An inspector calls
WHAT a versatile chap Geoffrey Robinson is. Variously active at home and abroad or offshore, as he might put it — he is the government's resident tax reformer, signs its cheques as Paymaster General, serves as a holiday host for its leader, and still has time to be a magazine magnate. He has had a clear-out at the top of the New Statesman, which under his ownership has spent a lot of money printing extra copies, gets most of them back, has put on readers but is less of a magnet for advertisers. It must come expensive. His tax inspector might now want to know whether this is a business venture on Mr Robinson's part — in which case the losses would be tax-allowable — or just a hobby. He might then need to find a different owner with a different inspector.
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