Shafted.

 

         Philip Green has been in the news recently for his usual talent of sucking companies dry, throwing their millions at his wife's account, of course all tax free, as she lives in Monaco, but Philip is not alone in this screwing the British tax payer. As a mater of fact, it is quite common practice among our large and wealthy companies. During the year 2017 the number of very large and rich companies that made a profit, but contributed nil to the UK tax pot is a list of very well known names. Though these figures are from 3 years ago, they are still playing the same game of shafting the public to enrich the company and its shareholders. What is even more disgusting, is that some of these corporate giants, despite making a profit, were handed a tax credit of millions. Which means that instead of them contributing to the wealth of the country, we the tax payers helped them pay their CEO and shareholders larger payments.

 

          Almost one in five of Britain's biggest companies paid not a penny of corporation tax in the UK last year, it can be revealed. The Mail on Sunday has managed to obtain the details of the tax paid by 69 of the FTSE 100 group of largest companies on the stock market – many of which do not publish these figures in their annual reports. The remaining 31 refused or failed to respond to repeated requests to disclose their tax payments.
       Where details could be obtained, 13 firms – equivalent to one in five of the 69 that came clean – either paid no corporation tax in Britain or received a tax credit from HM Revenue & Customs. The list includes household names such as BP, Royal Mail and British Gas owner Centrica. Usually firms pay corporation tax of 19 per cent of their total profits.
       BP made £5.6 billion in profit last year – yet still received tax credits worth £134million. That meant it was a net receiver of tax money in the UK, rather than contributing to the cost of running the country where its shares are listed.
       Some firms are even paying their chief executives more than they pay in tax. Royal Mail boss Rico Back stands to earn £1.4million this year on top of a £5.8million 'golden hello' for joining the company. This payment might appear unremarkable given that the company, which was privatised in 2013, made £39million profit in the UK last year and £212million globally. But it can now be revealed Royal Mail's UK profit was then increased rather than reduced by tax, thanks to a huge tax credit of £93million - the second largest in our survey - of which £78million was attributed to a pension 'accounting adjustment with no cash benefit', according to the company.
       The findings will raise concerns big businesses are failing to pay their fair share towards schools, hospitals and UK infrastructure. None of the companies assessed by The Mail on Sunday is accused of acting illegally, but most have used UK tax laws to reduce their payments from the amount they might have been expected to pay.

        Of course I'm not drawing attention to this in the hope that our corporate friendly lords and masters in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, will introduce a set of fairer laws to stop this. There isn't a hope in hell of that, since most of them are shareholders and on very friendly terms with the tax "evaders". No, I'm hoping that these facts might raise the anger level of the general public enough to bring this whole stinking greedfest of the parasites to an end. Then we can start to reconstruct society in a fairer and just manner that sees to the needs of all our people. We don't need them, but to continue to keep their snouts in the public trough, they need us to be submissive and look the other way. Will we comply?  

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

Asset Stripper.

 

                                           Sir Philip Green's £100 million wee boat.

      He's back in the news, and for all the usual reasons, spiv, tax evader, assets stripper, Philip Green, luxury yacht owner. Remember how he sucked BHS dry by huge share bonuses, paid no tax because the company was registered in his wife's name and she lives in Monaco, then left it to die with a massive multi-million pound hole in its pension fund. Well it looks like lightening does strike twice in the same place, Arcadia, another of his wives little assets that they sucked dry and now it dies, again leaving a £350 million hole in its pension fund.
       This arrogant privileged pampered duo are said to be worth £930 million, their nice little nest-egg was somewhat enhanced in 2005 when Sir Philip Green paid his wife a nice little dividend payment of £1.2 billion from Arcadia. Of course no tax paid as she lives in Monaco. He doesn't invest, he asset strips, piling the ill-gotten wealth into his dear wife's account, tax free of course.

A couple of views of the interior of Philip's wee boat.

