An eighty one year old Norwegian/ Cypriot living in the United Arab emirates has told us, the Brits, - socialists of course don’t believe in nationalism or artificial borders but since, until we replace capitalism with socialism this is the designated part of the world in which we live – that Britain is kaput, finito, finished. Using a fairy tale christian metaphor he has told us we’ve ‘gone to hell’ and he’s going to pick up his ball and pee off somewhere else.
Apparently he’s peed of with Norway too.
According to the Evening Standard the ‘UK’s ninth richest billionaire, Norwegian-born shipping tycoon John Fredriksen, has said “Britain has gone to hell” and has moved his business out of London in the latest worrying sign of the huge exodus of wealth from the capital.The oil tanker magnate, whose wealth was estimated at around £13.7 billon in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, is the latest in a series of wealthy foreign-born London residents who are quitting the UK – or at least loosening their links – because of Labour’s scrapping of the non-dom tax regime and their disillusion with Britain’s poor economic prospects .Asked by Norwegian title E24 about his feelings for the UK, Fredriksen said: “It’s starting to remind me more and more of Norway. Britain has gone to hell, like Norway.” The comments came after it emerged he has closed the London headquarters of Seatankers Management, one of his private shipping businesses, which was based on Sloane Square.’
‘In the interview Fredriksen, widely known as JF in the shipping industry, added: “The entire Western world is on its way down.”
“People should get up and work even more, and go to the office instead of having a home office.”’
Friedriksen is not the first billionaire to berate wage slaves for not working hard enough to contribute more to a billionaire’s profits.
‘A number of other wealthy Norwegians have also reportedly left London this year, according to E24. Billionaire Helene Odfjell, 59, the biggest shareholder in Odfjell Drilling emigrated to the UK in 1989 but is now said to be based in Lugano, Switzerland. Another Norwegian shipping billionaire Peter T. Smedvig, 78, reportedly moved to Stavanger in Norway in March having lived in London since 1991.’
The explanation for this flight from the UK appears to lie with the abolition of a system which allowed non-domiciles to avoid having to pay money to the UK state. The more you have the more you want to keep.
‘The centuries old non-dom system that has allowed wealthy foreign-born British residents to shield their overseas assets and income from UK tax ended on April 6 this year. Its abolition has been blamed for an unprecedented exodus of millionaires from the UK. There has been particular anger that foreign assets placed in trusts have lost their exemption from inheritance tax. Advisers Henley & Partners forecast that the UK will lose 16,500 high-net-worth individuals this year, more any other country.’
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