Mr Murphy has been quoted in so-called liberal newspapers such as The Guardian and on the BBC decrying 'tax havens'.

He is director of Tax Research LLP and a tax advisor to the Trades Union Congress and has a website that dishes out criticism to the Isle of Man and many other places.

He has been a bit of a running sore for the Island's politicians, although whether they'd admit to that and give him further credence is quite another matter.

Anyway, he spotted me describing him as 'the blogger who's so angry about the Isle of Man' recently. He responded.

The result was an email correspondence and he's agreed to write a piece for our new Examiner Essay strand in the Isle of Man Examiner this week.

Last week, Chris Robertshaw, the former manager of the Sefton Hotel, wrote to say where he thought the government had gone wrong on tourism.

The idea of the Examiner Essay is to give someone a platform to express his or her views at length.

Of course, as with everything in any of our papers, the fact we've published opinions doesn't necessarily mean that any of the staff here at Publishing House agrees with them.

It's not our job to tell you what to think. We wouldn't want to. After all, we're not the Daily Mail.

I think that part of our job is our job to stimulate public debate.

I'm sure that some politicians and the great and the good will moan about our decision to give Richard Murphy a platform.

But he's been in the UK media a lot. Whether he has had an effect on the customs agreement and the UK's decision to unilaterally change it is something I don't know. If he has, that damage has already been done.

If there are holes in what he says, I hope readers will point them out.
Public debate is, after all, a continuing process.

If you'd like to contribute an Examiner Essay, please contact Richard Butt in the first instance by emailing richard.butt@newsiom.co.im

Comment on this blog post by emailing newsviews@newsiom.co.im

YOUR COMMENTS

Whilst I agree with Mr Butt's comments about "stimulating public debate", unless Mr Murphy has agreed to respond directly to any challenges that are made by the Manx public once his essay has been published, the exercise will be pointless. Otherwise, Mr Murphy will be granted the same free ride that is given to our politicians, who are exempt from any in depth investigative journalism and are largely unaccountable outside of election time.
TIM, Onchan

What people like Richard Murphy fail to understand (or, more likely, wilfully ignore) is the fact that, if governments tax citizens too harshly then said citizens will spend time and money hiding their earnings and governments will suffer. That's where so-called "tax havens" come in. They give the benighted taxpayer a chance to hide income from thieving governments. This really is kindergarten economics. It's known as the Laffer Curve and Mr.Murphy really ought to look that term up!
CHRISTOPHER PRICE, Ramsey