This what a friend in Germany has just written to me: “Panamagate - hilarious viewing if it wasn’t so serious! It’s like turning over a stone and watching a lot of beetles scurrying away out of the sunlight.

Didn’t know that your Maltese politicians are also found in flagrante delicto. “In Germany, we have a nice little scandal brewing (as well as what’s under the Panama hat).

Under German law, one can get a legitimate tax rebate on capital gains tax: you pay it, the bank gives you a receipt, you take this to your tax office and you geta refund. “However, someone had found out that if you buy and sell a lot of shares, say, $40 million at one go and the dividends are distributed and you use a foreign bank, the German and Swiss banks obligingly issued two rebate certificates to two different people. The tax office honours both.

“After 10 years, someone realised that the amount of tax receipts coming in was only half of what was going out.

“Then someone sent an anonymous letter to the government to let them know what wasgoing on. “Four years later, the politicians finally got round to thinking about it. “In the meantime, the German tax payer had lost several billion dollars that were given to the very wealthy…

“All good clean fun.”