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
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
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
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS