I really don’t care if journalists stick a microphone in Dermot Desmond’s face and ask him questions about tax, Dermot is big and bad enough to look after himself, the letter he issued to BBC’s Mark Daly confirms as much. What troubles me is the inordinate double standards employed by the Scottish media.
Graeme Souness and Walter Smith were recipients of an aggressive tax avoidance scheme, funded by Rangers before their liquidation, while employed as managers of clubs in England. Why are they not subjected to the microphone treatment when they walk into football stadiums, as they do every week?
Unlike anything Dermot has been asked about (no one disputes the legality of Dermot’s arrangement), the Rangers scheme was found in court to be in contravention of tax law.
Why Souness and Smith were in receipt of money from Rangers, while they were employed elsewhere, is a question studiously avoided by their many friends in the media. It is not just these two. More than 50 Rangers players received payments through the same mechanism, all struck down in court. Not a week goes by without some of these former players or managers making media appearances, several sit down with the very people who deemed want to talk about Dermot Desmond this week. None are called to account for their struck-down tax arrangements in the way Dermot was for his (legal) arrangements.
I feel we are in the territory of SNP’s Christine Grahame here. Celtic do nothing wrong so change the frame of reference to allow you to tangentially include Celtic. Then screaming “Celtic” and “tax” all over the front page for an issue that involves one of our shareholders, but has nothing to do with the club. It is sloppy, but unlike Ms Grahame’s intervention, no innocents will be locked up this time.
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GLENDALYSTONSILS on 7TH NOVEMBER 2017 1:41 PM
Because an activity doesn’t have to be illegal to be in need of public scrutiny.
Indeed the point might be that an activity is legal but shouldn’t be.
The BBC footage was more embarrassing than dramatic. Most people in Scotland ( outside of West Coast ) would have had no idea of who or what Dermot Desmond is.
it was an excuse to smear Celtic FC, nothing more, nothing less.
Between 1965 and the present, the worst Celtic strikers played while Brady and Macari were in charge. There were a few candidates for the worst, but my tip is for Stuart Slater. Oh God I cringe at the thought of that era.
Hey ho, look at us now.
HH
I’d impose a ban until an apology is reviewed .
Reputational damage to Celtic is not in the interest of shareholders.
Why a matter unrelated to Celtic FC was discussed and filmed outside Celtic park needs explained.
Ciftci is as bad a player i have ever seen in the Hoops…
CULTSBHOY- LAST OF THE FAMOUS INTERNATIONAL PLAYBHOYS on 7TH NOVEMBER 2017 1:47 PM
‘Why a matter unrelated to Celtic FC was discussed and filmed outside Celtic park needs explained.’
###
1. They’d written to him setting out their understanding and asked for a response. They didn’t get one.
2. They would have known The Great Desmondo would have been outside CP and accessible (up to a point). It seems like an obvious place to try to interview him. A bit like them ambushing that Irish actress outside BBC Scotland. Maybe they have agenda against the BBC too.
Ern not like you to be so slipshod in the spelling dept. H H Hebcelt
The Architect
https://youtu.be/r3IID1bu16g
the Desmond issue was the headline item on the BBC Scotland news at 6:30 yesterday, at the 6pm edition of the news from London DD didn’t get a mention, nor was he on the main event which was Panorama at 9pm. It was only in Scotland , and only because DD is linked to Celtic, no other reason than that..
what did Martin O Neill say about the msms? ” if you travel two miles South of Carlisle none has ever heard of them”
Dermot pays tax on his Celtic dividends.
That’s what people should be really angry about!!!
The dividends I mean….
ERNIE LYNCH on 7TH NOVEMBER 2017 1:46 PM
That is obviously the inference, and I have no quarrel with the BBC highlighting moral or ethical issues.
Provided of course, that they do this even handedly.
To be selective in this however, is unprofessional and questionable.
Irrespective of the legality/morality of the issues, it is generally not a good idea to noise up a billionaire with vindictive tendencies and a track record of avenging slights.
RAY WINSTONE’S BIG DISEMBODIED HEID on 7TH NOVEMBER 2017 2:13 PM
You could be talking about Donald Trump.
Just nipped in . Paul 67 , a right good article that sums up the double standards. It may be a bit of fun for some, but anyone who has been selected to represent Celtic had my support at the time . Sometimes they caused frustration, especially in the darker unsuccessful years , but no matter how much frustration they caused, I can still only envy them, not ridicule. No one gets, or got to play for Celtic that was utter shite at football. BahhumbugCSC
Bans and blockades?
Really?
Almost never a good idea.
Publish and be damned i say!
HH
Also from the BBC……………….
Sir David Murray ‘s EBT £6.3m
15 titles and 26 cups.
Sold shares to Craig Whyte for £1.
Gavin Rae ( no laughing at the back )
Midfielder ( stop it ) joined Rangers from Dundee in 2004 for a fee of £250,000. Transferred to Cardiff in 2007.
EBT ; £376,000
Side letters seen by the BBC / Yes
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 7TH NOVEMBER 2017 2:26 PM
Pointing out the hypocrisy of BBC Scotland in employing so many beneficiaries of (failed) dodgy tax schemes is a far better line to take than complaining about their questioning of The Great Desmondo.
A thought just Cayman to my head…I wonder where Mark Daly’s BBC pension is invested?
To be honest I’m a little Bermudused by the Beeb pretending to be the moral arbiter.
