Barclays Bank appear to be a bunch of tax-dodging bastards

I’ve just had a bit of a rant on Twitter. Thought it might be worth making a more structured argument here.


Last year Barclays paid £113m in corporation tax on £11.6bn profits: that’s 1% rather than 28%.

The thing that really gets me about such (probably totally legal) criminality is that tax-dodging on such an epic scale is really a form of social robbery. Barclays should have paid £3,164 million (or 3.164 billion if you’re using American billions) in tax.

They have robbed the British treasury of over £3,000,000,000, which means they have collectively robbed the people of Britain of whatever the Government could have spent that money on.

Seriously, that is how much they have stolen from us by exploiting legal loopholes.

Does that bank have a social conscience? Do the people who work there? Do the people who bank there? Do the people or institutions that own shares in it?

If you’re making money off Barclays you’re guilty of complicity in this swindle. I honestly think that.

I don’t know why we don’t get more angry about this. I know it’s not just Barclays. It could be every other large corporation. Why aren’t we angry with all of them?

Business can be conducted differently. Business can create wealth for the good of everyone. It can bring much-needed equity into a sharply-divided society. Paying tax is about good citizenship and the demands of good citizenship apply equally to banks and corporations.

But it’s not going to happen without pressure from people like me and you.

This country is going to lose its free healthcare system. It’s going to lose investment in its infrastructure. The schools and hospitals and roads and rubbish collections and leisure centres and libraries and parks and public transport in your area is going to be cut. Fact. And if you’re a normal member of this society you either don’t know that or you don’t give a shit.

Most people don’t. Who cares about corporate profiteering when you can watch Got to Dance on Sky? TV is the 21st century opium of the proles.

Jesus hated profiteering and took direct action (Mark 11: 15-17). I reckon he'd be up for having a go at Barclays.

Sorry, no, all it shows is that your life is mediocre

I've been a bit surprised by just how seriously people have been taking X Factor this year. I know it's a popular show and all, but I think this year is the first time I've really noticed it because for the first time we've had someone in the house who is obsessed by it.

The front pages of the papers today included a story about a spat between Simon Cowell and a contestant, a hissy fit by Dannii Minogue, and more stuff about those annoying twins.

Apparently lots of people think this kind of reportage is necessary. Our incumbent lodger has decided she's not going to watch the show with certain other of our friends because, and I quote, "they don't treat it with the respect it's due."

Well, no, neither do I. Mainly because it's a bit hard to wipe your arse on the telly.

And then there's the Xtra Factor, possibly the nadir of ramschackle poorly-thought out moronicity designed to keep the gibbering proles happy in their mundane little lives. I had to sit in the same room while that show was on and could feel it sucking the intelligence out of me. I had to leave. Any longer and I would become the kind of meusli-brained human beanbag who thinks this kind of drivel in any way constitutes culture.

I don't mind seeing people sing. I think dragging out the show to two hours is a bit much, but I could just about put up with that. The thing that's really turning me off, though, is, I'm sorry to say, the fans.

It's just not that important, sorry. I enjoy it as entertaining fluff. But to get passionate about it is just daft. The world is full of injustices that should make you so angry you get off your arse and raise hell until something is done.

The mystery of who is voting for Jedward just isn't worth the ranting.

I'm not saying I agree with vigilante-ism

But when a guy who has flushed 24 billion pounds of tax-payers money down the toilet and then retires with a tax-payer funded salary of £700,000 a year, it's hard to feel any sympathy when yobbos brick his house.

Score 1 for the yobbos.

Black Gold (film review)

Occasionally I'm asked why I'm involved with fair trade. Films like Black Gold remind me.

The contrast between the impoverished lives of the coffee growers and the fetishization of coffee in London or New York is thrown into sharp relief by the head of a coffee co-operative, Tadesse Meskela, who travels the world trying to sell his farmers' coffee. The film throws up a few other surprises as well. Did you know there's a world barista championship? Or that the area of Ethiopia Starbucks 'ethically' source their coffee from is on the brink of famine? Or that Ethiopia relies on American grain hand outs - from subsidized American farmers...?

The only problem with Black Gold as a film is the people who need to see it - the indolent, uncaring people who regularly irritate me in conversation - won't go and see it. If it's a bit tooo much to ask people to consider their fellow humans when they buy their coffee, then there's no way they'll go and see this.

But they should.

Jongudmund's rating: 9/10

Stuff I learned from Mark Thomas’ book

Every job in the defence industry is subsidized to the tune of £13,000 plus change

That money comes out of our taxes

Far from being the impartial, fearless newsgatherer it wants to portray itself as, the BBC bottled it when the opportunity came along to expose arms dealers who’ve given money to the government

If the Indian government ever drops a nuke on Pakistan, it’s likely to be from a British-made plane

Most cabinet ministers visiting foreign governments are corporate whores touting the wares of Bae Systems

It’s illegal to sell torture equipment in the UK, but people still do it, and you can buy it on the web

The Labour government cares more whether you pay your TV licence than whether you are selling arms to UN-blacklisted regimes

If you’re going to break into an arms fair and cause havoc, one of the best ways is to dress up as a ‘penis of peace’ and hide a battering ram inside your giant papier mache cock – plus make sure you’re naked and greased up with olive oil to make life even harder for the security goons trying to grab you

Still haven't bought your own copy? Get along to Amazon.

Light bedtime reading

This has been the working week, if not from Hell, then from somewhere nearby. Purgatory perhaps, now that the Pope has gone and abolished Limbo. To cheer me up Cathy bought me a little gift - Mark Thomas' polemic about the arms trade called As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela.

It sounds grim, and in places it is, but I'm enjoying reading something so passionate about an important topic for a change. I'm a third of the way through, but here are a few quotes that have made me laugh so far:

"For many in Old Labour, the day Blair dies is the day that Judas will be found muttering in the depths of Hell, 'I bet he comes and sits next to me.'"

"All we had to do was smile and lie, and not just little lies either - we had to lie like estate agents."

"To the best of my knowledge not even the most cap-doffing historian has dared to describe the British Empire as an 'ethical empire', although there is bound to be one out there somewhere, just as there is bound to be a Conservative Party leader who doesn't look like a smug twat, if only we could be bothered to look."

There's lots more, but you should really go and buy your own copy.