They then sign new employment contracts with offshore shell companies
The offshore companies 'rehire' their new employee to the UK but take their earnings
The offshore company pays the employee a much lower salary each month, but 'loans' them several thousand pounds
These loans can be written down as tax liabilities, thus substantially reducing tax payable to the Government

When Mr Carr correctly realised that this is what is known in the trade as a 'cunts' trick' he quickly apologised and agreed to pay his fair share of Tax based on his ability to pay.

@Asaggynoodle : Why don't you hire a tax lawyer and use something like the K2 scheme to avoid Tax?
 
Carr only 'realised' his error after the Times reported that he was amongst hundreds of people using K2 with a Jersey-based firm and the HMRC had started investigations, i.e. it was all in the public domain. He did act relatively promptly to change that once it was revealed and he was being criticised for it, but to say he did it as soon as he realised paints the best possible picture which is probably not the truthful one, especially the way he's acted to take the criticism when it's been handed to him on various TV programmes.
 
Agreed, it would have been better put this way : When Mr Carr correctly realised that everyone else would think that this is what is known in the trade as a 'cunt's trick' he quickly apologised and agreed to pay his fair share of tax, based on his ability to pay.

What galled me at the time is that David Cameron, the most powerful person in the UK legislative chamber pilloried a comedian for what his accountant had been allowed to do by a piss poor legislative approach to tax avoidance. i.e. What David Cameron should have done is grow a pair and take on the UK crown dependencies that allow such immoral and unjust schemes to flourish.

To then see that David Cameron himself has directly benefited from tax avoidance is a rather lovely cherry on top of the initial indignation.

Here's hoping that some real change takes place regarding tax justice in the UK.

For anyone interested in tax justice or justice in general I'd really recommend this series : Justice by Michael Sandel see episode 4 for the one about tax. Can't rate this series highly enough, it literally changed my whole way of thinking, not so much what I thought, but how I thought it....
 
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