       So while Sir Philip mucks about in his wee boat in Monaco, no doubt preparing for a wee holiday in the Caribbean, after the stress of milking Arcadia dry, because of his actions, thousands of ordinary people are preparing to face the dole.
      We tolerate this, it is not an isolated case of wealth plundering by those arrogant wealthy parasites, it is part and parcel of this system of exploitation and greed. The world is awash with untold wealth slushing around in a labyrinth of tax havens, while millions go hungry, exist homeless and struggle to feed their kids. The question is why do we tolerate this? Every pound in their little secret boxes, was produced by you and I, we create the wealth, they plunder and stash it away for their own greed driven personal gratification. We must be insane to tolerate this continuing two fingers at us, the wealth creators, by a clique of arrogant parasites, who are laughing all the way to Monaco, the Caribbean etc..

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Vanishing Money!!

         In this capitalist world where money is quality of life, what could we do with $6.5 trillion? How many schools, teachers, doctors, nurses, could we add to strained parts of our society, how many libraries, how much social housing, how many kids nurseries could we create? It is by all measure of things, a massive amount of money. Yet it appears that the Pentagon in USA, has somehow misplaced that amount and doesn’t know where it has gone. It just can’t account for that bundle of taxpayers money, I guess it must have fallen down the back of the till!! 

      Adding to the appearance of impropriety is the fact that thousands of documents that should be on file have been removed and disappeared without any reasonable explanation.
      A new Department of Defense Inspector General’s report, released last week, has left Americans stunned at the jaw-dropping lack of accountability and oversight. The glaring report revealed the Pentagon couldn’t account for $6.5 trillion dollars worth of Army general fund transactions and data, according to a report by the Fiscal Times.
       The Pentagon, which has been notoriously lax in its accounting practices, has never completed an audit, would reveal how the agency has specifically spent the trillions of dollars allocated for wars, equipment, personnel, housing, healthcare and procurement’s allotted to them by Congress. 

Philip Green's wife Tina, received the largest dividend in corporate history, from her husband's company.

  

     To you and I know this is not oversight, bad arithmetic, or sloppy bookkeeping, it is just another example of the endemic corruption in this system of capitalism. It happens on a gigantic scale when it comes to taxpayers money, but is not confined to that area. Over on this side of the Atlantic we have had the recent BHS money illusion, now you see, now you don’t, whoosh, and its gone. By recent assessments, the BHS pension fund deficit is running at close to a billion pounds, £717 million to quote the Guardian. 

 The pension fund seems to have disappeared, but I have a beautiful new yacht.

     Slush funds, bribery, backhanders, special “bonuses”, massive pension pay-offs, off-shore tax havens, corruption, all part and parcel of a stinking corrupt system that feeds an army of greedy parasites at our expense. This is capitalism, these are not anomalies, this is how the whole rotten system functions. Is there anybody out there that still has a shred of belief, that this is the best humanity can do with the finite resources of our planet? Is there anybody out there who believes that this festering cancer can work for the benefit of all the people of this planet?

       Let’s put all our petty differences aside, let’s concentrate on the one task that would eliminate poverty and war, let’s come together to work to bring down this edifice to greed that is the real burden on humanity’s shoulder. Let’s assign capitalism to the dustbin of history, under the label, “humanity’s darkest hour”.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Another Capitalist Success Story!!!

        So Mike Ashley, in front of a committee of MPs, admits he is a bit of a rascal. Accused of paying below the minimum wage, too many zero hours contracts, the vast majority of the warehouse staff are agency workers, running a climate of fear in his warehouse, involving the staff in long, time consuming searches, after their clocked off time, administering a, six strikes and you’re out regime. The strikes being, chatting too much, taking too long in the toilet, and other such vile crimes. Also being penalised if you are as much as one minute late. 

