Fraud costs £190bn a year, but the UK is unlikely to clean up its act when its system is designed to protect the wealthy
The paradox of the oligarchical money that washes around the British elite like a sea of dirty water is that it has yet to buy every aspect of British foreign policy. Opposition politicians and journalists can identify the Kremlin-linked billionaires funding the Tory party. We can look in a mixture of revulsion and astonishment at how the naturally conservative milieu of City financiers, libel lawyers, estate agents, the art market and private schools has become as dependent on the proceeds of crime as opioid addicts on OxyContin.
But we cannot say that Vladimir Putin owns this government. The UK supports Ukraine and shows no inclination to excuse Russian imperialism. If you want a truly cynical European power, look to Germany, which would rather see Putin’s armies march into Kyiv than risk Volkswagen losing the sale of a single hatchback.
