Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Topshop day of action against tax dodger Sir Philip Green

Keith Parkins | 05.12.2010 01:39 | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles | South Coast

Across the country on one of the busiest shopping days in the run up to Christmas Topshop stores across the country were closed in protest against tax dodger Sir Philip Green.

Demonstrators glue their hands to the window Topshop Brighton - Cathy Jones
Demonstrators glue their hands to the window Topshop Brighton - Cathy Jones


A more eloquent and informed group of demonstrators would be hard to come across and one is struck by the wide appeal across ages and incomes, of what they had to say. -- Alex Thomson, Chief Correspondent, Channel 4 News

What do Topshop (Sir Philip Green Arcadia Group), Vodafone, SABMiller (brewers of Grolsch), Boots, Barclays and now Cadbury's all have in common? They all dodge their taxes.

We all pay our taxes. We may not like it, but it is part of our civic duty, part of our obligation to the Big Society. But not it seems if we are big enough. If we are big enough or rich enough, we get away with paying little or no tax.

The first Saturday of December, one of the busiest Christmas shopping days of the year, it was the turn of Topshop (part of the Arcadia Group of Sir Philip Green's empire) to be shut down. The Arcadia Group includes Topshop, Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans and Miss Selfridge.

Sir Philip Green, billionaire boss of Arcadia, who owns Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge among others. Arcadia is owned by Taveta Investments Limited, which is registered to an office on the tax-haven island of Jersey. Taveta Investments is owned by Green’s family members living in Monaco, where income tax is 0%. It’s estimated Green avoided paying £285million in tax in 2005 alone.

- Philip Green's £285m tax dodge would have paid for 13,000 new police officers
- The tax dodged by Philip Green could have paid for 20,000 NHS nurses
- To clarify the reports, Philip Green avoided £300 million on his £1.2bn dividend payout

In the Oxford Sreet store in London security thugs assaulted protesters. As these assaults were witnessed by several people, including the police, I trust charges for assault wil be brought and that the local authority withdraws their registration to work as security guards.

Charges for assault should also be brought against the clearly identified thugs in police uniform who attacked a female. There should be no place for thugs like this in any police force.

But well done the police who did the protesters job for them and shut down Topshop stores.

And the mainsteam media? To their credit, the Mail Online had excellent coverage, but from the BBC a deathly silence during the day. No mention on the BBC Radio 4 lunchtime news, but did manage to mention that a bicycle thief had been apprehended through a trail he left in the snow! What then of their flagship PM news slot at 5pm? Er nothing. Out of a half hour prime early evening news, almost 15 minutes on Spanish air traffic controllers strikes (and poor stranded Brits suffereing) and tut tut corrupt Fifa not awarding World Cup football to England, several minutes on Oprah Winfrey taking her show to Sydney in Australia, several minustes on Asil Nadir allegedly breaching his bail conditions, a few second mention of climate protesters on the streets of London (blink and you would have missed it) but absolutely zilch on concerned citizens shutting down Topshop stores and the scandal of tax avoidance by the likes of Sir Philip Green and the implications it has for all of us in loss of public services. There was coverage on the BBC Radio 4 6pm news and midnight news but nothing on the main 10pm news. Brilliant coverage by Channel 4 News which once again puts BBC News to shame.

If you could not make it or there was not a protest near you there is still a lot you can do. Go into Topshop and slip a few leaflets into pockets, stick up a few posters in the changing rooms, re-arrange the clothes on the racks, take your purchases to the checkout, offer to pay when Sir Philip Green pays his taxes. But best of all, boycott Topshop!

There is a difference between style and fashion. Style is wearing what you look good in. Fashion is being manipulated into wearing what you look ridiculous in. Fashion is pointless consumersism which the planet cannot afford.

Every weekend until Christmas?

Sir Philip Green says he is doing nothing wrong, nothing illegal. Slave owners used to say something similar!

websites

Tax Justice Network
 http://www.taxjustice.net/

Tax Research UK Blog
 http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/


Also see

The Winner Stands Alone
 http://www.heureka.clara.net/books/the-winner-stands-alone.htm

Shop a Scrounger
 http://keithpp.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/shop-a-scrounger/

Why cuts are the wrong cure
 http://keithpp.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/why-cuts-are-the-wrong-cure/

Tax protests hit Topshop, BHS, Vodafone on busy shopping
 http://www.channel4.com/news/tax-protests-hit-topshop-bhs-vodafone-on-busy-shopping-day

Topshop protests over Sir Philip Green's taxes
 http://www.channel4.com/news/topshop-protest-over-sir-philip-greens-taxes

Mayhem in Oxford St as protesters target stores including Topshop's flagship branch over firms avoiding tax bills
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1335632/Mayhem-Topshops-flagship-London-store-closes-protests-Sir-Philip-Greens-taxes.html#ixzz179v5sH3c

Topshop's flagship London store hit by tax protest
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11918873

The day the teenagers turned on Topshop
 http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny/2010/12/hope-young-education-angry

Tax protest forces closure of Topshop's flagship branch
 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tax-protest-forces-closure-of-topshops-flagship-branch-2151387.html

Sir Philip Green should pay UK tax - Vince Cable
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/9020170.stm

Sheffield Vodafone and Top Shop targeted in tax dodge demo
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/12/469710.html

Oxford Top Shop targeted in tax dodge demo
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/12/469702.html

Oxford St Topshop Shut in #Ukuncut Action
 http://london.indymedia.org/articles/6301

Anti-cuts day of action in Nottingham
 http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/769

Sheffield Occupation and Anti-Cuts Protest
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/12/469746.html

Keith Parkins
- Homepage: http://keithpp.wordpress.com/2010/12/05/topshop-day-of-action-against-tax-dodger-sir-philip-green/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech