Hmv?

[vitalstates]

an example:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...orporation-tax

[Shane]

?

[Greg.]

I don't understand Colin's deletion either, Shane. Maybe he'll comment accordingly.

[andrew ivimey]

the Guardian article sums it up nicely - who reads the Guardian? do we care as long as what we want is nice and cheap?

[pre65]

Originally Posted by Greg.

I don't understand Colin's deletion either, Shane. Maybe he'll comment accordingly.

Not sure what Colin deleted, but to him a link without any additional text is verboten.

[Chris]

May be there is a price to pay for "nice & cheap" prices tend to rise when there is no competition.

[tangleha]

sorry for the delay in reply, but andrew has summed it up. Amazon is the main cause for the demise of the high street. A situation that we all must live with for choosing to purchase on line. The concern i was expressing was the fact that we earn our money in the uk, then spend it in shops that pay taxes outside the uk, thus reducing the amount of taxes we collectively raise for the UK society.

I accept maybe a bit deep for a saturday afternoon. All said, just finished building my Kit6550 amp after 10 years in a cupboard!!

[Shane]

Originally Posted by pre65

Not sure what Colin deleted, but to him a link without any additional text is verboten.

Basically a comment that if Amazon paid their dues on what is actually a turnover of £3.3 billion in the UK we wouldn't need to have a governmemnt intent on destroying the welfare state, but I was a little more cryptic in my choice of langauge, and angled it as a slight dig at the Daily Mail mentality. Still can't imagine why Colin deleted it, but there you go.

[andrew ivimey]

ah, the arbitrary nature of our biggers and betters! I know my place ;-)

[Baggy Trousers]

Well, it's all very well being critical of Amazon, Starbucks et al but it should be remembered that the principal requirement of the management of these and other companies is to support the shareholders. They do not purport to be charitable or social institutions and any claim that their actions (as exhibited by so-called "immoral behaviour") have to be facile and tenuous at best.

I am saddened by the demise of HMV. I have grown up with the company and once performed a small service for Walter Legge at the Abbey Road studios. But like so many familiar names in recent years, the company failed to respond to a different world and changing market conditions. The same observation holds good in respect of the British car and motorcycle manufacturing industries, Hoover, ICI and all the other household names. Of course, the Guy Hands episode didn't help HMV. That HMV have gone belly-up has nothing to do with the payment of corporation or any other sort of tax. That Amazon and the like have prospered follows from effective management; a management which would have been derelict if it had failed to take advantage of any legitimate means of avoiding the payment of tax - I speak of avoidance, not evasion.

The demise of the national economy is a legacy of the succession of governments since the end of the War and which, for any number of reasons, have failed properly to direct the exchequer and related matters. If it is felt that the big multi-nationals (and I have to say I don't like them) do not "pull their weight", then seek not to pillory them for acting in their particular interests - look to the dysfunctional administration of government which not only provides the framework for avoidance but due to its Byzantine construction, positively encourages it. The entire taxation system requires overhaul but this is particularly needed in the commercial sector. However, we are unlikely to see any progress in this regard whilst the Posh Boys are trying to divert attention with their odious involvement with marriage.

Why is it that one's advancing age is accompanied by corresponding levels of anger? I yearn for past days when things like the merits of Enfields and Nortons, Atcos and Qualcasts, Pamphonics and Avantics (or even the Pye Mozart if conversation went a bit thin!) could be discussed as if nothing else in the world mattered. And to some of us, it didn't.

Sic transit gloria mundae.