The Examiner reported the other week that the Isle of Man has signed yet another Tax Information Exchange Agreement with a foreign country.
This kind of thing is all to do with adopting transparency in relation to taxation and the new country we have in the bag is Switzerland.
Treasury Minister Eddie Teare has been there to finalise the deal.
It’s the 29th that we have signed up to with other jurisdictions and, according to Mr Teare, it’s the first deal of its kind that Switzerland has agreed to. Now that makes it a big one.
Switzerland, as I understand these things, pretty well invented international tax havenry and it has been renowned for the secrecy maintained by the Gnomes of Zurich, who make the place sound like some kind of garden city.
Switzerland was the only place not to be invaded by Germany in the Second World War, allegedly because Hitler and Goering and Goebbels had their loot stashed away there in case things went wrong.
Now they’re ready to tell all. What, then, is the next country on the Manx Government’s hard-to-get list?
Well, Eddie, there’s Syria. But I’d keep away from there for a while. It would not be in keeping with the status and dignity of the Treasury Minister to pitch up in Damascus wearing one of those comical gas masks we children had to wear during the war.
There’s Egypt. It doesn’t seem to be quite so tricky there now as it has been. If Eddie pretended to be a tourist I think he would be welcomed with open arms.
But for me the really tough nut to crack under the hammer of taxation transparency is the Democratic Republic of North Korea and its Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un, he of the most ill-favoured looks of all the world’s leaders.
Kim – bit of a girlie name that – will have had his weekly delivery of the Examiner by now and he will have read about our tax agreement with Switzerland.
He might think Eddie will soon be on his way to Pyongyang.
Or will Eddie not fancy it?
All I can say is that Eddie is a deceptively mild-mannered chap who has been known to face down with impeccable cool, in Tynwald Court, the likes of Peter Karran and even Kate Beecroft.
Unfortunately nobody faces Kim down. His face itself is enough to put you off.
That Kim is not to be trifled with was shown the other day when he had his girl friend, a cabaret singer, publicly executed in front of her family.
There is a popular song called ‘Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover’ by Paul Simon. Kim knows only one. He leaves them for dead.
(I wonder what she did wrong. Tell him to get a better haircut? Lie down on the job perhaps?).
No, the fact is that it would be wrong to send Eddie to North Korea, especially at a time when I reckon there’s one or two other MHK’s who would like his job.
What about President Putin next time Minister? Just to keep your hand in.
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The Examiner reported that a children’s climbing frame at West View Park in Peel had been removed because of its worsening condition and Peel town commissioner Ian Davison was reported as saying they were ‘in the process of getting a replacement for the children.’
It sounds like the poor kids are being framed.
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Manx Radio received a media release from the police about damage caused in Ramsey in which the glass panes in the doorway of the Iceland store were ‘broken by a male welding a hammer.’
He obviously wanted to keep it in good repair.
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This time a really tricky Manx crossword clue from Richard Hetherington and seen in the Sunday Times Cryptic: Stars on island take small boat with a bite to eat (10,5) - PLOUGH-MAN-S-L(A)UNCH.
Ouch!