Butler to the World: The book the oligarchs don’t want you to read - how Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals

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The City, London’s financial hub, “must be protected at all costs”, no matter how many millions of lives are shattered elsewhere around the world. That provoked me into writing my second book, The Last Man in Russia, which describes the struggle of a Russian to live in freedom and the efforts of Soviet officials to stop him.

The lessons were learned in the British Virgin Islands, where it dawned on some lawyers that they could make a decent living setting up shell companies for the rich overseas. I found this an interesting read, and a real eye opener about how the UK makes its money from the cleaver use of money movement here and abroad.Bit by bit Butler to the World documents Britains further descent from a morally bankrupt empire to a morally bankrupt servant to the world's super rich, irrespective of how they came by their ill gotten gains. Eventually, in response to his interlocutor’s bafflement, he blurted: “We’re not a policeman, like you guys, we’re a butler, the butler to the world… If someone is rich, whether they are Chinese or Russian or whatever, and they need something done, or something hidden, or something bought, then Britain sorts that out for them… – that’s what a butler does. If you like books where you learn a lot - which we certainly do - then we commend it to you wholeheartedly. Casinos and lotteries were the names of the games, and as more and more laws were relaxed or nullified, more gambling entities moved there to escape regulation and taxation. If like me you've ever wondered what all those university graduate schemes were ultimately about, Bullough outlines it here.

In Bullough’s enthralling book he charts just how London sought to find its place in a post-Suez Crisis world and in so doing opened the doors to dodgy money. Butler to the World reveals how Britain came to assume its role as the center of the offshore economy. A really great chapter comes about through Bullough's investigation into Scottish Limited Partnerships, which is eye opening and does a good job maintaining the reader's attention.

His unifying idea is the classic English butler, Jeeves, who can fix anything for his master, even if he has to bribe or beat up a cop to do it. Kinda wish everyone would read this, has massively influenced my thinking on how Britiain is setup and how far away we are from running the country in a way that is to the benefit of the majority of people who live here. As he observes, ‘The banker to the world transformed into a pauper; the global currency limping from one crisis to the next’. Jego usługi są atrakcyjne dla uchylających się od płacenia podatków, ukrywających swoje miliardy, dla kumpli najgorszych dyktatorów świata, oligarchów, kleptokratów i kombinatorów.

Na początku było fajnie, łatwy przypływ gotówki, zagraniczne wycieczki, życie ponad stan, a potem wielki upadek i strata wszystkiego. On top of that, it has even encouraged Gibraltar to become the world centre for online gambling, then whimpers about the damage that does. Independent overseas territories a big part of this - they have autonomy to create tax havens but are linked to Britain to reap other associated benefits (British courts, the perceived security of assets I. Wielka Brytania - amoralny najemnik ukrywający prawdziwą naturę za fasadą urokliwej tradycji, literackich nawiązań, nieskazitelnej garderoby i wyniosłych manier. It took even Bullough a while, though, to nail the exact bent-double relationship that many among the elite of this country’s lawmakers and bankers and lawyers and accountants have adopted toward this global kleptocracy.

This is not a comprehensive book, it does not cover every part of financial and economic crime, nor does it offer much evaluation. There's a certain amount of 'gotcha' journalism, but it's never quite as cringe inducing as it can be. From accepting multi-million pound tips from Russian oligarchs, to the offshore tax havens, meet Butler Britain. The result is always calm seas, and life goes on for Jeeves’ master, Bertie Wooster, spoiled, incompetent upper class brat. It's an important book that helps explain the current situation, and the title is great but unfortunately -- it's boring.