Time To Leave The UK ?

I recently read some of the earliests posts on this blog and I was, humbly, schocked. We've been pretty good at spotting future trends.

Now we're seeking to really commercialise upon them as TVE enters serious fundraising mode for its highly profitable, but small, business.

But there are trends that truly concern us:

Big Interent - these companies now constitute a significant proportion of the British tech community (indeed they've crushed any home grown alternatives), but pay no tax. The UK loses an estimated £10bn of tax from companies such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Amazon, amongst many others. It would make bankers blush...

US Companies in the EU - Ireland and Luxembourg book most of this tax at much lower or zero rates. It would be good to know how much of an impact a 22% marginal corporate rate has against 12% in Ireland, a country that the UK could and should make bankrupt tomorrow if they weren't the biggest liability the UK has ever known. The price of keeping this liability afloat should be tax parity. And the price of staying in the EU should be to throw Luxembourg, along with other stupid members like Malta and a bit of Cyprus, out.

Personal Copyright - the British government recently proposed amazing laws to snoop on all their citizens' online activities. They would have drawn breath in the worst dictatorships on earth such as Russia (yes, carefully chosen example..).

The UK has some great schemes for investment in technology, but there is no way you can build a Google here thanks to the breaks we give to foreign companies which are just not available to British companies.