Now officially Britain’s wealthiest man, Alisher Usmanov has perhaps the world’s most carefully manicured Wikipedia entry. This article looks interesting and worrying. Can anyone do a good translation? Automatic web translators seem to struggle with it even more than usual. Please do not post any automated translations.
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More deceit.
Former Google UK exec alleges company diddled its taxes
A former employee of Google UK has alleged the company carried out a massive and “immoral” tax avoidance scheme, cheating us British taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of pounds over the last decade.
Along with Amazon, Google has recently come under fire for not paying enough tax. Now former exec Barney Jones says Google’s sales staff secured advertising deals almost exclusively in London, rather than in Dublin, where they claimed to be based, The Sunday Times reports (subscription required).
This contradicts Google VP Matt Brittin’s claim to the Commons Public Accounts Committee that while “a lot of the aspects of selling” ads happened in the London office, the Dublin one was actually closing the deals. (Ireland has a much lower rate of corporation tax — 12.5 per cent, compared to the UK’s 23 per cent — so Google bases its European HQ there.)
Brittin claimed only 1 per cent of Google’s UK customers were directly sold to by UK staff, but then admitted this accounts for 60 to 70 per cent of its UK revenue.
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/former-google-uk-exec-alleges-company-diddled-its-taxes-50011258/
Eric Schmidt defends Google’s tax affairs following Commons criticism
Google executive chairman says company accounts comply with international law
Barry Neild
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 18 May 2013
Eric Schmidt said that he understood why Google’s apparent sidestepping on UK taxation had generated controversy.
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has defended his company’s financial affairs after a Commons committee branded the internet giant devious and unethical for sheltering its multibillion-pound profits from UK taxes.
Writing in the Observer, Schmidt said his company’s accounts were complicated but complied with international taxation treaties that allowed it to pay most of its tax in the United States.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/may/18/eric-schmidt-google-tax?INTCMP=SRCH
(fortunately off to do stuff but could i just ask what on earth has the (old and awful) police spies story got to do with google’s taxes? it’s so random it’s making my eyes cross!)
John Goss,
I don’t deny it, but he says his Facebook account was hacked. It would be very odd indeed for anyone involved in politics to write something like that, but perhaps he is incredibly stupid. Maybe he was set up, maybe he really is a nasty racist. Who knows? You are very good at playing ‘cui bono?’ Why don’t you apply it here? With Julian Assange and rape allegations it’s all an Establishment put-up job (and I would agree). You see many things as a conspiracy, up to and including 9/11, but you are fully behind the Establishment when it comes to issues such as this. Are you blind to the machinations of the state when they are geared towards things you support, in this case mass-immigration and multiculturalism?
As for the woman’s remarks, is it to be deemed criminal to hold the opinion that there are too many Muslims in this country, or that Cambridge is losing its English character? If not then why shouldn’t she be entitled to hold that view? Surely we should put it to the test with free and fair debate, and then at the ballot box.
But what interests me here, John, is that you hold up what she said as a sort of condemnation in itself. You haven’t actually said what you think about why she is wrong, or argued an alternative. You just quote her and that’s it, as if she should be silenced and removed from public life altogether for her opinion. And you do this because you know it has become an established norm to silence any such opinion as “racist”.
Technicolour
Variety is the spice of life. I just happened to be looking at the Guardian on line and thought the pieces were of general interest. Anyway they make a change from UKIP, Monsieur Fromage and racism.
Well for a start, Technicolour, I have never said I have voted for the UKIP, but I must add that your comment, “openly hate-filled until monitored”, is utterly reprehensible and typical of you, who would appoint yourself among the arbiters of what does and does not constitute “hate-filled”, no doubt with the aim of silencing that which you consider so.
As for expenses, as you know vast sums of EU (ie, our) money are ploughed into all sorts of pro-EU propaganda schemes, and therefore it is quite right that a democratically elected party should get what it can and turn that against the tide of taxpayer-funded EU propaganda. That Farage admitted to what he got was to highlight the profligate nature of the beast, but of course this was misrepresented as him admitting to lining his own pockets by an ever-dutiful MSM.
Giles,
Fair comment. I am very wary of racist groups and groups flying Britishness and the union flag and feel I have been fighting this creeping racism all my life (National Front, BNP). I see UKIP as the natural home of these racist groups, and although UKIP says it will not have members of the BNP in its party, ex-BNP members are already there. It’s a difficult one. I see Farage as having some charisma in the mould of Enoch Powell and Adolph Hitler. So that’s where I stand and why I am vigilant.
