To answer AF's question...

I have nothing against people working hard and making money.

I have nothing against people starting up a business and making a profit. Caveat there is that they pay their staff well and treat them well. Passing some of the profit on to shareholder is not an issue either, provided the staff also benefit from the profits generated by their efforts.

I do have an issue with companies swallowing up ever more other companies simply to improve the lot of the shareholders. Especially when, as has happened in Burton, the major industry, namely brewing and associated trades, gets taken over by a couple of multinationals who then shutdown much of that industry in the chase for ever greater profits and ditto dividends. The upshot of the takeover by Coors and Carlsberg has seen what used to be 10K very well paid jobs in brewing and allied trades being reduced to just over 1K. Those jobs have been replaced by low paid, menial jobs in warehousing etc. A lot of money has been taken out of the town and the shops they now have are mainly of less quality than they were years ago, many are empty and there's poundland type shops, charity shops (even one of those closed recently) and the centre has lost any visual appeal it had. Less pubs, less restaurants too, mainly down to less footfall due to 9K jobs going.

Owners may prosper, I have no issue there. Shareholders too. Problem is there are now too many jobs paying on or just above minimum pay and workers are struggling to make ends meet. I just think that the people whose labour generate the profit should get more than simply a low wage. Good pay and/or a share of the profits. Most shareholders have never put a penny into a company. They have bought their shares on the market off other shareholders and it is the seller who got the money, not the company,