Whenever there are immigration issues or someone mentions
China, the Have-Your-Say and comment pages become swamped by Great British
people upholding their faith in the great traditions of Great Britain. Phrases
like – ‘too many people here’, ‘not like it used to be’, ‘when Britain really was Great and the rest
of the world listened to us’, ‘none of these foreigners have our British
values.’ Well for all those people out there and you Johnny or Juan
foreigners sitting bemused, look no further than GlaxoSmithKline PLC for today’s
lesson in British values. Firstly, pay a visit to their traditions and value
soaked website http://www.gsk.com for a
mission statement from the Lucozade producer: GSK is one
of the world's leading research-based
pharmaceutical and healthcare companies — is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.
We have offices across the UK and we are committed to working with the
NHS to improve patient healthcare.
Instead GSK’s accountants have been working very hard on research into
avoiding tax and improving the tax efficiency and thus enabling
a much lower tax bill and thus proving how committed GSK is to its
shareholders’ dividends.
The company has issued a statement to the BBC:
“Both the UK and Luxembourg tax authorities are agreed that
we have paid all the taxes that are due. We take very seriously our duty to pay
tax. But we also have a duty to our shareholders and patients to be financially
efficient so that we can maximise returns to investors and fund the development
of future medicines."
So, the moral of the story is...? The underlying values? We
should watch Panorama: The Truth About Tax, BBC One, Monday, 14 May at 20:30.
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