Peter’s Blog

Captain Kidd, human rights victim - International Herald Tribune

While the French were flying six of the captured pirates to Paris to face trial, the British Foreign Office issued a directive to the once vaunted Royal Navy not to detain any pirates, because doing so could violate their human rights. British warships patrolling the pirate-infested waters off Somalia were advised that captured pirates could claim asylum in Britain and that those who were returned to Somalia faced beheading for murder or a hand chopped off for theft under Islamic law.

BBC NEWS | UK | ‘Bring on the property crash’

I understand that it’s hard to buy a house in the UK when you’re young and making a basic salary. But what’s unsaid in this article is that you have people earning £20k a year (like one IT worker profiled) and people thinking it’s a good salary. It’s long been my conviction that British purchasing power is shit: numerical costs are only slightly lower, thanks to the strong pound, but wages are much lower. I would MUCH rather earn $40k in the US than £20k in the UK.

BBC NEWS | Business | UK in Liechtenstein tax data deal

The UK’s tax authority has confirmed that it has paid an informant for data regarding British citizens who have accounts in tax haven Liechtenstein.

First Germany, now the UK. So much for Liechtenstein’s claims about client confidentiality. Laws are nothing when you have much larger, richer countries willing to pay leakers millions of dollars for secret client lists.