Tesco has come under criticism for tax avoidance. It seems they have hived off their property to a company in the Cayman Islands and avoiding UK taxes.
Good luck to them. People should stop tut-tutting about the tax dodgers and aim their anger at the real culprits - the government and its advisors.
It is the tax system that creates the dodging opportunities in the first place. People and companies are mobile. Property is fixed. If the tax liability went with the land ownership, then nobody could escape it by syphoning funds off into associate companies based in tax havens. It is up to the Chancellor to sort out the problem, which is inherent in the system and will not be resolved by endlessly attempting to plug loopholes.
The Guardian has published a couple more articles against HS2, one by specialist rail commentator Christian Wolmar, and another today by journalist Simon Jenkins. The main arguments in favour will doubtless be wheeled out by the commentators: the need for capacity and the disruption caused by upgrading existing routes. HST itself will severely disrupt services to Euston during the construction period. Capacity can be increased at a fraction of the cost by a variety of measures, provided that it is accepted that the additional traffic will run at existing speeds. It is not generally known that the Midland main line is, or was, four track all the way from London to Trent Junction, between Nottingham and Derby. This is because the additional tracks are separate, having been added for coal trains which trundled down to Brent sidings, on the edge of London, from a collection point at Toton in Nottinghamshire, where the Midland Railway build a huge marshalling yard. Beyond Derby, the main l...
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