Coming clean(er)

It took him a while.  The BBC website reports:

What Cameron said when:

• Asked on Monday whether she could confirm that no family money was still invested in the fund, Mr Cameron's spokeswoman said: "That is a private matter"

• Then in an interview on the same day, Mr Cameron said: " I have no shares, no offshore trusts, no offshore funds, nothing like that. And, so that, I think, is a very clear description"

• Downing Street issued a statement on Wednesday: "To be clear, the prime minister, his wife and their children do not benefit from any offshore funds. The prime minister owns no shares. As has been previously reported, Mrs Cameron owns a small number of shares connected to her father's land, which she declares on her tax return"

• No 10 then released a further clarifying statement, saying: "There are no offshore funds/trusts which the prime minister, Mrs Cameron or their children will benefit from in future"

• On Thursday the PM told ITV News: "We owned 5,000 units in Blairmore Investment Trust, which we sold in January 2010"

Now if he had admitted his involvement with Blairmore on Monday, we might have accepted it.  But, in the light of the prevarication over four days, we are bound to ask if there is anything else that he is not telling us.


Postscript

For the record, I have investments in stocks and shares.  These are held in accounts at the distinctly unexotic Bank of Scotland and SAGA.  With the exception of an investment ISA (which is tax-free), these accounts are subject to tax in the usual way, but I have never earned enough to exceed the tax-free allowances of £11,100 per year in capital gains and £5,000 per year in dividends.  I have never had anything to do with offshore accounts, trusts or funds in any way.