Bicnod for Mumsnet - LIVE AT THE G8!!! Come and keep me company...

Very very excited about seeing the leaders in the flesh

Might be a bit of a communications black hole when I head off to the press conference, will keep updating/tweeting if I can, but you can keep up to speed on everything that's going on here on the IF@G8 live blog

Phew - don't have to leave until 2pm now.

Have my ticket for the press conference so will definitely be going

Will put my hand up to ask a question but apparently it's pretty unlikely I'll get picked [stamps feet]

@Tee - Do you mean the unequal distribution of food across the world?

@liger - just did the same

Lunch at desk today as leaving at 1.15pm for the big press conference at 3.30pm. Why we have to leave 2 1/4 hours before the thing actually starts is a mystery.

The UK action plan is out and DC has committed to set up a central registry of information on companies' beneficial ownership, maintained by Companies House, and to consult on whether information in the registry should be publicly accessible.

The feeling here is that this is an OK outcome: great that the registry will be set up, but not so great that it won't just automatically be available in the public domain.

Waiting to hear what the other G8 countries are planning to do...

liger - thanks, will check it out

Off for lunch before we leave for the big press conference.

Adrian Lovett said that it is absolutely vital that developing countries are included right from the start in any information sharing deals.

I think this is such an important point. If developing countries aren't included then how can they hold tax dodging multinational companies to account? And how can their citizens hold corrupt individuals whose actions impact on them to account?

Gavin went on to say that although the lack of public registers/tax dodging has the most devastating HUMAN impact in Africa, it also has a HUGE impact in China and India, resulting in massive sums of money flowing out of these countries. So the hope is that this issue will be picked up by the G20 when they meet.

More on the tax and transparency briefing...

Gavin went on to say that previous analyses carried out by the UK and EU have shown that it would be overwhelmingly in the public benefit to make the registers public.

The word on the street is that not all of the G8 countries will publish an action plan on beneficial ownership today.

To this we say booooo.

Apparently Obama backed legislation on beneficial ownership in 2008 when he was Senator, but whether he will show his commitment today remains to be seen.

x-posts liger and Tee - awww thanks :)

I find it quite hilarious that something I've written has been published somewhere!

No mention of EU agricultural subsidies in any of the briefings I've been in so far.

Will look out for DailyFail journos - haven't seen any so far but they must be here. Have they bashed the 0.7% aid target recently? I can't bring myself to read the DailyFail - it makes me too stabby.

Just back from an interesting tax and transparency briefing with Gavin Hayman from Global Witness and Adrian Lovett from One

Gavin talked about how anonymous 'shell' companies' actions can have a huge negative impact on developing countries.

One example he gave was how the Democratic Republic of Congo, just before recent elections, sold off five of its best copper and cobalt mines. They were sold to anonymous companies registered in the British Virgin Islands for up to 1/20th of their estimated market value. The BVI companies then re-sold the rights to the mines for a huge profit.

The suggestion being that corrupt DRC leaders were lining their pockets before they lost power in the upcoming election.

The losses to the DRC from this particular deal are estimated to be $1.3 billion - twice the DRC health and education budget.

Gavin quoted Paul Collier as saying that shell companies are 'getaway cars for global corruption.'

So how does this link back to the IF Campaign?

Well, the IF Campaign are calling on tax havens like the BVI to commit to putting beneficial ownership information (i.e. who is the actual human being who controls/benefits from a company) in the public domain.

Having this information freely available would make it much easier for citizens, journalists and civil society to hold companies (and their owners) to account for their actions; and much harder for corrupt individuals to hide behind phantom companies.

Now I'm no expert on transparency, but it makes sense to me that making this sort of information more widely available can only be a good thing.

The question is, will the G8 lead by example and commit to a move towards PUBLIC registers of beneficial ownership?

Ooooo - my Huffington post article is up!

Linky here

@Salbertina - the apples are great :)

@SacreBlue - I presume (hope!) that's what he meant but to be honest it wasn't that clear!

Richard Murphy asked the advisors when change will be seen on the ground - unsurprisingly the response to that was lukewarm - no timeframe given.

Right - off to briefing on tax and transparency. Back soon.

Michael Anderson (another of the PM's advisors) said greater transparency in developing countries would be good for global business. NO mention of how this will impact on communities in developing countries.

Paul Collier started by saying that we're coming to the most important part of the G8 - the part that has the potential to impact on people in developing countries. Agreed.

There was a lot of talk about Cameron's commitment to making information on company ownership more readily available. Apparently he wants to hold a consultation on whether to make the beneficial ownership register public. If the register ISN'T public then how will it help developing county governments pick up tax dodging companies?

Oooo - that was interesting. Cameron's advisers cut the Q&A time off as they had to get back for lunch (?!)