Like you, I am not surprised at all by StarBX – or any other corporation for that matter – maximising its profit for shareholders in an age of casino-capitalism. Of course, it is the responsibility of governments to hold corporates to account by closing the very loopholes that allow tax avoidance to take place in the first place.

But I do find it duplicitous when companies claim to be good ‘corporate citizens’ and yet appear do the exact opposite in their business practices. The question is, will it take more than a cynical £20m sweetheart deal with HM Treasury to make the issue go away? Corporations can’t, or shouldn’t think they are entitled to, have it both ways. In the end, the debate becomes a distraction from the real issue here which is the scandalous trade injustice that exists between the global north and producer countries in the south. The point I was trying to make is that it is farmers who deserve a much better deal for their valuable crop; but you have to start somewhere.

Whether we see a genuine consumer-led boycott against Starbucks or not in the UK remains to be seen – but the rise of the direct trade model in the UK independent coffee sector is a very interesting phenomena that I look forward to writing about soon… and, of course, reading your astute comments John!

As you mentioned, Starbucks have done nothing illegal – these tax ‘loopholes’ are simply laws which allow companies to move their capital around. For all the shouts of ‘immoral’ and ‘unacceptable’ from politicians and pundits, it’s no different from an individual moving bank accounts or changing credit cards to minimise their outgoings. And with potential saving of millions of dollars, and a duty to their shareholders to maximise their returns, is anyone that surprised?

And, as for the people that insist that social responsibility should dictate companies’ behaviour, I find that a little naive – I don’t want to sound cynical, but since when did ethics have anything to do with capitalism? Globalisation and the free market work because the bottom line has always been money – and most of the time we’re happy about that, just so long as it’s someone else that’s being exploited (such as sweatshop labour to make our cheap clothes which we never wear and our shiny electronic gadgets which we use for a year and then throw in a drawer). But when it turns out that someone may be exploiting us and our country, we all take the moral high-ground (aided by politicians desperate to seem like they’re on our side).

Ordinary people need to understand the fundamentals of capitalism and globalisation – money dictates everything, and the consumer has the ultimate power. If we understand the first one, we won’t be all surprised and upset when corporations do these things; and if we understand the second one, we’ll realise that the power to change things is in our hands – by voting with our feet and patronising the vendors who we want to give our money to.