From my article in The Sunday Times today:
“We tell the world it is our right to have a lower tax base ostensibly because we are more efficient than the lumbering French, Italian or even Scandinavian economies. But of course we are lying to them and ourselves. At 35 per cent, our corporate tax rate for real local businesses (owned by people who actually live here and depend on the local infrastructure to function) is perfectly comparable with that of other European countries.
“Therefore our massive fiscal discounts for non-residents, where we end up charging them less than five per cent, is not the product of some economic miracle or particularly lean public administration, but because it costs us nothing to issue them with a bill.
“We should stop marvelling at our ability to sell something at a fraction of the price that our competitors charge when we are selling stolen goods.”