Thursday 11 November 2010

The axeman cometh...part 2

One has to ask oneself, in the midst of all this talk of everyone in the UK being “in this together” with regards to the cuts to public spending, how is this going to affect our beloved MPs, specifically, those who are part of the Coalition Government? I believe that the people concerned should be open and honest about how the cuts will affect them and their families personally. It has already been mentioned in the media that some MPs have used a legal grey area to transfer assets into their partner’s name thus avoiding tax. Surely, if we are “all in this together”, such legal grey areas should be dismissed and the full tax paid on those assets. This would undoubtedly bring in some much needed revenue and, perhaps, off-set some of the cuts the Coalition Government believe are necessary.

And what about the bankers who got us into this mess? Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee suggested a Transaction Tax of less than 0.01% on all large international transactions on Question Time (BBC1, 21/10/2010), a move she claims could net £20bn but the Transport Secretary Philip Hammond used the same old Government argument that this would make the banks conduct their transactions in other countries which would be disastrous for the UK’s economy. Wait a minute though – the bankers got us into this mess in the first place so shouldn’t they accept that responsibility and do what is necessary to try to dig us out of the hole they have put us in?

There is also the fact that the bankers are paying themselves out £7bn in bonuses for their ‘good’ work. Surely the Coalition Government should come down on the banks to prevent these bonuses being paid out, having the money pumped into the UK economy instead especially as some of the banks have been bailed out by the taxpayers?

No comments:

Post a Comment