There’s no SMOKE without fire…
Maybe Mark Daly is being a tad machiavellian here. He was the one who made the “they sold the jerseys” , about the EBTs scandal and then seems to have been prevented from doing any follow follow up, when the Supreme Court ruled their use illegal. Maybe, just maybe, he knows going after DD because of his Celtic connection is not something that can be defended and BBC London might take a greater interest in the workings of BBC Scotland, and particularly the sports department, who regularly employ a few of those EBT recipients……
Ernie
More BBC Hypocrosy?
ernie lynch on 7th November 2017 2:32 pm
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 7TH NOVEMBER 2017 2:26 PM
Pointing out the hypocrisy of BBC Scotland in employing so many beneficiaries of (failed) dodgy tax schemes is a far better line to take than complaining about their questioning of The Great Desmondo.
——————————————————————————–
To be honest I wouldn’t really have cared if Daly had got DD in a headlock to ask him the questions…but that doesn’t detract from the fact that the story is weak…powerfully weak…
HUNDERBIRDSAREGONE
I think Nicholas MkII would make both lists-as would Walker MkII.
Never go back? Seems so. Even Macca MkII wasn’t up to much.
DAVIDOPOULOS on 7TH NOVEMBER 2017 2:43 PM
The story is weak.
But it’s part of a global story and BBC Scotland want to have a piece of the action.
The storyinvolves someone who is reasonably well known who has connections to a well known football club and if there’s no one else mentioned in the Paradise papers with any higher profile in Scotland then it’s going to be reported.
This would never have been reported on its own it’s only because it’s a small piece in a big jigsaw that it merits any interest.
I think we need to keep a sense of proportion and perspective about it all.
Useless strikers, Pukki.
ANGELGABRIEL
Indeed,mate. They all had my support. I reckon everyone would be the same.
But ffs some of them lived the dream but put us through a nightmare!!!
ernie lynch
Oh yes, absolutely there is a wider story to be told. I don’t really have a problem with a story about DD being run.
My real concern is for awe them windaes in the BBC’s glass house…
Bmcuwp. That’s true pal , however they didn’t select themselves. Blame the gaffers. ;-))
I hope every single penny from every single person, be it the Queen or Dermot Desmond, if they have acted illegally personally or acted via misplaced professional advice, is clawed back and put to use investing in hospitals, schools, pensioners and the poorer in society.
I do not give a monkeys that Dermot Desmond is Celtic’s largest shareholder or not. If he is due to repay VAT on his aeroplane fleet due to manipulation of the system and lease back’s etc. then I hope HMRC go for him. If he hasn’t done anything wrong then he has nothing to worry about and as he has stated in his letter to Mark Daly he will take and win a court action.
I’ve no interest in the BBC Hunland and what they do.
MWD
Just thought I’d ask who a’body’s favourite player of all time might be. To get things rolling I vote for Paulo Maldini.
KINGLuBO
ps Lubo my no.2
MOONBEAMSWD on 7TH NOVEMBER 2017 3:02 PM
It wasn’t the Queen who was involved personally. It was the Duchy of Lancaster, which is exempt from tax. So whatever the reasons it was involved it wasn’t to avoid tax. The Queen is also exempt from tax but pays some on a voluntary basis. Which is nice of her. And so very unlike some of her most loyal follow followers.
MOONBEAMSWD
I think a huge part of the problem is the willingness of various governments to permit and even facilitate tax avoidance.
If methods are being used against the intent of the laws on taxation,they shouldn’t be shrugged off,they should be actively pursued.
We aren’t talking peanuts here,estimates are around £120bn annually. Or about a dozen Brinks-Mats sized thefts per day.
KINGLUBO
Non-Celtic,I would have Cruyff then Beckenbauer.
Paddy Roberts back running today
Let’s face it BMCUWP
Government is the tool of the rich to get richer. It’s what they do.
If you or I somehow manage to have an underpaid tax contribution of a £1 they’d be running after us for every penny until it was paid. They will happily also over charge on the Tax and refuse to give it back immediately until year end.
Tax, government and HMRC is just sham to keep the rich rich and the poor poor.
MWD
KingLubo
Favourite non-Celtic player?
Dorothy (Dee Hepburn) from Gregory’s Girl … but only because Susan (Claire Grogan ) wasn’t a footballer …
Let’s be clear about this. Dermot Desmond is being highlighted by BBC Scotland ONLY because of his association with Celtic and it is nothing more than a crude attempt to smear the club by association since they have no other means to do so.
All the while they conveniently ignore the tax cheats in their employ that appear on their radio sports programmes on a daily basis.
I think they may have seriously pissed on their chips on this occasion.
Paul67 et al
‘Mr. Salmond said a Summit would be held this week, “to chart a way forward in Old Firm encounters and that Celtic, Rangers and the SFA had agreed to attend” ‘ (The Scotsman March 2011). A ‘Summit’ which led directly to the OBAF Bill and Act and allowed Christine Grahame to frame the legislation as a process through which prosecutions could be evened up. Not sure where Dermot was that week, could have been Bermuda, Bahamas, the Virgin Islands or even Mustique. Other tax avoiding entities are available.
Fast forward to CQN Magazine December 2016 and an interview with John Paul Taylor;
“…..However, in the light of the publicity at the time Celtic took the view that attending the Summit was better than non-attendance”. Wasn’t it just.
Now a more fruitful line of inquiry for the BBC would be an investigation into the creation of Scottish limited partnerships using Scottish law firms, by shell companies linked to international money laundering, or would that, like the MIH/BOS scandal, be just too close to home?