Will David Cameron’s Resignation Boost Bernie Sanders’ Popularity And Sway The Doubters?

If British Prime Minister David Cameron chooses to do what many would consider the honorable thing and fall on his sword in the wake of his “involvement” in the Panama Papers leak, will the downfall of another establishment politician play into the hands of the ever popular Bernie Sanders?

David Cameron and Bernie Sanders might be two different types of politicians who ply their trade on either side of the Atlantic, but world politics operates in a pretty claustrophobic bubble, and when it’s burst by allegations of corruption, it has a knock-on effect for everyone who lives in that strange realm.

Corruption in politics is nothing new. It’s the lifeblood of many a statesman, but when this many-headed, foul-smelling beast flops limply out of the closet, then it’s stench becomes so overpowering that even the great indifferent and apathetic hordes who politicians endearingly refer to as the electorate must realize something smells rather fishy.

Naturally, with a few rare exceptions, most politicians work tirelessly to keep the rich and powerful content and well fed and the rest of us downtrodden, ignorant, and oppressed.

We all know deep in the DNA of our unthinking but instinctive gut that the world could be a much better place. If their heart was really in it, politicians could change things quite radically and literally overnight, but it’s really not in their interest.

But what is in their interest is when one of their own is tainted by a scandal the size of which makes it slightly awkward to brush under the carpet like a dead rat brought home by an enthusiastic and well-intentioned cat.

The disease riddled and bloated rat in this instance is the scandal known as the Panama Papers and the elaborate methods used by the wealthy to avoid contributing something back to the societies which enabled them to become so filthy rich in the first place.

We all know that the American and global elite resent paying taxes, which enable the poor folk to scratch out an existence, but ask yourself this: Who amongst the great and greedy hasn’t made good use of shared resources such as roads and transportation infrastructure, courts and legal systems, educated workforces, and innovations funded by the government, such as the internet, to get to their airy and elevated realms?

No man is an island, but the so-called elite operate as if they were a self-contained universe. Many of these despicable and loathsome creatures who holiday in other people’s misery have for years argued the case for austerity and sworn blind that we have not the means to provide a basic standard of living, education, or universal healthcare. And as for eradicating poverty or homelessness, forget about it.

The unspoken truth is, these guardians of wealth and captains of corruption view the majority of people who live on the same globe as them as the bundled and botched, the muddled and misfortunate. Non-entities who could benefit from a great cull if only the reduction in workforce and consumers wouldn’t wreak merry havoc on the elite’s profit margins.

The Tax Justice Network estimates the global elite are sitting on $21–32 trillion of untaxed assets. The Panama Papers have brought the scandal of global tax evasion into sharp focus. Not only could the wealthy afford to pay their employees a lot more, they could also pay a lot more tax and make the world a substantially fairer and happier place.

They don’t, of course, because these penny-pinching swine are too busy building their empires and adding to their wealth while we scramble for any crumbs they might throw our way.

David Cameron described the use of complex tax avoidance schemes such as the ones detailed in the Panama Papers as “morally wrong.” But just as the British Prime Minister was taking his foot out of his mouth, along came a spider in the shape of the revelation that he too held shares in a fund now linked to tax avoidance. Whoops!

Here’s the scoop. The Prime Minister’s dad, Ian Cameron, established an offshore fund in Panama in 1981 called Blairmore Holdings, named after the family’s ancestral home in Aberdeenshire.

Blairmore Holdings managed tens of millions of pounds for wealthy families but in 30 years never paid tax in the UK on its profits

Although David Cameron admits to making £30,000 from his share of the trust in 2010, his contention is that Blairmore Holdings was set up in the Bahamas to enable people to buy “dollar-denominated companies” and shares.

It is, he says, “completely wrong” to suggest that it was set up to avoid tax and those who are doing so are dragging his father’s name through the mud. Tax experts beg to differ and point out there was no corporation tax in the Bahamas, and if a fund wasn’t engaged in tax avoidance, it wouldn’t have gone offshore.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said, “The tortuous way the information was dragged out of the PM leaves his credibility in tatters.”

Britain’s head honcho was recently accused of thrusting his private part somewhat savagely into the mute mouth of a slaughtered pig in a bizarre initiation rite during his student days.

He also came under fire for splashing $450,000 of taxpayers’ cash just so he could get a better mobile signal at his favorite holiday resort.

As such, Cameron is no stranger to “character assassination” and will no doubt ride out the latest controversy with the usual outraged denials until the Great British public let their weary heads fall indifferently back into the trough of hopelessness.

Yet although the bondage of bureaucracy doesn’t leave much room for a protesting voice to breathe, many are demanding that Cameron does the right thing and resigns.

Fugitive Edward Snowden has lent his voice to the hashtag #ResignCameron, which began trending this morning, but if Cameron does slip quietly out the back door, will the ripples of his resignation travel all the way across the Atlantic and create a tsunami of support for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders?

Like a slightly grizzled but defiantly heroic gunslinger from the old west, Sanders’ brand of no-nonsense integrity has proven very popular with people sick and jaded with the empty rhetoric and cliched gestures of the establishment’s assembly line politicians.

The Inquisitr reported that Bernie Sanders predicted the Panama tax haven scandal five years ago, but his warnings during a speech on the Senate floor fell on deaf ears.

Sanders recently released a statement detailing his opposition to the Panama Free Trade Agreement.

“I was opposed to the Panama Free Trade Agreement from day one. I predicted that the passage of this disastrous trade deal would make it easier, not harder, for the wealthy and large corporations to evade taxes by sheltering billions of dollars offshore.”

“Children should not go hungry while billionaires use offshore tax havens to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

“The American people are sick and tired of establishment politicians who say one thing during a campaign and do the exact opposite the day after the election.”

Of course, we’ll never know if Sanders will walk the walk as well as he talks the talk unless he’s given the keys to the White House and a chance to shine, but one thing’s for sure, it’s about time the world was given a choice between bad and worse.

[Photo by Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images]