Taking Stock: Actors and tax - never be-twain shall meet
Acting couple Emma Thompson and Greg Wise have waded into HSBC's tax furore
IT WAS Albert Einstein who famously noted that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
TS is happy to defer to Big Al’s [pictured] better judgment on such matters, and it’s with that in mind that we were rather puzzled by the words of acting couple Emma Thompson and Greg Wise in the wake of the tax scandal embattling HSBC and its Swiss private bank.
“I want to stop paying tax, until everyone pays tax,” Wise told the Evening Standard. “I have actively loved paying tax, because I am a profound fucking socialist and I believe we are all in it together. But I am disgusted with HMRC. I am disgusted with HSBC. And I’m not paying a penny more until those evil bastards go to prison.”
While TS has sympathy for the pair’s righteous fury, we respectfully suggest that tactic is unlikely to help anyone or anything on any level.
In fact, if we wanted to improve the tax situation and the culture in the City, that policy could only lead to collective insanity.
Just ask Albert.