Tax evasion and tax avoidance

There is something unsavoury, if not malevolent, about using tax evasion and tax avoidance in the same sentence, as if they were one and the same, as Prime Minister Cameron did in Prime Minister's Questions today in the House of Commons.

Miliband, leader of the Opposition Labour party also referred to avoidance as if it were illegal.

You would expect this from Miliband, who is generally seen to be a Marxist and class warrior, but Cameron and Osborne jumped on this populist bandwagon of 'cracking down' on avoidance some time ago because they thought - if they did in fact think about it at all - that it might bring some voter support their way. Another example of Cameron's irresponsibility.

It appeals to the envious and stokes social division, and it may well be that it will be coming back to bite them, and the Tories as a whole. Ironically the whipped up 'scandal', about who had accounts at Swiss banks - another thing which is perfectly legal - covers a period well before the present government was elected in 2010, and when the Labour party was in power, and with its leader Miliband as a Minister.

The questions from the Labour opposition nearly all referred to avoidance, not evasion, forcing Cameron to attempt to clarify, being in something of a fix, but most people won't notice and probably now see no difference between the two and won't give any thought to the facts.