TFS,
Tony Benn is indeed brilliant, but will he receive any condemnation here for his various tax avoidance schemes? :-/
Ok, John. We’ll leave it there.
Off-topic, but likely of interest to Craig and others here. The Electoral Commission is inviting responses to its evidence paper on electoral fraud in the UK. Submissions by 9th August 2013.
So, now might be a good time to raise concerns you have about postal ballots!
“Fair comment. I am very wary of racist groups and groups flying Britishness and the union flag and feel I have been fighting this creeping racism all my life (National Front, BNP). I see UKIP as the natural home of these racist groups, and although UKIP says it will not have members of the BNP in its party, ex-BNP members are already there. It’s a difficult one. I see Farage as having some charisma in the mould of Enoch Powell and Adolph Hitler. So that’s where I stand and why I am vigilant.”
You do well to be vigilant but be vigilant also about groups flying Scottishness and the Scots flag. There really isn’t any difference you know.
Tut, Giles, so aggressive. Calm down, sweetie. And don’t leave it up to me – what would you consider ‘hate filled’?
Otherwise, condoning of troughing on a grand scale, and the use of the word ‘reprehensible’. But I fight for your right to say it all!
Btw are you suggesting that these people, not just those quoted by J Goss, were spreading the love until monitored and forced to resign?
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/snp-hits-out-at-ukip-after-resignation-1-2936682
http://news.sky.com/story/1091098/ukip-councillor-eric-kitson-resigns
For time now I have been concerned about the low levels of integrity in the City Of London. So desperate are institutions to attract money from emerging markets that the City has become a haven for criminals. It is very sad.
Giles
19 May, 2013 – 8:58 am
“RACIST SCUM!”, they chant, with not a black or brown face amongst them.
“Priceless.”
Giles one doesn’t have to be black or brown to be a victim of racism.
Being a white European will do.
@Gary, the City of London has always been a haven for criminals.
As for these boring stories about ‘Tory split on Europe’ and ‘government versus the media’, they are nothing but pap. Actually these stories strengthen both the government and the media. Stories are always put out for a purpose. It’s all advertising, as Beaverbrook put it.
UKIP too is a distraction, just something to talk about, just something to keep people believing in the idea that popular unrest can be usefully expressed through parliament. It can’t.
The rich who control big business rule. Parliamentary democracy is a propaganda instrument, and can’t be anything but.
I’m not saying that what you say about the City of London is off-target, though. Quite the contrary – it’s very much on-target, albeit (and I don’t mean to be rude) shot through with naivety, because any big financial centre is going to be a haven for criminals, so long as big financial centres exist. Here’s the key point: obedience to the law is for the little people. Middle class politicos are never going to recognise that, except maybe just before they are themselves financially ruined by the big fish.
Giles
19 May, 2013 – 4:08 pm
“As for the woman’s remarks, is it to be deemed criminal to hold the opinion that there are too many Muslims in this country, or that Cambridge is losing its English character?”
Giles, how about; would it be deemed criminal to hold the opinion that there are too many Jews in this country? How would you react to someone who held that view?
And how is Cambridge losing its English character? Too many Scotsmen?
I am getting up very early in the morning and starting the long journey bacy to Ramsgate by train. So probably no post till Tuesday.
Giles
19 May, 2013 – 4:48 pm
“Tony Benn is indeed brilliant, but will he receive any condemnation here for his various tax avoidance schemes?”
Yes he would.
So please present your evidence for his various tax-avoidance schemes and I will check that out.
Jon’s been busy!
@Jon, in future can you leave “English Knight’s” posts intact, as deleting them, in this case, renders half my posts meaningless. Furthermore, will you explain how deleting my posts furthers the cause of Anti-Racism, as espoused by you and others on this blog?
I appreciate that open and unmoderated displays of antisemitism put this blog in a hard place, but there is no need to delete opposition to such virulent antisemitism.
Thanks in advance!
“Giles one doesn’t have to be black or brown to be a victim of racism.”
No, and one doesn’t have to be white to be a racist.
But suppose a group had gone along to the meeting of an Asian politician and started chanting “racist scum” and “get back to Pakistan”? Wouldn’t that be deemed racist, wouldn’t those responsible be up on charges of conspiracy to incite?
