I recently completed my 2 year term as President of the Association of Revenue and Customs (ARC), the branch of the FDA that represents senior staff in HMRC. 

To mark that, on July 15th I am going to run the Underround, a course that takes in 42 London underground stations, starting and finishing under the clock at King's Cross, involving 21 plus miles on the flat between stations, with 5 miles of ascent and descent taking it up to the something close to the classic marathon distance.  The key rule is that you have to touch the yellow line of a platform at each station, and you can't use any lifts - easy enough at somewhere like Embankment, where the Circle Line is barely below street level, a bit more challenging when you're talking about negotiating the 177 steps down to the Piccadilly Line at Russell Square (and more importantly, back up), which also happens to be the last stop on the route.

I'm doing this to raise money for War on Want.  Why that charity? Well, in addition to the great work they do in supporting people in the developing world they have also campaigned extensively to highlight the connection between global inequality and tax avoidance and evasion in the developed world.  As an organisation ARC has a record of supporting organisations like the Tax Justice Network who make that link.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.

"I'm going underground, (going underground)
Well the brass bands play and feet start to pound....."