Jersey Reform Day.
This site is dedicated to the day, now officially recognised annually by the States of Jersey, to mark the anniversary of the events of 28 September 1769.
Jersey's own Independence or Bastille Day.
John McDonnell MP was due to chair the latest meeting of the People's Parliament in Committee Room 16 at the House of Commons on 16 December 2014 but was initially delayed by a debate in the main chamber.
So Austin Mitchell MP chaired and introduced speakers reporter Richard Brooks of "Private Eye" (and author of "The Great Tax Robbery"), Robert Palmer of "Global Witness", Richard Murphy of "Tax Research UK", John Christensen of "Tax Justice Network" and Professor Prem Sikka of the Centre for Global Accountability...some video recordings of the proceedings follow;
Firstly Austin Mitchell's introduction;
Richard Brooks below;
Robert Palmer (Global Witness) part One;
Robert Palmer Part two;
As a footnote the following short video shows the office of the Jersey Government in London just a few minutes walk from the Houses of Parliament and very centrally situated for all the important offices of the UK administration....
Some people live in a place all their life and never understand what makes it tick.
Prof Prem Sikka has been in Jersey for just two days but has arrived at some very critical conclusions already.
Of course, he has visited before and has a political agenda but there comes a time when such people as Prem and Richard Murphy or John Christensen really should be listended to.
Others within the Island have been expressing critical thoughts for many years too and been dismissed by the "establishment" as troublemakers or cranks or worse but such learned people as Prof Sikka should not be so casually dismissed.
His observations on Jersey's failure to achieve acceptable standards of "good governance" are especially relevant now - at a time when Jersey is trying to grapple with reform of the democratic/electoral system.
The spectre of the UK government's restorative role in the Turks and Caicos Islands should be in the minds of all residents of small British territories around the world but especially those that are involved in dubious "tax haven" activities.
Prof Sikka meets all sorts of people around the world and at his Essex University where undergraduates and graduates from over 100 nationalities study. Here he expresses some of his departing thoughts in a ten minutes interview but what a pity that the Jersey government does not engage with his mind more usefully? What a shame that such a person was not invited to serve on the Electoral Commission!
Over the past few years Jersey has removed from office a Chief of Police, the Chief Executive Officer of the States administration, the Auditor General, and now the Church of England Dean is "suspended".
A States' Senator has been imprisoned and hounded and the Chief Magistrate too is currently in jail...A local accountant has just been imprisoned in Australia in connection with the most serious tax evasion case known in that country, finance scandals on an immense scale with international dimensions are regularly being revealed - usually in foreign courts - whilst other local accountants, lawyers and other professionals face prosecution and sometimes jail, in Jersey....
Is this Jersey administration as currently constituted able to provide "good governance"? Is it fit to offer finance services to the wide world?
Prof Prem Sikka is a frequent writer on accountancy and related economic/political matters in National newspapers and regularly advises government departments/politicians. He travels and lectures widely.
see www.guardian.co.uk/profile/premsikka
AABA is the Association for Accountancy & Business Affairs which he heads.
see visar.csustan.edu/aaba/home.html
Membership is just £10 p annum.
Jersey ATTAC in conjunction with TJN (the Tax Justice Network) invited Prem Sikka and John Christensen to Jersey for a few days in April 2013.
An informal discussion and meeting was held at the Post Horn in St Helier and the following videos record some of the proceedings.
These commence with an introductory talk from John and Prem followed by answers to some of the many questions posed.
The sequence of these has been modified here slightly to help the flow and because my editing skills are inadequate.
Initial talk (above) - about 22 minutes
Cyprus now - Jersey next? About 3 minutes
Question Two (part one) About 4 minutes
Qestion two (cont'd) About 3 minutes
John Christensen (of Viking origin) waxes lyrical about some Scandinavian models About 1.5 minutes
ATTAC Jersey is a member of the International Tax Justice Network and TJN
Contacts; Jersey ATTAC http:jerseyattac.blogspot.fr/
TJN http:www.taxjustice.blogspot.fr/
AABA is the Association for Accountancy and Business Affairs headed by Prem Sikka at
visar.csustan.edu/aaba
Richard Murphy is on Facebook
ATTAC translates as the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Benefit of Citizens
Organised by AABA (the Association for Accountancy and Business Affairs, TJN (Tax Justice Network) the Centre for Global Accounting at Essex Business School the Conference took place on 5 and 6 July 2012 at the University of Essex and attracted an audience and speakers from all over the world.
Professor Prem Sikka of Essex Universioty welcomed those present and introduced the first session.
The following interviews are with just some of the many participants at the Conference and are subject to the vagaries of weather, lighting, background noise and so on - but will hopefully serve to confirm just how much concern there is across the world about these most important international issues.
