Backlash against the Bankers

[pickledseal]

I know we may have one or two on here, but just wondered what, if any campaigns people have signed up to...

Firstly we have Billy Bragg's NoBonus4RBS - "If you pay tax in the UK, you are a major shareholder in several banks - Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds and Northern Rock - who were saved from financial ruin by government intervention in 2008.

The Treasury spent £117bn of taxpayers' cash bailing out Britain's failing banks - and last month it was revealed that this figure could rise to £850bn.

Some of those billions will be paid to investment bankers as annual bonuses in February.

I understand that the Treasury had little choice but to use taxpayers' money to safeguard savings and stabilise and restore confidence in the financial system.

What I don’t understand is why, now that we taxpayers are the majority shareholders of these banks, we seem totally powerless to curb their excessive bonus culture?

The estimated £1.5bn that RBS will pay to its investment bankers next month in the form of bonuses will ultimately be drawn from the taxes that you and I are due to pay on 31st January.

Meanwhile, we are being softened up by the main political parties for painful cuts in public spending after the election.

I believe that the government have their priorities wrong."

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Second up, The Robin Hood Tax, supported by Bill Nighly. It is "a tiny tax on bankers that would give billions to tackle poverty and climate change, here and abroad. It sounds complicated, but actually it isn’t. A tiny tax on bankers has the power to raise hundreds of billions every year – giving a vital boost to the NHS, our schools, and the fight against child poverty – as well as tackling poverty and climate change around the world. Not complicated. Just brilliant."
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Obviously both campaigns are on Facebook, Twitter etc.

Who's in?

 

[MK Shrimper]

Already in both mate, but I'm a card carrying lefty remember.

 

[pickledseal]

Already in both mate, but I'm a card carrying lefty remember.

As much as I had hoped for :)

Looking forward to the backlash on here from this one, again!

 

[Mad Cyril]

Why target bankers with a Robin Hood tax. Without the financial services sector this country would be ****ed. What would we do - make cars or electronic goods?

 

[Berrichonne shrimper]

Why target bankers with a Robin Hood tax. Without the financial services sector this country would be ****ed. What would we do - make cars or electronic goods?

Work in banking do you?

 

[pickledseal]

Why target bankers with a Robin Hood tax. Without the financial services sector this country would be ****ed. What would we do - make cars or electronic goods?

0.05% of their bonus?

 

[Bielzibubz]

Not a lefty by any means but just joined both.

 

[canveyshrimper]

Billy Bragg is IMO a poor mans Bono pontificating on a subject that like as not he knows the square root of **** all about.

 

[Mad Cyril]

Work in banking do you?

Financial services.
If taxes were increased for all high earners then fair enough but to target specific occupations is nothing more than envy.

 

[SARF]

I work in banking but not for the nationalised scum .. Hang em high!!!!

 

[Slipperduke]

Those ****ers almost destroyed civilisation last year with their greed and stupidity. If we were a nation with any balls at all, we'd be chasing them through the streets with pitchforks. A tax on their ill-gotten gains is a nice thing compared to what could happen.

I love this argument that they might leave the country if we're mean to them, consigning us all to our doom. Firstly, where are you going to go, eh? No jobs in New York. None in Singapore. Not many in Europe, not for people with your track record of failure anyway. And secondly, go on then. Your last action was to almost bankrupt an entire country. A chimp in a suit could replace you and he'd still have to work really hard to match your incompetence.

 

[Usual_Suspect]

Let's not fall into the trap of thinking that everyone who works for a bank is on £250k a year with a £700k bonus. I work in banking, work hard and feel I fully deserve any bonus/payrise that I'll be getting in the next couple of month. I certainly don't see why people who work for banks should be asked to pay more tax.

 

[osymandus]

Why target bankers with a Robin Hood tax. Without the financial services sector this country would be ****ed. What would we do - make cars or electronic goods?

Plus its not specificity on them its on the transactions , and BAC's and Swift and their affiliates in this world earn considerable more then many people think (having working for a similar firm , im fully aware of their turnovers and profits being close to major bans yet employing less then 200 people world wide). so even 0.1 % of their daily transactions would considerable help the countries who recieve it.

The old argument they help societies and are the sole providers is laughable . They have a place as does every one (no one would last to long without sanitations operatives , chemists , bio chemist R&D medical staff, farmers etc etc ). People "bought" and "sold" before banks and financial institutions were invented and will still do so after they have gone.

We have had socities with out bankers (As we know them ) and a grand economic systems (some of which have lasted hundreds of years longer then our own ) . With out minds directed and focused or research looked into or even people to swwep away our **** it all falls apart . We are looking at changing a social ideal which is what the resistance over the years has been.

 

[BrettieAngell]

Why target bankers with a Robin Hood tax. Without the financial services sector this country would be ****ed. What would we do - make cars or electronic goods?

Aren't we ****ed because of the financial services sector?

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Billy Bragg is IMO a poor mans Bono pontificating on a subject that like as not he knows the square root of **** all about.

Billy Bragg walks on water-even though he lives in Lyme Regis these days!:soapbox:

 

[Napster]

We're ****ed because of Billy Clinton wanting mortgages to go to people who would not ordinarily get them. This in turn helped create a new sub credit market, which in all reality could not be maintained, in spite of the belief that property priced will keep rising.

 

[Slipperduke]

No banker has ever written a song as good as Levi Stubbs' Tears. They're not fit to lick Bragg's balls.

 

[DTS]

To get the top people you have to pay the top money and if you dont the top people will go to another country, industry etc.

I wonder if all these people moaning about bonuses etc were moaning about 2006 when the UK was thriving and there was a real feel good factor out there - I expect not.

I would also like to know in your second scenario why you favour giving money abroad when in the first you are moaning about cutting public spending.

 

[osymandus]

We're ****ed because of Billy Clinton wanting mortgages to go to people who would not ordinarily get them. This in turn helped create a new sub credit market, which in all reality could not be maintained, in spite of the belief that property priced will keep rising.

It was more then just him . It was teh Japanese bankers who bought the portfolio's it was teh silly buyers of real estate they couldn't afford, others buying goods with extended loans, peoplel who believe there is such a thing as endless profit (i bet they don;t believe in fairies at the end of their gardens , but both exiist in their same reality_ . Infact it was lots of individuals across the whole political spectrum and world who acted like idiots ...

 

[Pubey]

Tobin Tax please...