No, it's not good news for the economy, you might say. And I would tend to agree with you. But I can't help personally feeling a bit smug about the news. Just on this occasion, since it's Topshop that is struggling, I would be more than happy to see the whole caboodle go down the pan and Mr Green disappear from business.
Why?
First of all, Mr Green's well publicised avoidance of paying his income tax.
He is a UK resident and always has been, the companies are operated within the UK. But he cleverly registered his businesses in the name of his wife, a resident of Monaco where the tax rate is a whopping, um, 0%, Yes, no tax. Figures for 2005 show that he banked £1.2billion personally, avoiding a tax bill of £285million.
Second, you could see Topshop's hopeful demise as karma for the appalling T-shirts they put on sale earlier this year, glamorising domestic violence and comparing women with dogs.
While they withdrew these from sale after a public uproar (one thing the media can be good for), this was reluctant and they were not sorry that the items had gone on sale, only that they had offended people. See their statement:
"We have received some negative feedback regarding two of our printed T-shirts. Whilst we would like to stress that these T-shirts were meant to be light-hearted and carried no serious meaning, we have made the decision to remove these from store and online as soon as possible."We would like to apologise to those who may have been offended by these designs."
Light hearted, carrying no serious meaning? Do they really believe this, as if they do, it is at best naive and at worst wilfully ignorant of the effect that casual misogyny can have on society.
So, with apologies to the people that Topshop employs (except the snitty ones who look down their noses at you for daring to set foot in the shop if you don't look skinny and glamorous), I encourage people to shop elsewhere and let's see if the final nail can be hammered into their nasty little coffin.
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