           The publicity has seen the price of the shares in his company, Sports Direct, take a tumble, down 45% on last year. Could this be the next capitalist success story after Philip Greens magnificent job at BHS? He has promised is accusers, the MPs, that he will put all these matters right, that of course could hit his profit margins, which in turn will keep pushing the price of his shares down. Could this be time to pull the plug and walk away with his millions, earned from all that below minimum wage, zero hours contracts, and agency workers, climate of fear, routine that he followed so faithfully. Of course, if so, we will get the usual, “difficult trading conditions” was the cause of the collapse. Whatever the outcome of this little exercise with the MPs, what I don’t expect is that Sports Direct will become a pleasant and well paid place to be employed.

 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

BHS, Capitalist Success Story.

 

       Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, are reporting the recent BHS event as if something had gone wrong. As far as capitalism is concerned it worked out perfectly. A guy buys it, makes a fortune and bleeds it dry, then walks away, much richer than when he bought it, capitalism at its best. Is there any idiot out there who thinks that BHS was all about the employees and the customers? These latter two are just components, just the disposable ball-bearings that make the system function, but can be dumped and a replaced by a new set. The BHS can be registered as one of the UK's greatest capitalist success stories, all that effort by the people, creating all that wealth for a small bunch of parasites. Sure some shareholders might have lost some of their filthy loot, but they made a fortune over the life of the company, and the really big fish made a real killing.

 Philip with one of his buddies.

         Let's look at the facts, a guy, let's say Philip Green, buys this "enterprise" and over 15 years he pays his wife £400 million in dividends, that averages out at around £28 million a year, and to add some cream to their cake, it is channelled through a tax haven. No sense in giving any of it back to the people who created that wealth. There are other avenues where the shysters can make more money, that illusion known as the "pension fund". This is where the employee and the employer put money aside so that when the employee retires there will be something there to help them get by. In the case of this particular, "pension fund", when our friend Philip bought the company, its "pension fund" was in surplus to the extent of £5 million. After his 15 years of plundering, wheeling and dealing, slicing and dicing, "stewardship", that £5 million surplus, is now a whopping £571 million deficit. So having cleaned the pot out, and saddling the company with a massive £1.6 billion debt problem, our bold entrepreneur, sells the company to a serial bankrupter, for £1.

 Philip's wee boat, paid for by people like you.

        Meanwhile, Philip walks off into the sunset, with an estimated £3.6 billion bank balance, to take control of his new £100 million+ super yacht, with some serious Bahamas sailing to think about. Far from being a disaster, BHS is text book capitalism, for other "entrepreneurs" to follow. We have seen it in the past, and we will see it in the future, as long as we tolerate this stinking system of greed and plunder. So get used to it, capitalism, milk the masses and live happily ever after, Ah, the beauty of capitalism.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

When The Cash Fountain Is Sucked Dry----!!

Philip Green doesn't fly Easy Jet.

        So BHS looks like it could go into administration, sign of the times, just another ailing business, or-----? 

Philip and friends messing around in boats.

        BHS has proved itself to be a cash fountain for the one time owners, the Green family, and a bunch of cash crazy shareholders. After buying the business in 2000, the shareholders extracted more than £422 million in two years, 2002-2004. the vast majority of the loot went to the Green family. The Philip Green family also managed to collect another £151.4 million from BHS in rent for 12 stores which happen to be owned by Carmen properties, which just happened to be a Green family business. The cash fountain didn't stop there, the Green family also earned almost £10 million from £19.5 million bond issued to BHS, and then there was the the £3 million from ground rent on BHS head offices. This looks like the BHS, in a rather short period, earned the Green family £164.4 million plus the major share of another £422 million, a nice little earner if you can get it. So there you have it, a company that is now likely to go into administration poured the princely sum of £586.4 million into the coffers of a little bunch of city gents. Let's not forget all the perks that go with “owning” a company, travel expenses, wining and dining, etc. Now that the this gravy train was being sucked dry, the livelihood of thousands of ordinary people, hangs on a cliff edge. Ah, that's capitalism, when the cash fountain is sucked dry, it's time to go.

Philip's little 2006 purchase, valued at $150 million.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk.

 

PROTEST AND PRISON.

