Free Republic

Unilever’s UK shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of plans to move the Marmite owner's legal base to London, despite warnings that a vote on a proposed exit tax if it leaves the Netherlands could go down to the wire. The shift to a single legal headquarters in Britain was backed by 99.5pc of voting investors at a meeting on Monday, bringing the firm one step closer to abandoning its dual-headed Anglo-Dutch structure after 90 years. Dutch investors in Unilever, which also owns Dove soap and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, approved the move with 99.4pc support last month. But...

PARIS (AFP) – Faced with violent anti-government protests in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday will announce new measures in an attempt to rally support for “environment-friendly” tax increases. Paris was counting the cost of clashes between police and demonstrators Sunday on the Champs-Elysees where barricades were set on fire, luxury shop windows smashed, and traffic lights uprooted. Some 30 people were injured and 101 arrested, police said. The government blamed much of the violence on a small minority of “ultra-right” activists who infiltrated some 8,000 demonstrators wearing the yellow, high-visibility vests that symbolise their week-long protests against hikes...

Secretary of State nominee John Kerry, with 20 years of concern about climate change, is expected to push the issue to center stage as a slow-motion crisis in need of a global solution. When he sought to defeat President George W. Bush in 2004, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts made a point of challenging the Bush administration's backtracking on the issue and rejection of climate science. In contrast, he told the nation, he “believes in science.”

It may be time for California to formally apply for membership in the European Union. Its taxing, borrowing and regulatory policies are already more in line with the southern tier of Euroland than with other U.S. states, and the Golden State has taken another lurch in the Euro-direction by becoming the first jurisdiction in the nation to adopt a full-scale cap-and-trade tax to combat global warming. The new taxes and regulations will require a nearly 30% reduction in carbon emissions from power plants, manufacturers, cars and trucks by 2020. This green tax was signed into law in 2006 by then-Governor...

Secret green tax blitz planned for cars, air travel and consumer goods By SIMON WALTERS, Mail on Sunday Secret plans for a multi-billion-pound package of stealth taxes on fuel, cars, air travel and consumer goods have been drawn up by the government to combat global warming. The proposals, leaked to The Mail on Sunday, show that the Government is considering introducing a raft of hard-hitting 'eco-taxes' that will have a devastating effect on the cost of living. Families with big cars could end up paying more than £1,000 a year extra in tax. And nearly every household in Britain will...