Mr Patriotic? No, Gary Barlow's as bad as Starbucks


Gary Barlow, all-round decent bloke or shameless tax-evader? One of the best barometers of public opinion is my favourite telly programme, Channel 4’s Gogglebox.

Last Friday, the Goggleboxers delivered their unanimous verdict on the nauseating exercise in self-promotion, BBC1’s When Corden Met Barlow. ‘Are these two blokes in love, or what?’ was the general consensus; although there wasn’t a dry eye in the house for the finale when Gary turned up unannounced and sang at a fan’s wedding.

That’s the problem with Gary — he’s so nice. It’s hard to criticise someone this newspaper’s TV reviewer called ‘The Cliff Richard of the 21st century’; a man’s who’s ‘gone from porky popster to national treasure’.

'Are these two blokes in love, or what?' was the general consensus on Channel 4's Googlebox to the  'When Corden met Barlow'

'Are these two blokes in love, or what?' was the general consensus on Channel 4's Googlebox to the 'When Corden met Barlow'

The problem with Gary is he's so nice and it is hard to criticise someone viewed as a national treasure

The problem with Gary is he's so nice and it is hard to criticise someone viewed as a national treasure

But criticise I must. Gary is not what he seems — he and two of his pals in Take That (Mark Owen and Howard Donald) and their manager Jonathan Wild invested a whopping £66 million in Icebreaker Management (with Gary the largest investor of the band members). It was purported to be a scheme helping others in the music industry, but a judge has ruled it was simply an illegal way of avoiding tax.

As a result, Gary and co have to pay between £20 million and £30 million in tax — money which would fund plenty of nurses and carers to look after our ageing population.

It could pay for free school dinners. It could help refurbish classrooms. It would buy back playing fields and pay for musical instruments. But it has taken a court case to extract this cash.

The former X Factor judge made a fan's wedding day even more special as he serenades them during their first dance on the recent BBC show When Corden met Barlow

The former X Factor judge made a fan's wedding day even more special as he serenades them during their first dance on the recent BBC show When Corden met Barlow

Gary flaunts his high-profile patriotism (he collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the anthem Sing for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012), was awarded an OBE (which I don’t think stands for Order for Big Evasion) for his charity work, and was reckoned to be on his way to a knighthood.

He can forget that now, along with invites to sing for his Royal chums.

He is said to be considering an appeal — and the band could even go back on tour to fund their fine — but it’s doubtful that Robbie Williams (who didn’t invest in the scheme) would be keen, as his wife is pregnant with their second child.

The BBC has been endlessly trumpeting Gary Barlow, we’ve had Gary Barlow days and now this latest exercise in sycophancy with James Corden, to promote Gary’s new album — but the fact remains, Gary didn’t want to pay the right level of tax, and used financial advisers to exploit every loophole.

Gary is no better than Starbucks, Google and Amazon — all of whom pay as little tax as possible on their huge profits. Amazon paid just £4.2 million in Corporation tax in the UK last year on UK sales of £4.3 billion — that’s just 0.1 per cent.

We live in a two-tier society as far as tax is concerned — now, HMRC wants new powers to access the bank accounts of anyone owning more than £1,000. The only proviso is that the account is more than £5,000 in credit.

This is an outrageous invasion of privacy — tax dodgers would simply move the money from one account to another and our tax laws are already so complicated that the system is easy to exploit if you have the money to pay for expensive accountants.

That’s why the latest Rich List shows we have more billionaires living in the UK than any other country in the world. It’s not because they like Chelsea football club, our weather or the monarchy — it’s because they can have a nice house and pay less tax than almost anywhere else.

MPs want our tax laws simplified, and I agree. There are said to be 100,000 letters to HMRC lying unanswered, calls are not returned and the organisation is not fit for purpose.

The current situation means that the poorest end up paying the highest proportion of their earning to the taxman, while millionaires such as Gary Barlow pay as little as possible.

Outraged taxpayers boycotted Starbucks — so what will Gary’s loyal fans do now?

Michelle’s plea from the heart

Hats off to Michelle Obama for taking over her husband’s weekly Presidential Address to plea for the release of the schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria.

