In Praise of Long Sentences and the Harmonisation of the Facts
©David Knopfler December 1998

With the harmonisaton of taxesbeing discussed across Europe, to meet the facts of Union, it occurs to me that perhaps the rich and powerful instead prefer the harmonisation of factsto avoid taxes. I have only one sentence I wish to pass on:


While rich, respectable, gentlemen, demonstrate their facility for suave, debonair, bon ton, refinement and

evidencing

intent, as they hire, corrupt, demi mondaine, respected, accountants and lawyers, to help them hide, conceal, launder, defile, disguise, dissemble, obfuscate, falsify, misrepresent, evade, delay, lay down smoke screens, equivocate, put on an act, keep under their hat, paint, varnish, gild, daub, enamel, lacquer their cover stories, to hoodwink the poor they fleece, rip off, fob off, skim, scam and stuff with no moral conscience whatsoever, so that they can spend their spoils on the usual consumerist gash of the tax evader, one third of the working people in the world, earn a dollar a day or less ... and this makes me remonstrate, dissent, avow social justice, stand firm for honesty and generally assert that we have had quite enough of their shenanigans, chicanery, improbity, deceit, duplicity, guile, double dealing and bamboozling monkey business because it's high time that everyone was treated as equal under the law and that long sentences were applied, for once, to perjuring, story telling, racketeering, law breakers, even when, as is not unusually the case, they are inclined (in receipt of the myriad flunky obsequences of the day) to think of themselves instead as good, public spirited, "chaps" but of course being something of a Buddhist myself, I don't hold any strong feelings on the subject... deep breathing, harmony just around the corner.

Legal Disclaimer: For avoidance of doubt the above does not apply to any persons living, dead, or half and half, I might ever have known, met, will meet or any other such form of connectness that could conceivably get me into the soup or sued for defamation of the good character of the aformentioned fine people. Indeed, so concerned am I to make sure that I have made this point clear and adequately that I have sought free legal advice today on the subject.

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