This time last year I wrote to Jeff Bezos telling him that I was no longer prepared to support a multinational which so arranged its tax affairs that it paid little or no UK corporation tax on turnover estimated (last year) at some £3.3 billion.
This year, Margaret Hodge, chair of the UK Parliamentary Public Accounts Select Committee, together with at least seven other UK MPs, has renewed her call for a continued boycott of Amazon in the lead up to Christmas. The only way to hurt companies like Amazon is to hit them in the pocket. They hit us by refusing to pay their fair share of taxation. We can hit them by refusing to use them.
I have continued to buy CDs, DVDs and books over the last year. This last week alone I bought several books as Christmas presents, including some rather rare (and hence expensive) ones. None of them came from Amazon. There are plenty of alternatives to the Amazon behemoth. Use them. And tell Bezos why (his email address is jeff@amazon.com)
Merry Christmas Jeff.