In the grounds of Havilland Hall, the largest private estate on Guernsey, there stands an imposing cigar-wielding bronze figure, the likeness of corporate raider David Rowland who has been one of the islands’ longest-serving tax exiles.
The statue of the son of a scrap metal trader was unveiled in 2005, his 60th birthday, at a party where the guest of honor was Rowland’s good friend Prince Andrew.
Once labeled a “shady financier” in the British parliament, Rowland today retains little of the enfant terrible City of London profile that ruffled establishment feathers in the 1970s and 1980s. He is best known as one of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s most generous financial backers, who abruptly reversed out of the role of Conservative party treasurer two years ago.
Rowland’s tax residency today is unclear. He gave more than ￡4 million (US$6.27 million) to the Conservatives between the summer of 2009 and February last year — donations he would only have been able to make if living at a UK address.
“My father doesn’t talk to the press,” said Jonathan Rowland, the dotcom boom entrepreneur who now runs a private Luxembourg bank owned by his family.
Rowland senior, like many super rich who make their home in the Channel Islands, values the privacy island life affords. In common with his friends and near-neighbors Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, who live on the private tax-free island of Brecqhou, photographs of him are extremely rare.
Another Tory donor to have switched residency to Guernsey is the private equity baron Jon Moulton, whose Better Capital fund owns Jaeger, the double-glazing firm Everest, and Reader’s Digest. He joins private equity tycoon Guy Hands, best known for leading Terra Firma’s disastrous takeover of EMI. Hands is a friend of British Foreign Secretary William Hague.
Stephen Lansdown, majority owner of Bristol City football club, said his move to Guernsey followed “ridiculous” UK tax levels. Lansdown’s fortune came from founding Hargreaves Lansdown.
The Formula 1 racing driver Jenson Button moved on from Guernsey to Monaco. The Welsh golfer Ian Woosnam, former F1 champion Nigel Mansell and broadcaster Alan Whicker, live on Jersey, all admitted under special tax deals meant to draw in the super rich.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS