Fallout

On Monday we learned that Iceland's Prime Minister had a secret offshore company which he had inexplicably failed to declare to parliament when he was elected. Even worse, it held millions of dollars in claims on Iceland's collapsed banks, creating a serious conflict of interest with his campaign promises. Naturally, there were massive protests - Iceland hasn't forgotten that it is a democracy yet - and today, the corrupt scumbag was driven from office. Its unclear at this stage whether there will be a snap election, but given how many of Iceland's senior Ministers also had secret offshore companies, that's probably only a matter of time.

Meanwhile, in the UK, David Cameron is coming under similar pressure. It turns out that his father is up to his neck in offshore tax-cheating, and Cameron is refusing to answer questions about it:

David Cameron was left dangerously exposed on Tuesday after repeatedly failing to provide a clear and full account about links to an offshore fund set up by his late father, as the storm over the Panama Papers gathered strength in both the UK and elsewhere around the world.

The prime minister and his office have now offered three partial answers about the fund set up by his father Ian, which avoided ever paying tax in Britain. The key unanswered question is whether the prime minister’s family stands to gain in the future from his father’s company, Blairmore, an investment fund run from the Bahamas.

Cameron has previously denounced tax cheating, and rightly so: it is simply immoral to launder money to avoid paying your fair share. But the same applies to people who benefit from tax cheating, and Cameron needs to come clean about it so the public can hold him accountable. Meanwhile, if the UK public doesn't want to be led by tax cheats, maybe they should take a page from Iceland's book, surround the Parliament, and refuse to move until the elite resigns and calls new, democratic elections.