Proper Tea Is Theft?

Not according to this:

Against the backdrop of today’s protest march, which may be up to 250,000 strong (more on that in a separate blog post), UK Uncut have thrown a curveball and occupied Fortnum & Mason. Now the occupation itself should come as no surprise – from the outset UK Uncut’s actions have been rooted in taking their protest against tax dodgers and the banking system into the very places that they believe are the cause of the current climate of spending cuts and tax increases. However, the occupation of Fortnum & Mason is a mis-step by the normally on-message and on-target group.

To prove some background, Fortnum & Mason is recognised internationally as a high-end retailer who stock everything from basic provisions to more exotic goods. Their store is a favourite of the ‘rich and famous’, as well as being a celebrated supplier of high quality tea. Fortnum & Mason is privately owned by Wittington Investments Ltd, who also have a majority stock holding in Associated British Foods, who in turn are responsible for some of Britain’s best known brands such as Ovaltine, Ryvita and Twinings, and in turn have subsidiaries such as Allied Mills, British Sugar plc and Primark. Still with me?

However, and this is where is gets slightly more interesting, Wittington Investments Ltd is itself majority owned by someone else, in this case the Garfield Weston Foundation. Originally formed by a Canadian business, W. Garfield Weston, this charity is the 14th largest charitable foundation in the world, with assets estimated to be in the region of £3.5 billion.

So, back to UK Uncut, who today released this press release detailing their occupation of Fortnum & Mason. Now, I’ve done some digging, and I cannot within this press release find any verifiable sources as to how Fortnum & Mason has dodged any tax. As a reminder, Fortnum & Mason are privately owned by Wittingham Investments.

The press release states the following however: "UK Uncut, the anti-cuts direct action group, are currently occupying Fortnum & Mason over the tax dodge of over 40 million by its owners Whittington Investments which have a 54% stake in Associated British Foods who produce Ryvita, Kingsmill and others and own Primark. ABF have dodged over £40 million in tax."

The above statement is contradictory; either Wittingham Investments have dodged £40 million in tax, or ABF have? Which is it; I’m not clear. In fact, a search for more information on tax dodging or tax avoidance by either ABF or Wittington Investments via Google curiously doesn’t reveal much on this either. As you can see, the number one search result for tax avoidance is actually the UK Uncut press release itself. Curious indeed. The UK Uncut press release also includes this: "We are not all in this together – the government, big business such as ABF, banking sector and the wealthy who shop here are in it together and are choosing to make everyone else pay the price for the banks greed and wreckless gambling."

Now this is definitely not what UK Uncut should be about; going after the wealthy just because they choose to shop somewhere that is expensive? Again, as a reminder, ABF, Fortnum & Mason and Wittington Investments are all ultimately owned by the Garfield Weston Foundation, the 14th largest charitable foundation in the world. So when you put this together, you’ve got a lack of verifiable sources on tax avoidance, a store targeted simply because it is owned by a group that has a majority shareholding in another group that might be dodging tax, and ultimately everything is all under the control of a charitable foundation.

Sorry, UK Uncut, but you’re off message here and you’re not providing enough information to justify what you’re doing at all.