Michael the Martyr

Another Latin American state has gone rogue: the government of Belize has launched an unprovoked attack on the owner of the Conservative Party while seeking to benefit, of all things, taxpayers. Belize has nationalised ("seized control of", as Britain's leading liberal newspaper hath it) the registry of corporate tax dodgers which was previously operated by a company part-owned by one of Lord Ashcroft's little toys. The Belize government has also hatched a fiendish plan to tax the operating company for thirty million dollars, the price of several British cabinet ministers. The prime minister of Belize claims that the country's economy is being endangered; Ashcroft's little toy is squealing that financial apocalypse is nigh again; and Ashcroft's slightly smaller toy, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, is probably a quavering pale-purple heap somewhere, wondering whether his master's reduced financial circumstances will force him to downsize his stake in the Government.