        

         Omar Ibrahim, from Glasgow, has been given an 18 month sentence for violent disorder following his arrest outside Topshop in Oxford Street in London on March 26th during the anti-cuts demonstrations.

Please read the statement below, written before he was sentenced.

Please write to him and send stamps and envelopes:

Omar Ibrahim

A0253CH

HMP Wandsworth

Heathfield Road

London SW18 3HS

          Being tried for violent disorder and now preparing to be sentenced by Justice Price of Kingston Crown Court I can fairly say he is an unjust man. I came to this firm conclusion when he informed me that I would serve an immediate custodial sentence, despite having a letter offering immediate employment, even if I accepted the lesser charge of affray. A decision that tore apart any potential employment opportunity for me and left me no choice but to go to trial for violent disorder. Such is the contempt that the judiciary displays towards the commoner. One wonders if Justice Price has any idea how difficult it is to secure a firm contract of employment in this economic climate. Despite being found guilty by a jury of my peers I maintain that I am not guilty of violent disorder in an incident on London's Oxford Street during the March 26th cuts protests.The crown's case is that I am to be incarcerated for throwing a child's toy that I picked up from the kerbside, a smoke bomb from a joke shop, in the direction of Top Shop and then struggled with police officers during arrest, alleging that I squeezed an officer's testicles. I maintain that I have a weak shoulder and was wearing a backpack. My shoulder has been dislocated over forty times, due to an epileptic condition that is now under control, meaning the joint is deformed. This was operated on to clean up bone fragments and tighten up ligaments in 2009, but the joint can slip out of place if forced. As I was apprehended from behind and forced towards the floor I tried to maintain my balance. My arm was grabbed and was being twisted behind my large rucksack, causing my shoulder to slip a little so I tensed my lateral and deltoid muscles to to keep it in place. I was again forced almost to the floor, the officer was under my rucksack, beneath me. It is in getting in this position the officer maintains I grabbed and squeezed his testicles. I do not believe this happened and maintain this incident was a complete accident if it did. On getting to my feet a second officer came and the pair dragged me to the side of Top Shop by my legs and arms. All the while I was either trying to hold my shoulder in place or tell them about my shoulder. This was not acknowledged by the court, despite one officer admitting he heard me in his report whilst the other denied any knowledge, and this is how I am to blame for the charge of violent disorder: where three or more people engage in violent or threatening behaviour that may cause a person of reasonable firmness to fear for their safety. The crime of violent disorder and its misuse in political policing goes back to 2001, where a man was incarcerated for ten months for shaking his fist and shouting "Kill the Bill", and is being enforced more and more as the protests themselves continue to go on as we head towards recession. The crown wishes my case to be seen as one of a mob of hooligans who broke off from the TUC demonstration against the cuts to charge around London causing chaos and destruction. I see a carnival of protest full of colour, noise and rebellion which wished to highlight those that are at fault in this economic crisis. I was not there simply for the TUC demonstration but also the UK Uncut demonstrations on Oxford Street. I sought to challenge men like Philip Green, who outsources his production at Top Shop to the Mauritius and then funnels his profits out to Monaco, leaving the taxpayer purely the chance to consume or distribute. He receives a knighthood for his disservice: I throw a discarded jokeshop smokebomb and I am not only deprived of contracted employment but sent to prison. Thus is the demonisation and criminalisation of the 21st century protester. When I look at my case in context I see a system where the relations between the state and the individual protester have been twisted to such an extent that they have now passed breaking point. First the state tries to challenge popular and peaceful demonstrations such as that of the dearly missed Brian Haw. Then there is the demonisation of popular protest by prosecuting those who have committed minor offences, eg Breach of the Peace, and charging them under the vaguely defined charges such as violent disorder. One recent example is Francis Fernie. Then there is rampant harassment of political protests, wasting police time in raiding their homes, making cross-border raids and acting in an intimidating aggressive manner that is almost oblivious to anything but its own voice. A friend of mine was taken from his home and down to England to face a police questioning which ended up a case of mistaken identity. He was excluded from their enquiries this week, months after an incident where his friends and family were intimidated in an overenthusiastic political policing campaign. The