You could complain the First Lady is not elected, and has no mandate to speak out on issues of foreign policy and human rights.

Michelle Obama took over her husband's weekly Presidential Address to plea for the release of the schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria

Michelle Obama took over her husband's weekly Presidential Address to plea for the release of the schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria

But Michelle was right to articulate her despair over the current lack of progress — on April 14, more than 200 teenage girls were taken from their beds and abducted by terrorists and may be sold into slavery, forced marriages or raped, just because they were being educated.

Michelle said: ‘In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters. We see their hopes, their dreams, and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling’.

This side of the pond there’s been a resounding silence from our leaders’ wives — all articulate women, with strong opinions about women’s rights. Why?

Sometimes women can cut through the wheeling and dealing and get a result — let’s hope Michelle’s plea helps to bring the girls home.

We don’t want to look younger — just yummy

Most ads for beauty products work on the principle that they are promising us something we haven’t got — and the biggest load of old cobblers are the anti-ageing claims. Every day I read ads promising me that I can turn back the clock and my skin will look ‘younger’ and ‘more youthful’.

We all know deep down that once you get past a certain age and skin starts to droop, creams can’t turn back the clock, and gather it all back up to where it was when you were 15.

A new study suggest that while use beauty products to look better, they are not trying to recreate how they looked when younger

A new study suggest that while use beauty products to look better, they are not trying to recreate how they looked when younger

Now, a psychologist has asked women over 60 what they want from skincare products, and — hold the front page — four out of five of us say we want to ‘look good’, followed by ‘good for our age’.

Only 5 per cent, a tiny amount, of older women say they want to look younger than they really are, and most women in the study were happy with how their skin had aged.

Dr Carolyn Mair’s research, presented to the British Psychological Society last week, is important because it totally disproves the idea that women want to recreate the way they looked decades ago.

We live in a youth-orientated society, where the fashion and beauty industries believe that looking young is our holy grail — now, perhaps they’ll realise that women are smarter (and more realistic) than that.

The only thing that will hold up my face is a giant stapler, not a £100 pot of gunk.

In California, engineer Rob Rhinehart, has devised a substitute for real food, a powder containing the essential 35 nutrients required for survival. You simply add water and slurp down when peckish — and already his company has 25,000 investors and the product is being tested by the US military.

It’s aimed at the so-called ‘lifehackers’ — people who want to streamline everyday living so they can get on with more important stuff. Not cooking, obviously.

Rob Rhinehart developed Soylent, a homemade nutrient concoction, designed as part meal-replacement drink, part thought experiment, providing every necessary nutrient while challenging society's current perception of nutrition

Rob Rhinehart developed Soylent, a homemade nutrient concoction, designed as part meal-replacement drink, part thought experiment, providing every necessary nutrient while challenging society's current perception of nutrition

I love choosing ingredients and preparing a meal, so I’m not a potential customer, but before this high-tech product launches here, can I suggest they change the name? Currently, it’s called Soylent — sounds like something from the smallest room in the house.

Berlusconi's sentence has been commuted to just four hours a week helping out at a Catholic centre for the elderly outside Milan

Berlusconi's sentence has been commuted to just four hours a week helping out at a Catholic centre for the elderly outside Milan

What did these oldies do to deserve Saint Silvio!

In Italy, they have a novel way of dealing with people who have defrauded the state out of millions in tax — a few hours a week light work in an old people’s home.

Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister, media magnate and one-time cruise ship crooner, was found guilty of tax fraud and sentenced to a year in jail but because of his age (77) that has been commuted to just four hours a week helping out at a Catholic centre for the elderly outside Milan.

I feel sorry for the residents, many of whom have dementia — instead of spending their remaining years in a peaceful setting, once a week they will be the focus of a huge media scrum, as Italians are curious to know what duties Silvio (famous for his bunga bunga parties featuring scantily clad young girls dressed as nurses) will be assigned.

Will he be mopping and wiping, or singing and dancing? Berlusconi joked with a reporter that he expected to be made a saint ‘very soon . . . I have suffered so much injustice’. Not much chance of that.





 

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