[Harley's Dad]

Without wishing to start anything too political on the site, I'm slightly amazed that there has been no comment on the wriggling out of a fair share of Corporation Tax by these firms. Together they've earned something around £1 billion annually in this country but their tax contribution has been derisory, while the poor ordinary citizen has necessarily been squeezed by both inflation and limitations on pay.

Pay your full share, you t*ssers, while the rest of the country has to also! If I were head of PR of any of the firms concerned, I'd be sweating on the impact that your tax skiving was going to have upon your future business.

And, lest you think I'm just swiping from the sidelines, I can remember when in the days of the last Callaghan Labour government (about 1977) someone very close to me finally sold her former pony paddock for building land for about £120K - probs a good bit more than £1/2 million in todays money. The £20K was swallowed up by the bill for access, but she then had to pay £50K in Land Development Tax and was left with the change! Six months later Maggie Thatcher came to power and raised the threshold to a level where she wouldn't have had to pay a penny -(another £50K to the Chancellor - aargh!)

And tax immediately after WW2 was viciously punitive, up to 98%!, so that very many landowners just gave up and destroyed their stately homes to the loss of us all today. I get the impression that many in UK greatly resented anyone who owned more than they did and were determined to strip them of it in the new egalitarian postwar world. And I'm sometimes tempted to think that the doctrine of envy still persists today ...

Tony (who has already paid much more than his fair share!)