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A general lowering of expectations.

So "Tech Giant" (C all news outlets) Google have decided to do the right thing and pay back 130 million quid in backdated tax owing. they have also agreed to pay more in future. They got a bit huffy about the idea they'd been avoiding tax, simply saying that they were following the laws applicable at the time, in order to trouser the cash HMRC and HMG agreed not to laugh their heads off at this and everyone gets to save face all round.

The depressing thing is that this is indeed, as a spoksamn for HMRC said "a result". It shouldn't be. That 130 million quid stretches over the last ten years, in 2013 alone Google generated 3.4 BILLION in sales. It's buttons. But it sounds like a nice number and everone can slap thheir backs and hopefully everyone will stop banging on about big companies not paying any sodding tax for a bit. It's a useful fig-leaf, HMG can point and say look! Google! Google csan go look! us! HMRC can go check us out with the fearless crusading! and the general public can go on being robbed blind. What particularly sticks in the craw is the line that they've "come to an agreement about how much to pay". Oh you have, have you? That's nice for you, I'll bear that in mind next time I'm filling in a VAT return. I owe you x grand HMRC, but can we agree that I pay you just a bit? Then I'll sit back and watch as the letters threatening legal action start to pile up.

But it is "a result", and this is a sad thing. The expectation surrounding large companies has been lowered to the extent that when one of them does a fraction of the bare minimum, it is somehow seen as laudable. It is not laudable, it is a FRACTION of the BARE MINIMUM and I am aggravated enough to use CAPITAL LETTERS. This is the politics of gesture alone.

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