People in glass houses
The Guardian has been lobbing stones at Barclays from the comfort of its glass house - and it wasn't long before it was taken to task, notes Dougal Paver.
Back in 1936 the Duke of Westminster secured a landmark ruling against HMRC that stated that every man was free to order his tax affairs in a way that legally reduced his tax liability.
It's been the cornerstone of tax planning ever since and, on the basis that governments rarely invest your hard-earned as wisely as you or I would, plenty of people follow its simple tennet.
Among them were the trustees of the Guardian Media Group who payed no tax whatsoever on £302m of profits in 2008 and used a tax loophole to avoid paying capital gains tax on a further £300m profit related to a disposal.
A bit rich, then, for the Guardian to take Barclays to task on the subject.
Quite what made them think that no-one would notice this glaring, er, inconsistency is a bit beyond me. Everyone's favourite right wing blogger, Guido Fawkes, takes them to task royally on the matter today.
In PR terms it points to a universal truth: that whatever stance you take on a subject has to be utterly, completely defendable, lest you're viewed as lobbing stones from your own glass house.
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