Nazi Gold of Mass Destruction

One of the oldest and crudest political tricks, and therefore a New New Labour favourite, is to distract attention from one's own little indiscretions by pointing out the derelictions of others. In reasonably civilised communities, such as offices, prisons and even families, it occasionally happens that such derelictions are real ones. In politics, particularly of the Thatcherite brand which has been with us these thirty years, no such tactful discernment is necessary. If there is an economic crisis, blame the immigrants. If there is unemployment, punish those who lose their jobs. If you're the chancellor of a corrupt, ineffective, unimaginative, authoritarian government which has done everything it can to demolish what little democratic accountability your country ever had, launch a tirade against Swiss banks.

Gordon's little Darling has unilaterally expelled Switzerland from the international community, seemingly because the Americans are investigating them and Gordon wants to be shoulder to shoulder. Gordon's little Darling, the colleague of Agent Smith and Jack Straw, thinks it's important that there is transparency. Gordon's little Darling, whose boss stood by and let the Reverend Blair lie us into war, observes with an eloquence matching his candour that "half the many problems we have got now is because people didn't know what was going on". Gordon's little Darling, whose government has stretched itself ever rightwards to protect rich corporations from the control or scrutiny of those whose lives they affect, suddenly finds it "unfair" that some people "can shelter their wealth from tax that's properly paid", because "It's unfair to those people who have got no choice but to pay". And it's all the fault of the Swiss.