Godfrey Bloom

Godfrey William Bloom (born 22 November 1949) is a member of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) who sits as an independent Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber. He stated on 21 November 2013, in a speech to the European Parliament, in debate on the "Action programme for taxation in the European Union for the period 2014-2020": Oh, well, Mr. President, I'm minded actually to quote the great American philosopher Murray Rothbard here that the state — the state is an institution of theft writ large. Tax is just about a system where politicians and bureaucrats steal money from their citizens to squander in the most disgraceful manner. This place is no exception. Fascinatingly, and I really don't know how you manage to keep a straight face when you're talking about tax evasion, the whole Commission and the Commission bureaucracy avoid their taxes. You don't pay taxes like citizens pay taxes; you have all sorts of special deals. Composite tax rates, high tax thresholds, non-contribute pension schemes. You are the biggest tax avoiders in Europe, and here you sit pontificating. Well, the message is getting home to the people of the European Union. You're going to find that euroskeptics are coming back in June in ever greater numbers — in ever greater numbers. And I can tell you worse, as the people get your number, it won't be long before they storm this chamber and they hang you, and they'll be right.