On NHS privatisation, I think it is likely that more people are now grasping what is happening and what is at stake. My brother’s next door neighbour in Devon cares for very ill children. She is apparently a lovely gentle person whose unit has now been taken over by Branson’s Virgin Care who has acquired Devon’s Children’s Services. She can see the threats to the service increasing and is witnessing the first part of the ConDems’ plan now in the hands of Mr Hunt and Earl Howe. ie destabilisation >demoralization> dismantle.
Branson already has acquired adult NHS Community Health Services in Surrey.
There was an angry meeting on Friday to protest at the planned closure of A&E and Maternity at Epsom General Hospital.
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2134298_hundreds_attend_meeting_over_epsom_hospital_future
You can sense from the report the utter confusion and the generation of feelings of powerlessness and resignation.
Note the Orwellian sounding acronym BSBV – Better Service Better Value – where the very opposite will be the case.
Is that tree outside Ramsgate railway station still a favoured roosting place for a large proportion of the area’s rose-ringed parakeets? Just wondered!
If UKIP’s Tiggs Keywood-Wainwright knew anything about the demographics of Cambridge, she would know that the largest ethnic group in that city after white English people are Chinese people, a large proportion of whom are Anglicised and do not speak Chinese.
Meanwhile, Islam is a universalist and not a tribal religion.
But if I had to give lessons about either of these matters to the Ms Keywood-Wainwrights of this world, I’d be wasting my time, I think.
TFS – I enjoyed your link. A splendid discussion on the unaccountability of the arcane British secret intelligence services.
The fundamental axial of the discussion is the right of governments or governments within governments, to keep secrets from their citizens.
I remember writing here an ethical and conscientious fact; even low level engineering candidates under recruitment to our secret intelligence services (communications engineers, electronic engineers) are assessed on how effectively they can fabricate deception.
If one shines a light on these dark furtive creatures who lurk in various dark corners below the horizon; in this visible darkness, nothing can be perceived. We realise from that experience this transparency is a measure of how good these creatures are at double-dealing and probing further, how devoted they are to trustworthiness.
Yet something that is true and genuine is not necessarily honest…
April Showers
19 May, 2013 – 10:10 pm
“All in it Together: How Government Is Handing Ownership of our Schools and Hospitals to Banks”
http://scriptonitedaily.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/all-in-it-together-how-government-is-handing-ownership-of-our-schools-and-hospitals-to-banks/
Another link
http://johnnyvoid.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/nhs-coffin.jpg?w=450&h=335
What is England?
A nation of god loving, friendly, happy, joyful, hard working, people aspiring for a better place here and abroad.
No, we are moaning consumers who believe ‘economic growth is our only road to salvation.
The left and right in politics if share the above statement, ought to establish society that can natutaly homogenise that at least shares passionately a worldwide view of wrong and right, that which is just and fair.
Giles:
Link to Tony Benns tax avoidance evidence.
This thread has been all over the shop so far, so I’m throwing this into it
The */** Phone Calls: Disturbing Irregularities Uncovered in the Calls that Flashed around the World
http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130516-909978.html
Weird, to say the least
“Bad luck Capriles or should I say Radonski”
(the Obsessive Poster on 18 May)
——–
You can say whatever you like – we know what you’re hinting at (again)
And Glenn Greenwald
“Washington gets explicit: its ‘war on terror’ is permanent”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/17/endless-war-on-terror-obama
if they can pay for it
Paul Craig Roberts is sounding alarms
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35002.htm
On topic!
No superstars, no ambition, no hope of change! Usmanov takes aim at Arsenal owner Kroenke
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2317554/Arsenal-fighting-continues-Alisher-Usmanov-takes-new-swipe-Stan-Kroenke.html
and
What if Alisher Usmanov had put £100m into Arsenal rather than Apple?
May 4, 2013
Arsenal are currently smack-bang in the middle of a civil war. In one corner is Stan Kroenke, the Gunners’ majority shareholder and the subject of much fan criticism for his passive ownership of the club. In the other is Alisher Usmanov, Britain and Russia’s wealthiest man. Could the Russian’s financial muscle prove the difference in this battle of wills?
http://soccerlens.com/usmanov-100-million-for-arsenal/107596/
Is it correct for him to be called Russian when he was born in Uzbekistan when it was a ‘republic’ of the Soviet Union?
Wenger hails ‘special’ Arsenal squad after sealing Champions’ League place
• Manager hails team’s character after 1-0 defeat of Newcastle
• ‘We want to make additions but keep spirit of the squad’
The Guardian, Monday 20 May 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/may/19/arsenal-arsene-wenger-fourth-spot