A British newspaper article said Prime Minister David Cameron could make Bermuda open up on taxes if it wanted to."If Bermuda succeeds in undermining an attempted crackdown on tax havens, it's because our PM allowed it to happen," writes The Guardian's Jack Blum this week.Jack Blum is a senior advisor to the Financial Transparency Coalition, a network of major NGOs campaigning against secrecy in the financial system that they say harms economies in the developing world"That Bermuda may jeopardise a major international agreement that's trying to crack down on tax havens is a bad joke. Consider this from a recent white paper on the future of Britain's overseas territories: the UK's parliament has 'unlimited power to legislate for all its overseas territories and crown dependencies'."The unvarnished truth is clear. If David Cameron wanted to, he could force Bermuda to fall into line and simultaneously put Britain's house in order.The British prime minister holds all the constitutional aces in relation to Bermuda. But the real issue is whether he has the political will to exert that power."Mr Blum said Bermuda really is utterly dependent."Although blessed with a superb climate, good beaches and a few marvellous golf courses, it even lacks the water to support its 69,500 citizens. The Bermuda economy lives and dies on its connections with the City of London and the American financial system. To end Bermuda intransigence, all the UK needs to do is refuse to recognise the legitimacy of Bermuda corporations and cut off Bermuda connections to the UK insurance market."And he asks: "So who and what is Bermuda protecting? It makes a living by preventing the rest of the world from seeing the amount of money siphoned out of the global tax system by exotic fictional schemes. If these spurious avoidance and evasion schemes were exposed to public view, the body politic of all the nations that have been pushed into austerity by a lack of tax revenue would force immediate and radical change. As it is, the pressure is on because some of the tactics used by a few corporations have become public."We still do not have the all facts on the insurance schemes, private pension schemes, protected cell companies and other related fictional tax exotica that make profits become losses, ordinary income become capital gains, and make other income disappear entirely. Let us force Bermuda to open its doors and windows to sunlight and see how real democracy reacts to what we see."For the full article see http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/14/david-cameron-bermuda-tax-havens