Google dropping its derided “Don’t be evil” mantra is symbolic when campaigners argue the money-spinning US corporation should have tipped up £1.5billion more in UK tax last year.
This is not a victimless calculation when the fortune would have employed tens of thousands of nurses, teachers and doctors, or built council houses, schools and hospitals.
With firms like the internet monster benefiting from investment here on health, education, policing and infrastructure, it is only right to demand it pays fair and the challenge is to force the Googles of this world to pay an appropriate rate on profits made here.
Labour firmly believe that, yet the protestations of Theresa May and other Tories often smack of lip service to the idea – with words rarely enforced by deeds.
Tackling the Googles, Facebooks, Apples and the rest is not easy but where there’s a will there’s always a way.
