Quote:
Originally Posted by BigV
Does not play in my country, 
However, I *did* hear this story and I applaud his decision to do what I consider the right thing. As a side note, that it is *legal* to do what he did, presumably for everyone, rich and poor, but that only rich people have enough money to do that, tells me that the LAWS are broken. The laws that permit such behavior. We have laws like that here, and they're broken here too. Being able to take part in a society without paying for what it takes to run such a society is wrong; Mr Carr is doing the right thing. |
What I like is that, he could quite reasonably have put all the blame on his accountant's advice. he could quite easily have defended himself on the grounds that others are doing the same thing and yet he has been picked on for naming and shaming (like the MPs all did when they got caught with their noses so deep in the trough it'd be months before they saw sunlight again).
Instead he went the other way. His accountant didn't advise him to do this, rather he offered it as a way of legally minimizing tax and Jimmy took it. A decision he characterises as a 'really poor judgement call'.
I've seen other stars go through similar. Often comedians funnily enough. People who get caught out on tax evasion and then have to ride out the storm, or people like Angus Deayton getting caught with coke and prossies. There's usually a mix of contrition and poor me about the response.
I dont think I've ever seen anyone do such a good job of damage limitation in a situation like this. It's a fucking master class in how to do it.
He has now come out fighting a bit with regards to Cameron sticking his oar in. I think the public response has made it clear that it is perceived as unfair and a pot calling the kettle black. Worse because Carr has no part in setting the tax rules and has never held himself up to be moral or even particularly political. If it'd have been Brigstocke this would be a very different affair.
So, yeah. he had a bit of a pop at Cameron during his Stockport gig this week, whilst still absolutely not shifting the blame anywhere but himself. Clever.