During the trial of Ken Dodd for tax evasion, held in Liverpool in 1989, Dodd’s representative in court George Carman QC famously quipped, "Some accountants are comedians, but comedians are never accountants". [1] The trial revealed that Dodd had very little money in his bank account, but did have £336,000 in cash stashed in suitcases in his attic. When asked by the judge, "What does a hundred thousand pounds in a suitcase feel like?", Dodd made his now famous reply, "The notes are very light, M'Lord."
While this court case rumbled on I was working in an office block which overlooked the main entrance to Liverpool’s Queen Elizabeth Law Courts, which opens out into a large public square dominated by a massive monument to Queen Victoria. I worked for the Department of Trade and Industry but the two floors above us housed the regional offices of the Inland Revenue – and the officers who had put together the case against Ken Dodd.
Every day of the trial Ken Dodd’s exit from the court was met with a large crowd of supporters cheering him through the square, and above them from the tax office, lines of civil servants hanging out of open windows booing and jeering him. On the day that Dodd was acquitted of all charges the boos from the tax officers were louder and bitter; but the crowd on the square was enormous and in great celebratory mode. Beneath Queen Victoria’s stern gaze an impromptu street party took place with the vindicated Ken Dodd at its core. As I watched this astonishing scene through our office windows I thought, it shows just how much ordinary people love seeing someone turn the tables on the taxman.
Preparing for this talk this week, I got to thinking that the scene I’ve just described has a very strong gospel feel to it. For one of the great themes of the gospels is Jesus turning the tables on the taxman. He did it in the Temple, as we just heard (and we’ll return to that story in a short while). And he did it many other times too. In his exchange with the Pharisees about paying taxes to the emperor; in the observation he made about the widow’s contribution to the treasury; in the call of Matthew and his meals with tax-collectors and sinners; Jesus turned the tables on the taxman. …
From today's talk, Turning the tables on the taxman.
