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You and Yours: Call You and Yours: Can consumers make a difference?

Call You and Yours: Can consumers make a difference?

20/11/2012

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, Call You and Yours: Can consumers make a difference?

Can consumers make a difference? Consumer phone-in with Julian Worricker.

There are calls for a consumer boycott of companies like Starbucks, Google and Amazon who do not pay corporation tax. Can consumers make a difference? With Julian Worricker.

Call You and Yours - Can consumers make a difference?

Last week executives from Starbucks, Google and Amazon were questioned by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee....they were being quizzed about the way they use favourable European tax jurisdictions for their UK businesses.

Following that, the Business Secretary Vince Cable condemned corporate tax avoidance as "completely unacceptable", but said that tackling the issue requires international agreement as well as domestic action.

Online there are calls for a consumer boycott of some of the companies criticised by MPs.....but is this the chance to send a genuinely powerful message to those involved, or an indulgent flash in the pan? Has direct consumer action ever succeeded in changing the policy of a profit focussed corporation? Would these businesses care, or even notice?

On Call You and Yours, we want to hear your views. Have you boycotted in the past, will you do so in the future....will it make a difference, has it ever done so before? Call us, too, if you're on the corporate side of this argument.....after all, tax avoidance is legal, so what's wrong with taking advantage of a system that the lawmakers apparently can't or won't change? 

03700 100 444 is the phone number to call or you can e-mail via the Radio 4 website or text us on 84844. 

Presenter: Julian Worricker
Producer: Maire Devine.

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