Intervention at Public Accounts Committee hearing

On 9 March I attended a Public Accounts Committee hearing in Parliament when HSBC was questioned about tax evasion at their Swiss private bank. I attended because I received this email from a BBC TV journalist (who I won’t name)

Screen Shot 2015-12-14 at 18.56.42The hearing consisted of 2 hours of grandstanding and theatricals and achieved absolutely nothing. When it was clear that they were not going to discuss the fraud, I intervened to try to raise the issue. I was immediately surrounded by about six burly men who roughly ejected me from the room. I had wanted to speak calmly to explain the fraud but that’s not so easy when you’re being roughly manhandled. This is democracy in the UK.

Here’s the clip of the event

The only press that reported the incident were the Express and the Guardian, neither of which was in the least bit interested in my what protest was about.

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Update 18 August 2016 – Sky News did include my disruption in this news item.