Think about Boots, a company that reduced its tax bill by more than 80 per cent because it has - legally - “relocated” to a post office box in Switzerland. Imagine if the police didn’t turn up when there was a theft from their shops and the fire brigade didn’t turn up when they caught fire. Imagine if the binmen didn’t collect the rubbish at the back. Imagine if the roads that deliver their goods weren’t paved and maintained. Imagine if the staff who worked in their shops couldn’t read because they had never been given an education and simply died when they got sick. Boots depends on them to make their money, but they and their corporate and billionaire allies refuse to contribute a fair share towards providing for them.
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Johann Hari, “If you were a rich man”, GQ, January 2011
