Lord Mitchell
Main Page: Lord Mitchell (Labour - Life peer)
Lord Mitchell
My Lords, even with a two-minute deadline, I cannot let the moment pass without paying a few words of tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Sacks. This coming September, and after 22 years, he will retire as Chief Rabbi. He has been an inspirational leader and teacher in his own community, but also an exceptional ambassador for Judaism in the public arena. Through his writings and radio broadcasts, he has become an unparalleled moral voice for the nation.
I have always been personally grateful for his wisdom and support, and I know many other noble Lords are too. I am sure I speak for all noble Lords here this evening in thanking him for his service to our country and wishing him well for the future.
Noble Lords
Lord Mitchell
If the BBC is listening, we must all hope that the noble Lord’s slot on “Thought for the Day” will continue.
The Jewish Association for Business Ethics was partially set up by the noble Lord, Lord Sacks. On two quite separate occasions, we had two leading lights from the UK advertising industry as keynote speakers. I asked both of them the same question: “In view of the UK’s recent actions to ban tobacco advertising, would your agency run advertisements in countries where cigarette advertising is still permitted?”. Both of them gave me the same answer: “If it’s legal, we will do it”. I was shocked.
The issue of strict legality came up again when I attended the Google Big Tent event last month. Not surprisingly, keynote speaker Ed Miliband criticised Google for avoiding UK tax. Eric Schmidt, Google’s worldwide CEO, gave a reply that was a tad disingenuous: “Google pays the tax it is legally due to pay. If you don’t like it, then change the law”. I was shocked again.
Codes of conduct, voluntary tax payments and exhortation are all very well, but seldom enough. Governments around the world need to work harder to ensure that the laws are in place and that the rules are clear. That way, both the spirit of the law and the letter of the law will come closer together, giving business the certainty that it needs to fulfil its vital role in our society.