Why aren’t we all more shocked about Pandora?
IT’S GREAT to be back in cafés and restaurants again. Not just for the companionship but the shameless ability on my part to earwig the various conversations going on at the next table.
So there I was stirring my flat white when a voice pronounced an opinion on the socalled Pandora Papers.
In case you missed it, this is a serialised expose that has involved the leaking of 12 million files which “lay bare the secret wealth and offshore dealings of the rich and powerful” – and stuff like that.
Apparently, the King of Jordan splashed out more than £70m to buy up a property empire in the UK.
Lawyers for King Abdullah said he used his personal wealth to buy the homes and there was nothing improper about him using offshore firms to do so.
Meanwhile, former PM Tony Blair and his wife Cherie purchased a £6m London office and did not have to pay £312,000 in stamp duty by buying the offshore company that owned it.
Mrs Blair said the sellers had insisted the building was sold in this way but they had brought it under UK control.
The files also reveal allegations that prominent Tory donor Mohamed Amersi was involved in one of Europe’s biggest corruption scandals. Mr Amersi denies any wrongdoing.
If you were expecting widespread outrage at these disclosures, then think again.
Indeed, the public seem to be taking it all in their stride.
In terms of being “startling”, one social media satire site even felt the revelations were on a par with what bears do in the woods.
“To be honest,” said the guy on the table behind me, “if I had that kind of money then I’d probably do the same.”
No angst or angry tablethumping at the thought of money siphoned away in offshore accounts rather than used to pay for public services.
I got pretty much the same outlook from my guest who later joined me for coffee.
It’s almost as if we expect the rich and powerful to act selfishly and solely in their own interests.
I guess these people are only worthy of mainstream media attention when they’re financing self-indulgent space missions or some other vanity project.
Meanwhile, every other headline seems to mention the prospect of rising costs.
We’re likely to see taxation increases and the commercial landscape is already shifting towards one of shortages and crippling supply problems.
Consumers face a bleak future triple-whammy of price rises, inflation and pressure to hike interest rates.
Even so, I’m pretty sure that the view on the next table won’t be changing substantially soon. Which probably says as much about us as it does about the rich and powerful.
I guess these people are only worthy of mainstream media attention when they’re financing selfindulgent space missions or some other vanity project