Jimmy’s example shames the rich tax evaders

AMONG the many glowing tributes to the late Sir Jimmy Savile was one revealing that, in addition to raising millions for charities, he also gave them 90 per cent of his own earnings (Yorkshire Post, November 10). Despite this, he still managed to become the owner of four expensive properties and a rather nice motor car! It is a pity that some well-heeled others cannot follow his example to help us in these straitened times.

From time to time, I read about those who are sufficiently rich and powerful to be able to come to an arrangement with HMRC to pay little or no tax on earnings.

As a fitting memorial to the great man, would it not be the most fantastic Jim’ll Fix It ever, if the “great and the good” could be persuaded en masse to follow his lead, not necessarily to make charitable donations, but simply to pay tax on earnings using the same system as the majority of us.

Even if done as a “one-off” for the current tax year, it would fill a massive hole in our current deficit, and truly show that “we are all in it together” to coin a phrase oft used by our old Etonian leaders. Surely, despite their lack of proper education and experience, even they can see that their current tactics of picking the pockets of the weak, the old, the poor, and the vulnerable, by cutting the services chiefly used by this sector, are mistaken, and that it will take years for the ensuing savings to reach sufficient proportions to get the books to balance