{"id":123775,"date":"2019-03-11T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=123775"},"modified":"2019-03-05T16:11:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T16:11:18","slug":"britains-second-empire-the-spiders-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/03\/britains-second-empire-the-spiders-web\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s Second Empire: The Spider’s Web"},"content":{"rendered":"

Viewed Over One Million Times on YouTube<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

4 Dec 2018 – <\/em>Since it was\u00a0uploaded to YouTube<\/a>\u00a0just ten weeks ago,\u00a0Michael Oswald\u2019s seminal documentary film<\/a>\u00a0on Britain and its tax haven empire has gained over 1,000,000 views.\u00a0\u201cThe Spider\u2019s Web: Britain\u2019s Second Empire\u201d documents how British elites created a network of tax havens after World War II and the lengths they take today to preserve it \u2013 exemplified in a chilling scene where a Jersey police officer harasses and interrupts the filmmakers\u2019 interview with a tax haven whistleblower.\u00a0Based on Nick Shaxson\u2019s best-selling book\u00a0Treasure Islands: The Men Who Stole the World<\/a>, the film delivers a sobering account of Britain\u2019s role in corrupting the global economy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The documentary is available for free on YouTube in\u00a0 English<\/a>,\u00a0 French<\/a>,\u00a0 German<\/a>,\u00a0 Italian<\/a>\u00a0 and\u00a0Spanish.<\/a>\u00a0Subtitles are available in\u00a0French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Korean, Hungarian, English, Turkish and Portuguese.<\/em><\/p>\n

Director Michael Oswald said about his inspiration for the film:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I realized that there was an interesting, coherent and self-contained story that had not been told, the story of Britain\u2019s transformation from a colonial power to a financial power, and the myriad and obscure financial structures created by City of London financial interests that lie at the heart of this transformation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>(read more\u00a0here<\/a>.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tax Justice Network\u2019s<\/a> John Christensen, who co-produced\u00a0The Spider\u2019s Web<\/em>,\u00a0traces his interest in the subject back to the late-1970s when he and various colleagues started to look at London\u2019s role as a global tax haven:<\/p>\n

\u00a0We had no doubt that the City of London was a major player in the process of looting poorer countries of their wealth and in protecting Britain\u2019s secrecy jurisdiction satellites from political attempts \u2013 at the United Nations, for example \u2013 to rectify the policy and regulatory flaws that enabled capital flight and tax dodging on such an immense scale.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(read more\u00a0here<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Made on an astonishingly small budget,\u00a0The Spider\u2019s Web<\/em>\u00a0has been acclaimed by reviewers.\u00a0 Here is a sample of what they\u2019ve said:<\/p>\n

Forget anything by John Le Carre, this is a\u00a0real<\/em>\u00a0political drama which is more thrilling than anything seen in\u00a0Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy.<\/em>\u201d
\n\u2013\u00a0Filmotomy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Framed with strong images of the City of London, tax havens and set to a haunting original soundtrack,\u00a0The Spider\u2019s Web<\/em>\u00a0is a film all ordinary, tax-paying citizens should watch.\u201d
\n\u2013\u00a0Modern Times Review<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Spider\u2019s Web gives an excellent overview of the scale of the global tax dodging problem and its corrosive effects on democracy.\u201d
\n\u2013Open Democracy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This film is not a thriller. There are no crimes, murders, war or rape. But it deals with the consequences of such acts, metaphorical or real, and you need a strong constitution to watch it, if you care about the state of capital. It is calm, professional and accurate, like a hitman should be. I can\u2019t recommend it enough.\u201d
\n\u2013\u00a0Mr Ethical<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>whistleblower<\/p>\n

Watch the documentary for free<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=np_ylvc8Zj8&t=122s<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 truepublica.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4 Dec 2018 – At the demise of empire, City of London financial interests created a web of secrecy jurisdictions that captured wealth from across the globe and hid it in a web of offshore islands. Today, up to half of global offshore wealth is hidden in British jurisdictions and Britain and its dependencies are the largest global players in the world of international finance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[168],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-depth-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}