No beautiful day as Burton and Bono fall out over tax

WHILE Joan Burton is right to highlight U2’s hypocrisy on tax avoidance, the band could easily point the finger back saying: “Well, look at you, too.”

Ireland’s entire economic recovery drive is underpinned by the concept of attracting tax avoiders to this country via the enticingly low 12.5% corporate rate. So the Government is being as hypocritical as Bono & Co when Ministers condemn the country’s most globally recognisable cultural brand for taking advantage of overseas financial incentives to get even richer.

Having done nothing interesting musically for the best part of a decade the band look doomed to slip into the status of a heritage act living off its luminous back catalogue displayed in spectacular live tours.