The Guardian newspaper and Money Week magazine both carried positive pieces about the Isle of Man and offshore jurisdictions in general.

Matthew Lynn, writing in his City View opinion piece in the November 6 edition of Money Week, said the Isle of Man and other offshore centres were being made scapegoats for the failings of the UK and US governments.

Mr Lynn's article appeared under the headline 'Tax havens are a scapegoat for government hypocrisy and incompetence'.

He made reference to the Tax Justice Network's (TJN) report on the most secretive and least co-operative financial centres.

A PDF copy of Matthew Lynn's City View article appears courtesy of Money Week magazine (www.moneyweek.com)
>> Download Mr. Lynn's opinion piece here

The TJN puts the US state of Delaware at the top of that list and the City of London at number 5. The Isle of Man comes in at 24th in a list of 60 centres.

This, says Lynn, shows that the US and UK governments' campaign against 'tax havens' is merely a smokescreen and an attempt to hide the real causes of the economic meltdown.

'If politicians were really serious about cracking down on tax havens Obama would be dealing with Delaware and Brown would be hammering the City,' he wrote in Money Week.

'And they would be a lot more honest about how their own policies have helped fuel the growth of these havens.'

Mr Lynn argues that far from being enemies of the UK and US, offshore jurisdictions play an legitimate and useful role in international finance and it was untrue to say that offshore centres such as the Isle of Man were more secretive and less co-operative than other centres such as the City of London.

'It's easier to launch attacks against scapegoats,' concludes Mr Lynn in his opinion piece.

'And if politicians didn't pretend they could raise more tax by plugging loopholes, they might have to start telling people how they planned to fix their deficits.'

Ian Jack, writing in The Guardian on November 7, focussed solely on the Isle of Man in an opinion piece headlined 'The Taxman Cometh'.

Mr Jack's piece is more critical of the Isle of Man than the Money Week column but The Guardian columnist presents an even-handed view of the Island and the effects of the recent news of changes to the VAT revenue agreement.

He also describes the proposed changes to the reciprocal health agreement with the UK and expresses sympathy for the Isle of Man.
'One feels sympathy. So much about the Isle of Man seems sympathetic to ordinary aspiration and, if you like, ordinary people,' he writes.

'Unlike those snotty crown dependencies in the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man is open to settlement by the poor as well as the rich.'

Ian Jack's Guardian feature can be read at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/nov/07/ian-jack-isle-of-man