Don't ask don't tell be blowed.

 

 The Stephen Green ennoblement get’s more murkier by the hour. The head of  tax at HMRC,  Dave Hartnett, in charge when Downing Street asked to  HMRC check out Green,now tells us why he didn’t pass on information about  HSBC’s  involvement in serial criminal behaviour. 

“HMRC is asked to provide an indication of reputational risk for appointments of peers in relation to their tax compliance history only.” 

So he never thought of the possible ‘reputational risk’ in the inevitable disclosure of Green being at the tiller of a bank involved in massive money laundering activities? Pull the other one. Oh, and as a post script. When Hartnett retired from HMRC in 2012, guess which bank employed him as a consultant. Yep, HSBC!