Idon’t blame Starbucks for paying no tax in the UK. I don’t blame it for selling pint-sized cardboard cups of hottish milk into which a tiny bit of coffee and quite a lot of syrup have been squirted. I don’t even blame it for making every high street identical and obliterating thousands of independent cafés.
The first is the fault of the tax authorities for allowing transfer pricing wizards to run rings around them. The second is our fault for having such dodgy taste in drinks. And as for the third, the other day at one of the few surviving greasy spoons, I had a coffee that was so exceptionally revolting it left me longing for a Starbucks flat white.
What I do blame the company for is much more serious. It is something that goes right to the top. The problem is its way with words.