UK Uncut, the group behind recent protests at Vodafone and Topshop stores, targeted another 20 stores across Britain on Saturday, the Sunday Times reported.
The group plans a ‘day of mass action’ on Saturday, 18 December. The Arcadia Group, which owns Topshop, declined to comment today on the protests, and Vodafone has insisted that a recent £1.2 billion settlement with HMRC was agreed ‘after a full and rigorous examination of the facts and circumstances by HMRC’.
In Ealing, west London, police adopted a ‘softly softly’ approach on Saturday and allowed demonstrators carrying placards saying ‘No cuts. Tax the fat cats’ to march into a Topshop store, according to the Sunday Times report. Vodafone and Topshop stores in Leeds city centre were closed for a short period, where about 200 protesters held an afternoon of demonstrations, The Guardian reported.
Over 50 protesters targeted Vodafone and Topshop stores in Manchester. The Manchester Evening News reported that four people were arrested. Police officers attended a small demonstration in Piccadilly Gardens and ‘agreed some parameters’, a spokesman said, but the group failed to keep to the agreed terms and went into the Arndale shopping centre, where ‘the protest became unreasonable and shoppers and workers were intimidated’.
Protestors outside a Topshop store in Bradford waved placards and were ‘singing and chanting, protesting about tax avoidance in big business’, the Bradford Telegraph and Argus reported. Two people were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.
An editorial in today’s Guardian said the UK Uncut demonstrators ‘are making a tricky, worthwhile argument’ about tax. ‘A technical argument over how much a multinational should pay to the British taxman may now be affecting Vodafone's business (you try buying a BlackBerry during a store sit-in) and has worked its way into the political debate,’ it declared. ‘The full effects of the past few weeks' protests are not yet apparent; but it looks likely that they have at least put tax justice back on the Westminster agenda.’
Daniel Garvin of UK Uncut told the BBC’s Today programme last week that while Vodafone and Sir Phillip Green had done nothing illegal, ‘we consider that tax avoidance by people who are already millionaires or billionaires to be an immoral act at a time when ordinary people are fighting to save their jobs and social care provision in their community’.
Mariabella, attending a planned protest outside a St Albans Vodafone store last Tuesday afternoon, told the BBC that she was a self-employed garden designer and had never protested before.
The Daily Telegraph columnist Tracy Corrigan has claimed that British business is ‘in danger of losing the battle for hearts and minds’.
‘However, whatever our personal feelings about sneaky accountants and overpaid executives, it’s worth remembering that we do actually want to have as many big businesses in this country as possible,’ she added.
‘They employ many of us, usually on relatively favourable terms and conditions. Even if they try to pay as little corporation tax as possible, they produce a lot of other revenues, such as national insurance and VAT. They buy products from British suppliers and employ local contractors. Small businesses may be the engine for economic growth, but they often rely on big businesses to keep them running.’
UK Uncut, the group behind recent protests at Vodafone and Topshop stores, targeted another 20 stores across Britain on Saturday, the Sunday Times reported.
The group plans a ‘day of mass action’ on Saturday, 18 December. The Arcadia Group, which owns Topshop, declined to comment today on the protests, and Vodafone has insisted that a recent £1.2 billion settlement with HMRC was agreed ‘after a full and rigorous examination of the facts and circumstances by HMRC’.
In Ealing, west London, police adopted a ‘softly softly’ approach on Saturday and allowed demonstrators carrying placards saying ‘No cuts. Tax the fat cats’ to march into a Topshop store, according to the Sunday Times report. Vodafone and Topshop stores in Leeds city centre were closed for a short period, where about 200 protesters held an afternoon of demonstrations, The Guardian reported.
Over 50 protesters targeted Vodafone and Topshop stores in Manchester. The Manchester Evening News reported that four people were arrested. Police officers attended a small demonstration in Piccadilly Gardens and ‘agreed some parameters’, a spokesman said, but the group failed to keep to the agreed terms and went into the Arndale shopping centre, where ‘the protest became unreasonable and shoppers and workers were intimidated’.
Protestors outside a Topshop store in Bradford waved placards and were ‘singing and chanting, protesting about tax avoidance in big business’, the Bradford Telegraph and Argus reported. Two people were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.
An editorial in today’s Guardian said the UK Uncut demonstrators ‘are making a tricky, worthwhile argument’ about tax. ‘A technical argument over how much a multinational should pay to the British taxman may now be affecting Vodafone's business (you try buying a BlackBerry during a store sit-in) and has worked its way into the political debate,’ it declared. ‘The full effects of the past few weeks' protests are not yet apparent; but it looks likely that they have at least put tax justice back on the Westminster agenda.’
Daniel Garvin of UK Uncut told the BBC’s Today programme last week that while Vodafone and Sir Phillip Green had done nothing illegal, ‘we consider that tax avoidance by people who are already millionaires or billionaires to be an immoral act at a time when ordinary people are fighting to save their jobs and social care provision in their community’.
Mariabella, attending a planned protest outside a St Albans Vodafone store last Tuesday afternoon, told the BBC that she was a self-employed garden designer and had never protested before.
The Daily Telegraph columnist Tracy Corrigan has claimed that British business is ‘in danger of losing the battle for hearts and minds’.
‘However, whatever our personal feelings about sneaky accountants and overpaid executives, it’s worth remembering that we do actually want to have as many big businesses in this country as possible,’ she added.
‘They employ many of us, usually on relatively favourable terms and conditions. Even if they try to pay as little corporation tax as possible, they produce a lot of other revenues, such as national insurance and VAT. They buy products from British suppliers and employ local contractors. Small businesses may be the engine for economic growth, but they often rely on big businesses to keep them running.’
