Steve Shaw: Don't bloody blame Costa or Amazon or Vodafone, of course, who have armies of accountants to ensure they pay little or no tax. Or mega-rich foreigners who buy up millionaire mansions in London as "investments".

Bit of an insult to Costa, there, old chap. Costa's a British firm, started in London in the early 70s (incidentally by a couple of Italian immigrants) with HQ in Dunstable. It's now a subsidiary of Whitbread, but as far as I know it always paid, and still pays, full corporation tax as a UK company.

I believe, if it's companies that use fancy accounting techniques to remit revenue to foreign jurisdictions with more favourable tax rules that you're highlighting, then Starbucks would be the coffee emporium that you should be referencing.