As far as I can make out with reference to the Grauniad/Barclays tax evasion dossier:
1) Barclays has done nothing illegal
2) Barclays hasn’t receieved any aid from the UK taxpayer.
…so this isn’t an issue.
Should Barclays request aid from the UK taxpayer at any point, its activities should, obviously, be taken into account when deciding how much of a haircut its shareholders deserve to be given. But at the moment, it’s trying to stop the UK taxpayer from making it take ‘aid’, which is kind-of the opposite…
It's had some from the US taxpayer though. Sort of….
http://flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com/2009/03/…
Thanks for the link yesterday anyway.
Barclays are totally solvent. The Government should stop the uncertainty by announcing they would never support Barclays if they were shown to be tax avoiding. This should have no impact on the share price, but give some certainty to the market.
Fuck me, that's Solomonic wisdom right there. Matt wins.
One is tempted to observe that it is the UK government's opinion that it did nothing illegal invading Iraq.