press and state love to blame political protesters, and especially anarchists, for all the trouble. So much so that the street I live on was published in the national press on my arrest back in March. I am a committed anti-fascist activist and this publicising of my address led to me being threatened by the organiser of a group associated with a proscribed terrorist organisation and the National Front. I asked he not approach my family should I be imprisoned and was immediately told that they would be left alone as long as I didn't cause him any trouble. A big deal was made in court of the fact that I wore shinpads to this demonstration, but I have been at demonstrations where I have not been arrested but my shins have been scarred and bloodied by over-enthusiastic riot squads. I have spoken to and dealt with the police calmly in high pressure situations and in situations when they have requested my assistance. I wore shinpads in case policing got heavy handed, as it proved to be later on that evening and has been on many occasions in the past. If the riot police are dispatched with full on kevlar and carry on booting away at protesters, putting them in chokeholds when they are kettled, shinpads become necessary protection. The wearing of shinpads is not an indication of violent intent but a matter of personal safety. Still the state continues to blame society for the ills of the state. The most apparent symptom of this ignorance broke out this summer in Tottenham when a protest that merely asked for the ear of a ranked officer of the law was ignored and responded to with increased police presence resulting in the beating of a 16 year old girl when there could have been a simpler, community minded response to the protest. That incident broke out into the most widespread incidence of looting and vandalism on the streets of England in years, for 5 nights running. It is important to highlight that anarchists, including myself via social media, promoted and participated in the riot clean up campaigns across the UK to regain some sense of social cohesion amongst this symptom of a sick state with a market that needs investment and growth not deprivation and inflation. Society is not sick. Society responded to the infantile riots not as playground bullies charging around with body armour and blunt instruments, muttering about water cannons and rubber bullets. That was the state response. Society demanded a clean up. Society applauded Tariq Jahan as he called for an end to the tit for tat violence after seeing his own son die in his arms. However, this society is not an impressive high roller and has diminishing options for employment. It is not exemplary enough for those who looted en masse this summer. Society is having its services cut and its options for education and retraining denied with a growing debt to default on to fund its higher education. Society looks like a loser to those with higher ambitions. Banks get bailouts, corporations avoid tax, parliamentarians fiddle expenses, police officers inform journalists for money whilst investment bankers pray for the recession to cut deeper for long term rewards. High rollers reap the profits of corruption whether the market is booming or bust. Justice Price is not one of those high rollers in my eyes. He is a well intentioned man carrying out the full rigour of the law to a strict conservative agenda. It is for him a time to gain a legacy as a comic book villain who deals a strong whip hand towards any voices of descent. He is a child of the hang em and flog em generation. One who perhaps feels he missed out on donning the black cap and dishing out corporal punishment by just a few years. I am not a hero like Mr Jahan and neither am I a qualified servant of the crown like Justice Price. I am a silly man, with a bad shoulder, who threw a child's toy at Top Shop, revelling in a carnival. For this I will serve an idiotic prison sentence, this much I can take as read. This does not worry me, my main concerns are my parents and my elder brother and sisters who will spend the time I am imprisoned sick with worry and my inability to comfort them beyond a phone call or prison visit, as well as my nephews and nieces. I hope they are not targets of scorn and ridicule. No doubt they will feel that pain and to them I give my humblest apologies. To those who compare our justice system to those of corrupt regimes I wish to remind you that many have been served prison sentences far longer than my sentence, by this system, for doing absolutely nothing. Men like Paddy Hill and Gerry Conlon. Their lives were ruined by this system, despite any recompense they may have received. I do not claim that level of innocence. At the very least I know that I did throw a child's toy at Top Shop. My actions on previous demonstrations have been exemplary. I have co-operated with police officers who have assaulted me or stepped in front of them to protect older or infirm protesters and administered first aid to those injured by police and others. My behaviour on demonstrations had never led to my arrest until the 26th March 2011. And I attend and organise demonstrations regularly.

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