George Osborne telling viewers how to dodge taxes

Chancellor George Osborne has made much of his ‘opposition’ to tax avoidance, going so far as to call the practice ‘morally repugnant’. Of course, anyone who watches the Tories will know that it is utterly laughable and laughably hypocritical posturing by the Tories for them to condemn a practice that allows the richest to keep their wealth, since that’s their whole purpose in government. However, it’s not that often that you catch the weasels in flagrante.

I’ve come across a very interesting little video snippet that shows a pre-2010 George Osborne being interviewed by Andrew Neil on the BBC’s ‘Daily Politics’ show. Mr Osborne answers a viewer’s question on inheritance tax and the cost of retirement care.

Osborne, with a shifty look and a sly grin, tells the viewer:

There are some pretty clever financial products

that will allow him to avoid inheritance tax and pass the cost of care for an elderly relative on to the state, before adding.

I probably shouldn’t be advocating this on television.

You think, George?!

‘Clever financial products’ is pretty much the description of the ruse that Jimmy Carr was condemned – by David Cameron himself – for using to reduce his effective tax rate to 1% (though of course, in the next breath, when asked about similar schemes used by Conservative donor Gary Barlow, Cameron said it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on individual cases!). It’s the very definition of the kind of tax avoidance scheme that Osborne decried as ‘morally repugnant.

Here’s the footage, so you can hear and judge for yourself:

Is any further proof necessary not only that Osborne is both morally bankrupt and unfit to be the Cabinet cleaner, let alone Chancellor, but also that this government is intrinsically hypocritical, untrustworthy and prepared to spout any lie it considers politically inconvenient?