Starbucks seems to revel in giving business a bad name.
The coffee giant raked in sales of £387million last year in the UK but paid just £22.5million in tax to the exchequer.
Starbucks claims its tax arrangements are legally correct but they are morally repulsive.
It uses complex and arcane accounting structures to minimise its liability in the UK to line the already bulging pockets of its owners in the United States.
The Government says it is helpless to act.
It could start by taking up Aslef’s suggestion that it bans Starbucks from railway stations until it starts paying its fair share in tax.
Then it could change the law so the firm stops using accounting techniques that are as murky as the coffee it serves.
Labour’s stain
Labour has done itself no favours by lifting the suspension on Chris Williamson.
MPs, staff and peers are furious at the National Executive Committee decision which went against the advice of the party’s officers to probe this further.
Williamson had been accused of downplaying the extent of anti-Semitism within the movement and endorsing people who had made anti-Semitic comments.
Labour can justifiably claim the troubling levels of Islamaphobia in the Tory Party do not receive the same amount of attention.
But that should not be used as an excuse for the failure to tackle the wider issue of bigotry and hatred in its own ranks.
Leader Jeremy Corbyn must realise that as long as his party is stained by allegations of anti-Semitism it will drown out coverage of Labour’s mission to create a fairer and more prosperous country.
A muddy relief
Parts of Britain will bask in record-breaking temperatures this weekend.
This will be music to the ears of festival goers at Glastonbury who usually have to wade through fields of mud.
