I suppose one could argue that the UK government itself is being unhelpful and hypocritical by opposing a EU banking transaction tax, for example. London is already the main European centre for share deals etc because of deregulation and lower dealing costs resulting in jobs which otherwise would go to more local destinations around the globe. In the same way tax the Irish Republic and Luxembourg benefit from the UK's and others' inability to introduce satisfactory tax-collection arrangements.
Out of interest I watched a bit more of the committee proceedings on BBC Parliament last night and I actually felt sorry for the guy from Google (something I didn't at all anticipate!) who had to suffer unnecessary lecturing and haranguing from the 'chair'. She kept interrupting him before he could finish answering the questions and adopted a thoroughly sneering and "matronising" tone towards him. She did exactly the same with the female representative from HMRC. Surely a chairperson's job is to keep everyone on track and maintain order in the proceedings and not simply dominate the process with her/his own preconceived view of the matter?
Furthermore, there was absolutely no need for this absurd committee in the first place. Everyone already knows why these companies avoid UK tax. They save money by doing so and by doing so perfectly legally. We don't need a group of MPs trying to pretend that they didn't already know any of this, and there is anything very shameful about it all, especially when some of these MPs themselves have a somewhat less than lily-white record in looking after the interests of the UK Exchequer.
Whatever our views about the 'morality' of any of this, the only people who can do much to really change the situation for good or ill are the MPs themselves and that's where the media's gaze should be mainly directed, imho.
Out of interest I watched a bit more of the committee proceedings on BBC Parliament last night and I actually felt sorry for the guy from Google (something I didn't at all anticipate!) who had to suffer unnecessary lecturing and haranguing from the 'chair'. She kept interrupting him before he could finish answering the questions and adopted a thoroughly sneering and "matronising" tone towards him. She did exactly the same with the female representative from HMRC. Surely a chairperson's job is to keep everyone on track and maintain order in the proceedings and not simply dominate the process with her/his own preconceived view of the matter?
Furthermore, there was absolutely no need for this absurd committee in the first place. Everyone already knows why these companies avoid UK tax. They save money by doing so and by doing so perfectly legally. We don't need a group of MPs trying to pretend that they didn't already know any of this, and there is anything very shameful about it all, especially when some of these MPs themselves have a somewhat less than lily-white record in looking after the interests of the UK Exchequer.
Whatever our views about the 'morality' of any of this, the only people who can do much to really change the situation for good or ill are the MPs themselves and that's where the media's gaze should be mainly directed, imho.
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