Punchline speaks exclusively to Margot James MP, the government minister for digital and the creative industries. Imagine holding the government portfolio with no reference point. No history of best practice. No way of checking what your predecessor did when they were in the post back in the day. Imagine then, trying to monitor, regulate and be ahead of the curve when it comes to the vast and endless list of possibilities that the digital sector offers. Now step into the shoes of Margot James MP, the current minister for digital and the creative industries, and imagine yourself having to do that every day. The member of parliament for theWorcestershire town of Stourbridge made a whistle-stop visit to Gloucester at the end of May to formally open the UK Digital Retail Innovation Centre. After cutting the ribbon and seeing what UK:DRIC had to offer, she popped in to Punchline-Gloucester.com headquarters for an interview – the only one she did during her trip. Ms James holds possibly the most exciting portfolio in the government. The industries she oversees and is attempting to regulate are breaking new ground at record speed, in a sector that didn’t exist 30 years ago. Her current ministerial red box will be full of queries about how to tax Amazon, regulate Google and ensure that Facebook behaves like a newspaper publisher. “It’s a difficult challenge in retail, on tax there is inequity” The launch of UK:DRIC comes at a time when the retail sector is struggling. The ministry of the cutting edge
High street behemoths like Debenhams and Boots are struggling, so what chance do smaller retailers have of competing against the internet might of Amazon? While your average independent retailer is – or has been – hampered by overheads and business rates, the internet big boys don’t have the same overheads and have been infamously creative with the tax man. “It’s a difficult challenge in retail, on tax there is inequity there,” Ms James said. “The chancellor has announced that he will be introducing a digital services tax, if the preferred solution of an international solution isn’t reached. “The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) are working on it, the EU are working on it too. “There are many winners and losers, but at the moment more losers and I hope in time the EU will coordinate a fair tax balance. “There are only a couple of member states that are holding it up, and they must have something to gain by the current system. “Until then, the Chancellor has announced the UK will act unilaterally if international agreement
10 | July 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com
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