As you may have heard, the Metropolitan police once again used a truly proportional response to deal with some tax protestors, hospitalising three with CS spray (Guardian) while they were protesting peacefully in Boots. Clearly, the staff were frightened for their lives, so much so that they subsequently gave the rampaging, highly violent protestors free treatment.

Still, it’s not only the Metropolitan police who covered themselves in glory sauce—the Boots spokesperson who provided a statement regarding the reasoning behind the company’s Swiss tax registration came up with an absolute gem:

In the longer term we believe it will better reflect the increasingly international nature of our wider group

Yes, Boots, that well-known international powerhouse that isn’t, say, a meandering British brand with a few outlets in other countries.

Not content with having dug a deep enough hole, the spokesperson continued:

If we had registered in Switzerland purely for tax reasons there are many other countries that we could have considered.

Well, that makes it OK then.