Entente Cordiale by necessity

I was watching the Channel Four news discussion between Peter Mandelson, Britain's Secretary of State for Business, and Christine Lagarde, the French Finance Minister, and for all the disagreements between Britain and mainland Europe on how to get out of our financial mess, there was a rare bon accord between the British and French ministers on one issue - the need to deal with tax havens.



I have to say that Mandelson, who I have never particularly liked since his days as Blair's enforcer pre 1997, is a more than competent Minister and he was refreshingly honest about past fiscal mistakes. Of course he could afford to be as they were all Brown's mistakes and we all know etc etc.... But anyway he didn't duck or hedge and said that the expansive love in Labour had with the free market and minimal controls had proved to be a mistake and lessons needed to be learned. He was insistent that British tax havens like my paternal homeland, the Isle of Man, plus the Channel Islands and other places within the reach of British intervention would be brought to book and disclosure compelled under new international finance rules to be drawn up at the G20 summit next week.



Mme Lagarde nodded enthusiastically and added her own firm support for the similar control of French hideouts like Monaco. I gather the French have already compelled Prince Albert to sign a declaration that the assets of French companies and individuals held in Monaco will be disclosed to the French government.

If all this goes through it is a massive step. It's one which is, of course, overdue and maybe - making virtue out of necessity - it may be the start of a more prudent mind set in terms of government and individuals about finance and savings and not spending money you haven't got. There does seem to be a feeling of urgency that somehow we have to get back to basic prudence in our financial dealings and hurray for that!

As a by product though, it does make me wonder what is to become of the Isle of Man, a place for which, being my father's home and where I had many happy childhood memories, I have a lot of affection. It has long faded as a holiday resort , in which guise it flourished up to the 1960s and has since become a centre of 'tax efficiency' as I was once taught to call it by the insurance company for which I worked. For many years now the TT tourist's motor bikes and old cars have been replaced by Porsches and Mercedes saloons parked outside the new company HQs which have sprung up all over and provided the island with a lot of stable revenue. It seems to have nowhere else to go if, as a result of new legislation, all these advantages disappear.

Sad for the Isle of Man, and its fellow havens, but very necessary and overdue.