Dude is using a loophole to his advantage, you can't really reasonably fault someone for doing something completely within the law to help themselves out. He's not the first rich person to do this to pay less tax either (i worked at HMRC once upon a time, briefly, and have seen the odd celeb's tax returns).
We would all do it in the same situation, and anyway i bet most of us have taken advantage of any loophole presented to us in daily life, somewhere along the line in some form...
Speak for yourself on the we would all do it if in the same situation... there's a difference in taking advantage of double coupon day at the market versus tax avoidance through a loophole that isn't offered to anyone but the rich that can afford it.
Anyway, he buckled, and I guess to him the price of a soiled image is not as enticing as simply paying the taxes. We all make our own choices.
I have absolutely no issue with someone making all the money they can manage to make, Making money though is different than avoiding taxes on said money, legal, gray or illegal as it may be, it's still avoiding paying taxes and providing back into the social structure.
There are lots and lots of billionaires in the world, we don't have the ability to process what that means, it's just a number until you put it into perspective of what a billion dollars actually buys you. You couldn't possibly spend it, your children couldn't possibly spend it, so obviously avoiding paying taxes in any way you can makes sense if that's what you're into, but it isn't for any reason other than greed and there's no rationalization around that.
Five ways to spend a billion dollars
What's funny is that I've got no clue who Jimmy Carr is.
