19 February 2016 – Here is an hysterical bit passed onto me by Stephen Arnold over at Beyond Search. From the Sun newspaper, of course. He spotted an article titled “Kicked in the Googlies.” The focus, of course, is how Google is cheating the UK out of of tax millions, and recounts a barrage of claims about how Google arranged its affairs to pay as little as possible. With this delightful graphic:
Points made:
– There are 5,000 Googlers in the Covent Garden office, which is definitely good news for the vendors next to their stalls selling oddments
– Breakfast, lunch and dinner are free. Well, bad news for the food emporia in the new Covent Garden.
– Onsite haircuts are available in the event that the locks need trimming. Plus lots more perks.
Favorite line: “The company is spending £1 billion on a new London HQ which has more in common with a holiday camp than an office”. It will include “a meditation room, a running track, a games area, and five massage parlors.”
The point of the article is that these offices (real and proposed) are not permanent. The idea that Google is not paying its fair share of taxes holds the disparate factoids together, says Stephen, “in a chewy caramel of modern fiscal responsibility”.
Check the story. Nice pics and graphics.
“I say, did we ride our horses through your home? Pity that”.