Physician heal thyself

The parent company of a national newspaper is reported as entering into a joint venture to acquire a publishing company. The acquisition, due to take place later this month, will be undertaken via an offshore scheme of reconstruction by which payment of £1 billion of stamp duty will be avoided.

With it being presumed that the reconstruction will be properly undertaken in order to achieve the tax avoidance objective, there would be nothing of any special note. Equivalent planning has been undertaken by many other companies and no one is saying their actions, nor those of said newspaper group, are unlawful.

But, hey wait, the newspaper concerned is the Guardian, home to the no talent censor brigade who are so keen to impose their view of the law on others. Only recently, Tesco were the latest villains of the piece and were reminded by the self righteous, eco-friendly, tofu munching crowd that lawfully avoiding the payment of £1 billion of tax was immoral. No mention, of course, that the consequences of the avoidance being complained of by the newspaper are the moral responsibility of the government which makes the laws in question.

If only to compound their agony, and to add to the hilarity of it all, the Guardian has seen fit to justify its position. We particularly like the newspaper's feeble attempt to explain that stamp duty avoidance is perfectly OK just so long as the avoider (or, in Guardian terminology, scum-sucking criminal evader) does not also avoid the payment of corporation tax.

Guardian star columnist, and champion of the sub-intelligensia, Polly Toynbee, was unavailable for comment.