On 11 November 2014, at the kind invitation of the ICAEW I gave the Hardman lecture. The text can be read here. In that lecture, I observed, in relation to the operation of the General Anti Abuse Rule:
Several days later, Ed Balls announced that the Labour Party would, on taking Government, introduce such a regime. And in the Autumn Statement, the present Government, too, announced that it intended to follow suit and would consult on whether and how to introduce a GAAR specific penalties regime.
A further concern I expressed in the Hardman Lecture was that the High Risk Promoters Regime introduced several months earlier in the Finance Act 2014 might not be fit for purpose:
This suggestion, too, looks to have been picked up by the Government. As the Autumn Statement Green Book records:
I am sorry not ever to have met Philip Hardman, in whose name the annual lecture is given. I can only hope he would have been pleased.
Waiting for Godot 
Congratulations – it certainly seems like you are getting the message across!
Thank you! Nice to have had the platform – and a Govt wanting constantly to improve.
Congratulations Jolyon
Your suggested measures were fair and reasonable, well expressed, cogently argued and I am delighted that they are to be taken up.
Tax avoidance using artificial measures needs to become as socially unacceptable as drink driving – but this can only be achieved if true business and commercial enterprise is rewarded and appreciated. Unfortunately the Labour Party is still stuck in the politics of envy, with too many members wishing to “hit the rich until the pips squeak” and supporting a dependency culture where people get benefits not because they earn or deserve them but because of their ‘rights’ or ethnicity . I don’t know of a single business person of any race who believes that they could vote Labour today – the party is looked upon as being the enemy of enterprise whose sole role is to steal property belonging to others on the grounds of ‘fairness’ and the Labour Party’s factional historic support.