The tax haven doth protest too much. That's what it looks like this week after the UK Parliament gave the nod to new rules that could force some offshore centres to publish the owners of companies set up there.

Cue howls of protest from the affected Caribbean Treasure Islands. The British Virgin Islands' premier, Orlando Smith, led the complaining on May 2, denouncing the "deeply flawed" move as "constitutional overreach" that "calls into question our very relationship with the UK". Lorna Smith, the director of BVI Finance, said it "smacked of colonialism".