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@Multi_Grooves
Taken from there^:
Addison Lee and Occupy London?
It seems to me that this Addison Lee fracas is a classic example of what Occupy London was trying to highlight.
1/ A very rich member of the 1% (he and his son directors take about £12.5 million out of the company annually),
2/ uses his wealth to privately lobby the government for commercial advantage for his company ie access to bus lanes,
3/ pays large amounts of money in political donations to help get his way (£50,000 to Boris and £250,000 to Tories - as he hates the pro cycling policies of the Green Party) ,
4/ exploits the 99% to make his money - his workers are "self-employed" but have to pay Griffin large amounts of money whether they get any passengers or not - thus moving the risk from the very rich Griffin to his low waged workers.
5/ he avoids paying holiday or other normal benefits to his low waged "self-employed"workers,
6/ he avoids paying employers NI for these "self-employed"- thus avoiding tax,
7/he destroys the planet to make his millions as instead of creaming the £12.5 million for his family from the business, he refuses to use ultra-low carbon vehicles, thus emitting thousands of tonnes of carbon every year,
8/damages the health of the 99% by being a source of air-pollution on London's streets due to mini-particulates - reported cause of up to 4,000 deaths each year
9/ they try and create a near-monopoly in their field of operation and close down small companies and individual genuinely self-employed cabbies, which Addison Lee is doing with nearly 4,000 vehicles and the attempt to barge in on bus lanes, is to try and mop up what is left of the market that the black-cab drivers hold
What is missing from classic Occupy London case study, is that normally such a case study includes massive offshore tax avoidance - ie by Addison Lee ownership possibly being buried in labyrinth of parent companies buried in offshore UK tax-stealing havens, as per David Cameron's father or in the Griffin family squirelling their profits through such off-shore accounts.
they try and create a monopoly in their field of operation and close down small companies and individual genuinely self-employed which Addison Lee is doing with nearly 4,000 vehicles and the attempt to barge in on bus lanes, is to try and mop up what is left of the market that the black-cab drivers hold"
So I wonder is anybody here able to find out anything about the tax side of Addison Lee and Griffin Family to complete the Occupy thesis?
Many thanks
Donnachadh