Truly the power to tax is the power to destroy. History is replete with examples of societies and civilisations which have been destroyed by their tax systems. It isn't dramatic, and it doesn't happen overnight. It is at first a barely perceptible movement, and it happens because governments lack the capacity, or the will, to insist on a world's best practice tax system. Many of the OECD member countries’ comparative economic decline owes not a little to their tax system. Only history will tell whether they have the capacity, or courage, to turn it around.

Sadly, history teaches us that more than a few political actors have, at best, a casual relationship with the truth (“pretextual” is a useful term in this regard). More fundamentally, Courts decide cases based on the evidence before them, require disclosure in appropriate cases and do not start from a pre-ordained position that one side must be telling the truth. For Courts to do otherwise would be to fundamentally undermine the rule of law and become not impartial judges in the cases before them but enablers for the powerful.

If the political class truly wish to avoid criticism of their actions on the grounds of “pretext, deceit, …illicit motives... corruption and animus” and thereby restore trust in institutions a useful course of action would be the avoidance of dishonesty and misuse of power. Suppressing the power of the Courts to deal with such matters is not a helpful starting point.