The huge tax scandal developing around HSBC's industrial-scale Swiss-based tax-evasion operation is not really new, since the British tax authorities received all the details of this gigantic scam from their French colleagues, 5 years ago. It is only being exposed now, presumably to maximise the ConDems' embarrassment in the run-up to the election.
But too bad. The ConDems and their millionaire government have only themselves to blame. No-one else will be shedding any tears over them!
Everyone knew where the money was
The HSBC saga started in 2007, when a Swiss whistleblower sought asylum in France, bringing with him the details of 30,000 accounts held in HSBC's Geneva branch, totalling £78bn.
More than three quarters of these accounts belonged to foreigners hiding their cash behind the Swiss bank secrecy, to avoid paying taxes, of course. Among these foreigners, the largest single national group was that of 8,883 British customers holding £14bn between them - an average of £1.6m each!
It's not that HSBC is the "bad apple" among the banks, nor that these 8,883 tax dodgers are worse than their wealthy peers. What HSBC has done is what all banks do - help the filthy rich to become richer and filthier. Every bank has at least a finger - if not both hands - in the very profitable pie of "private banking", serving their wealthy customers. Just as tax evasion is, among other things, part of what all fat cats do, to become always richer by every possible means, including the most dubious.
Although HSBC is the only villain pilloried by the media, it is just one out of many. In fact it is the whole profit system which needs a good clean-up, to free society from these capitalist parasites and scroungers. And ultimately, it must be cleaned right out of existence.
They only serve the rich
But who is going to clean up this corrupt system? And this is where another scandal turns up.
Over the 5 years that HMRC has been in possession of the evidence, it has launched only one single prosecution - out of 8,883 potential cases! But it did go out of its way to reassure Swiss banks, by stating in an official document that it would "not be in the public interest" to prosecute them. So, HSBC has nothing to worry about! In fact, Cameron cared so little about the bank's scam that, in 2011, despite knowing all about it, he appointed HSBC Board Chairman, Stephen Green, as trade minister!
However, it was a bit rich of Miliband to use these scandals in his electioneering. After all, wasn't it under Labour's watch that these hidden accounts were opened in the first place? And didn't Labour cut both the corporation and capital gains taxes paid by the wealthy? Didn't they fail to do anything about Britain's tax havens, like Jersey, Gibraltar, etc..? Didn't they create a portfolio for "Lord" Myners, just to placate the City?
Enough of their class system!
The politicians' leniency towards the rich is in keeping with their attitude to scrooge bosses who fail to pay the minimum wage: in May last year, 230,000 workers were paid less than the minimum wage, but there were just 7 prosecutions under Labour and then only 2, since 2010!
But compare their leniency towards the fat cats, to their harassment of the poor. Labour started it and the ConDems made it worse. Over the past year, 1,046,398 benefit cuts were imposed on JSA claimants. The pretexts used were so dubious that half of the sanctions were overturned on appeal. But this still means that ½m jobless lost their incomes, often just for missing an appointment or not looking hard enough for a non-existent job!
And now Cameron has come up with the idea of imposing sanctions on the 100,000 claimants on long-term sickness, who, according to him, have "treatable conditions" (related to obesity, drug and alcohol-addiction), unless they get themselves onto treatment. Never mind that in the ConDems' crumbling NHS, such treatment is mostly unavailable!
This is really where the scandal lies. Because, for the politicians of the capitalist class, it is always "in the public interest" to harass the poor, sanction and even sometimes prosecute them - as long as it helps the bosses to tighten the screw of exploitation by another notch.
Whatever the politicians claim today, in order to get our votes, the wealthy and their banks will carry on ripping off society - because they give the orders to ministers who are there to oblige them - while the poorest carry on footing the bill.
Unless, of course, we, workers, decide to throw a spanner in the capitalist works and impose our control over their banks, their assets and, finally, over their entire system.