Tag Archives: holland

Opinion: Lessons from the Netherlands on Lib Dem strategy

Netherlands-4778 - Wooden GrondzeilerA few months after the UK Coalition Government formed in 2010, the Dutch Christian Democrats (CDA) formed a minority government with our sister party, the liberal VVD. To get a majority agreement, the VVD-CDA coalition made a confidence and supply agreement with right-wing Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party (PVV), which set out a number of policy concession to Wilders, e.g. on immigration. That was a decision with huge impact: the PVV was about as toxic as it could get for many CDA and VVD supporters. The fall-out …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 53 Comments

Should governments buy stolen data when hunting tax evaders?

That’s the question a series of governments across Europe have been grappling with in the last few months. Stolen Swiss bank data reveals key evidence about tax evaders from several countries. Not only is it stolen data but it is only being made available at a price:

A CD identifying around 1500 Germans who have illicit Swiss accounts was procured by a former employee at the Geneva branch of HSBC bank. The disc, which could return an estimated €200 million ($393 million) in lost revenue, was offered to the German Government for €2.5 million…

Merkel and her Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schuble, initially

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 6 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Big Tall Tim
    Excellent stuff Ed. Very well said...
  • Simon Robinson
    @Roland. Yes strictly speaking you are correct that it's the individual who chooses to view high taxes as a disincentive. But realistically, the vast majority o...
  • Richard Treadwell
    Do you think we need to spell out how we'll pay for our expensive tax cuts and defence investment? Surely, rejoining the single market/customs union (valuable a...
  • David Raw
    "David Chadwick launches bid to be Welsh Lib Dem Leader"..................... how can he 'launch a bid ' when he is the only qualified candidate ?...
  • Mick Taylor
    @Tristan Ward. I do think that we do need higher tax rates than we have for the very rich and some way of taxing wealth, probably through land or property taxat...