The latest issue of Private Eye returns to a theme they have been running for some weeks: that an investigation into the domicile status of the 4th Viscount Rothermere was closed down from on high from within HMRC.

In a fever of investigative journalism, the Eye quotes its 'Dordogne correspondent', who claims to have established that Lord Rothermere, Jonathan Harmsworth, owns a French property but does not visit it.

This, the Eye claims triumphantly, means that it 'seems unlikely' that 'the chateau can be enough of a home to sustain a claim to French domicile'.

Utter codswallop.

A quick bit of internet research shows that the viscount was born after his parents moved to France, and it seems highly likely that his father had by then acquired a domicile of choice there.

That gives the present holder of the title a domicile of origin in France and, as any fule kno, it is very difficult to lose a domicile of origin against your wishes if you take a few basic precautions.

A mere firm intention to return to France on some likely event such as his retirement (the 4th Viscount is in his thirties) would be sufficient; owning a property there is overkill of aristocratic proportions.

I've no idea whether, and if so by whom, any investigation was closed down.

I do know that, if I had been looking at it, I would never even have bothered to open one up when there was clearly no prospect of success.

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