The debate rages on about Starbucks and Amazon etc with regards to their slightly, shall we say "creative accounting" enabling them to dodge hefty tax bills. I have to admit at first i was up in arms that such huge companies used their financial clout to pay accountants to dive through hoops that ensured they paid just 1.8m in tax as against 78m in profits, outrageous thought i and joined the swaying ranks of The Sun readers countrywide.
The thing is though, it's easy to create a monster within the media if you have the media's ear and let's face it if David Cameron asked Fleet St to jump at the moment, the chorus of "how high?" would be heard in the Valleys as far up as Merthryr Tydfil. So, you see if you look a little deeper you find that these so called monster companies who are cheating you and I of our rightful taxes are only following the path that this and previous governments have laid down for them.
Let me explain, to attract investment you have to sweeten the milk, in other words turn a blind eye to tax loopholes or Planning regs whichever is the case in order for multi-national companies like Starbucks and Amazon to jump in to our bed and build bases in Blighty. This plan has worked for many years and very successful it was too until we found out our own MP's had been caught with their usual disingenuous snouts in the country's larder. Since then hellfire and brimstone has rightly hailed down on these dirty crooks and they want to spread a little of the flame to other sectors in order to lessen the heat under their own backsides.
This has all meant that Westminster has come out all guns blazing on previous good bed fellows and no-one, (except Fleet St at the moment.. though if Hugh Grant gets to be PM that will certainly all change) is being spared.
All this must stick in the craw of the cigar smoking, Polo watching, Aston driving elite foreigners who (on the promise of Westminster.. poor misguided darlings) have found their huge investments now under attack from the very people who encouraged them here in the first place, how i love political irony, always a dish best served cold I must say.
So, what of the future? well in the short term the companies have no option but to capitulate and be seen to hand over a tidy sum of money to the exchequer or at least promise more huge investment into the country's infrastructure to appease all red-top readers and the baying hounds of Fleet St (customers) while in the mean time working out just how they are going to dump the UK for France or Belgium in the next two years when an election will be prime time news not tax evasion, because if we chase these guys that is what will happen, this must be pennies from heaven for the rest of the 'oh so' welcoming Countries in Central Europe.
One other thing before i leave you, just what will this mean for jobs and business if we are seen to be chasing down multi-national companies flourishing in this country?. Well you don't need to be a brain surgeon to answer that one, not even a Sun reader. Oh and when we have this new found wealth just what are they spending these extra taxes they gain on?, because I would rather Starbucks and Amazon employ thousands of people in this country that DO pay tax than see 120m go to Rwanda so they can buy more guns or indeed 10 times that on an illegal war being staged in the Middle East that we can never hope to win and getting our loyal guys killed.
I think our friends in Westminster shout 'wolf' far too often and this time I hope no-one is taking any notice of their bleating, but my guess is the press are fully behind them, in fact right along side them, even as far as being in their waistcoat pockets I dare to say..
I do hope Hugh Grant is thinking of standing in two years.
The thing is though, it's easy to create a monster within the media if you have the media's ear and let's face it if David Cameron asked Fleet St to jump at the moment, the chorus of "how high?" would be heard in the Valleys as far up as Merthryr Tydfil. So, you see if you look a little deeper you find that these so called monster companies who are cheating you and I of our rightful taxes are only following the path that this and previous governments have laid down for them.
Let me explain, to attract investment you have to sweeten the milk, in other words turn a blind eye to tax loopholes or Planning regs whichever is the case in order for multi-national companies like Starbucks and Amazon to jump in to our bed and build bases in Blighty. This plan has worked for many years and very successful it was too until we found out our own MP's had been caught with their usual disingenuous snouts in the country's larder. Since then hellfire and brimstone has rightly hailed down on these dirty crooks and they want to spread a little of the flame to other sectors in order to lessen the heat under their own backsides.
This has all meant that Westminster has come out all guns blazing on previous good bed fellows and no-one, (except Fleet St at the moment.. though if Hugh Grant gets to be PM that will certainly all change) is being spared.
All this must stick in the craw of the cigar smoking, Polo watching, Aston driving elite foreigners who (on the promise of Westminster.. poor misguided darlings) have found their huge investments now under attack from the very people who encouraged them here in the first place, how i love political irony, always a dish best served cold I must say.
So, what of the future? well in the short term the companies have no option but to capitulate and be seen to hand over a tidy sum of money to the exchequer or at least promise more huge investment into the country's infrastructure to appease all red-top readers and the baying hounds of Fleet St (customers) while in the mean time working out just how they are going to dump the UK for France or Belgium in the next two years when an election will be prime time news not tax evasion, because if we chase these guys that is what will happen, this must be pennies from heaven for the rest of the 'oh so' welcoming Countries in Central Europe.
One other thing before i leave you, just what will this mean for jobs and business if we are seen to be chasing down multi-national companies flourishing in this country?. Well you don't need to be a brain surgeon to answer that one, not even a Sun reader. Oh and when we have this new found wealth just what are they spending these extra taxes they gain on?, because I would rather Starbucks and Amazon employ thousands of people in this country that DO pay tax than see 120m go to Rwanda so they can buy more guns or indeed 10 times that on an illegal war being staged in the Middle East that we can never hope to win and getting our loyal guys killed.
I think our friends in Westminster shout 'wolf' far too often and this time I hope no-one is taking any notice of their bleating, but my guess is the press are fully behind them, in fact right along side them, even as far as being in their waistcoat pockets I dare to say..
I do hope Hugh Grant is thinking of standing in two years.
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