Don’t blame Philip Green; he’s a retail king

The repercussions of the Brexit vote are pushing a lot of other news to the inside pages. Or further down the screen, I suppose. Below the fold. The collapse of BHS is one such story. The villain of the piece — Sir Philip Green — has appeared before a select committee of MPs and used bluster and indifference to make his case, not only for the loss of jobs and pensions, but also for his claim to be a king of retail.

When Green took over BHS, there were suppliers who had been making goods for the company for many years. Green apparently went to them and asked them to be cheaper. Those who couldn’t cut costs were abandoned — and some went to the wall — and Green went overseas for new suppliers. All part of global capitalism’s free market benefits, of course.

The increased profits reaped from this destruction of local jobs did not, of course, lead to further local investment, either directly or in the form of taxation. The bigger profits made their way offshore. So not only was the local (UK) economy hit by the loss of manufacturing and jobs but also failed to recoup any benefit from the increased wealth of Green that may have alleviated some of the strain of supporting those now out of work.

This is not literate business. Literate business is surely about re-investing profits in the business. Literate business is surely about providing jobs. If a business is solely about sucking profit and casting workers aside, that’s not business but pillage.

Removing jobs from local communities and then refusing to pay tax on the profits made is simply a double case of shafting royally the UK. Economic DP, it could be called. These are the benefits of globalisation. This is the law of the free market, where profit is pursued at any cost, including the human cost of communities here and abroad.

Thank goodness we don’t have too many retail kings with Green’s skills and morals.