Silvio Berlusconi has a mission. Having already successfully nobbled two branches of government – the executive and legislature – he is out gunning for the third.

In a speech that in any other country would have had him up in front of the Beak accused of incitement, the newly convicted (this one’s for tax evasion) former Italian Crime Minister earlier this month went as far as to say that the judiciary that had convicted him exercised “the worst power – the power to deny someone their freedom”.

Now Silvio, darling, I know you are the latest in a long line of Italians the likes of Julius Caesar, Pope Alexander (Borgia) and Benito Mussolini who, shall we say, were born without the rule of law gene, but what do you really think all those judges are for if not to deny people’s freedom?

I really do think you are missing the point when you decry such  treatment of “someone who has given 20 years of his life to the nation”. Dear boy, you are not supposed to be above the law just because you were Chief Clown. Your sentence is something of a joke – because you are 76 years old and have had some modest success in buggering up the country’s laws during your three terms in charge, you are facing one year of house arrest or community service. You probably have an estate the size of Milan and, anyway, what community service is a 76 year old fit for (don’t answer that – you are being tried separately for that nonsense) ?

Watching Berlusconi’s privately produced video following the conviction, it occurred to me just how inadequate simultaneous translations are, and how difficult is the task now facing the OECD following its new mammoth commission from the G20 to clean up the world’s tax act in time for tomorrow morning’s  breakfast.

Mr Berlusconi, sitting at a desk with a backdrop of flags fit for a Duce, looked – thanks to the AC Milan boss’s season ticket to the cosmetic surgeon – like a cross between Pinocchio and Barbie’s boyfriend, Ken. Trying to understand what he was about was not just a matter of the inevitable lipsynch problems of English words crowding out the Italian pouring from his mouth. The man’s logic and body language were totally incomprehensible to a Brit like me, despite my substantial Mediterranean connections.

Around the same time Messrs Dolce and Gabbana, who I assume require no introduction among the refined readership of this modest blog, reacted to their own tax evasion (yawn!) conviction with  a full-page advertisement in the world’s press protesting their innocence (or something like that) accompanied by all sorts of data. Now I, as a Brit and despite my substantial Mediterranean connections AND a career in tax accounting, did not understand a damned word.

Yet,  neither Mr Berlusconi nor the luxury goods pair are stupid. And, even if they are, their PR people surely cannot be? My conclusion is that Mr Berlusconi’s advisers knew their Italian audience who view the whole Berlusconi saga in a different light to the rest of us (let’s face it, they elected him 3 times), while Dolce and Gabbana’s Italian advisers are, sadly, stupid.

This all brings me to the conclusion that the OECD is on a hiding to nowhere. Thanks to sheer American bullying power, there will be some progress in such areas as Exchange of Information but much of the 15 point plan (see last Post) is going to get mired in disagreements over different value systems. As the northern hemisphere celebrates the centenary of the last summer before the old world got taken to the laundry, that is hardly surprising.