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I was laid low most of last week with a tummy bug. Thankfully, I’m fine now and, although the experience was far from pleasant, it did give me a bit more time to follow the cricket and read people’s opinions of the performance of the two sides.
The big talking point was the stumping of Jonny Bairstow. Everybody agrees that it was technically ‘out’ but the argument about whether it was within the spirit of the game still goes on.
It struck me that it was a really interesting metaphor for our current stance on the promotion of tax avoidance. After all, isn’t PCRT saying to us ‘you don’t just ask whether something works technically: you have to consider whether it is within the spirit of the legislation’?
Of course, it is more sophisticated than that, but there are certainly similarities.
But there is one big difference. A cricket captain has to make a near instant decision about whether or not to withdraw an appeal in the wider interests of the spirit of the game in the full glare of the crowd and intense media scrutiny. Talk about performing under pressure.
At least we can make more considered decisions well away from the glare of publicity. But that doesn’t mean that things can’t come back to bite us. Tribunal reports, professional indemnity cases or, as we have seen this week, investigative journalism, can make very uncomfortable reading for those whose judgment is being called into question years after the event.
Perhaps instant accountability has its advantages.
If you do one thing…
If you can spare a moment, take time to review HMRC’s new digital strategy document – it provides for much food for thought: tinyurl.com/HMRCITStrategy.
