Bagpipes. Whisky. And money laundering. There are corners of Europe where Scotland’s image is tarnished like never before.
A once obscure corporate entity - the Scottish limited partnership or SLP - for the best part of the decade has been abused by everybody from child pornographers to gun runners. Why? Because the owner of an SLP could stay secret why not paying any tax or filing any accounts.
SLPs are so popular that the words “Scottish firm” in countries such as Ukraine now provoke instant suspicion. That is bad news for this country.
Earlier this summer the Conservatives, to their credit, moved to force SLP owners to reveal themselves. There has - rightly - been cynicism over whether the true owners of all 30,000 SLPs will ever be known. But the early signs are that the move has deterred new registrations of such firms. There were just seven created in the first week of the new rule.
Alas, it appears people looking for anonymous shell companies are shopping elsewhere, including England and Northern Ireland.
Pressure from the SNP, along with revelations in The Herald, sparked the current reforms. Nationalist MP Alison Thewliss says further action is needed to stop the problem simply moving south of the border - and tarnishing England’s image instead of Scotland’s. She’s right.
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