Hands off our banks!

With the publication of the report into the structure of banking in the UK just published, it is apparent that what is needed is a radical separation of the investments and retail banking sectors. In other words, we need to stop the banks using our money to gamble on the markets...

Needless to say, the banks don't want to do this. Hardly surprising as it will cost them a great deal of money to implement and reduce access to depositors' funds to be used for their own nefarious purposes. But Osbourne says he is adamant that this must happen and that he will legislate 'in the lifetime of this parliament'.

But of course there is a big difference between legislating and making something happen...

In reality nothing will actually happen until the end of this decade by which time if the TUC gets it's way there may well be a change of government - God help us - and that leaves ample time for the legislation to be overturned.

The argument is, of course, that this move will adversely effect the banks' grossly overinflated profits and that this will be passed on to consumers in some form of price hike. Or that if we make the banks uncompetitive in this way, then they will take their business overseas and this will cripple our already ailing economy. We can legislate for the first and frankly I simply don't believe the second.

There is no doubt that this change needs to happen, but it needs to happen now. It is simply not good enough to put through some new law before the next election. What we need is for the banks to be split apart BEFORE the end of this parliament.

Get your finger out, George, and let's see if this government walks the walk as well as talking the talk!

Hands off our banks!

With the publication of the report into the structure of banking in the UK just published, it is apparent that what is needed is a radical separation of the investments and retail banking sectors. In other words, we need to stop the banks using our money to gamble on the markets...

Needless to say, the banks don't want to do this. Hardly surprising as it will cost them a great deal of money to implement and reduce access to depositors' funds to be used for their own nefarious purposes. But Osbourne says he is adamant that this must happen and that he will legislate 'in the lifetime of this parliament'.

But of course there is a big difference between legislating and making something happen...

In reality nothing will actually happen until the end of this decade by which time if the TUC gets it's way there may well be a change of government - God help us - and that leaves ample time for the legislation to be overturned.

The argument is, of course, that this move will adversely effect the banks' grossly overinflated profits and that this will be passed on to consumers in some form of price hike. Or that if we make the banks uncompetitive in this way, then they will take their business overseas and this will cripple our already ailing economy. We can legislate for the first and frankly I simply don't believe the second.

There is no doubt that this change needs to happen, but it needs to happen now. It is simply not good enough to put through some new law before the next election. What we need is for the banks to be split apart BEFORE the end of this parliament.

Get your finger out, George, and let's see if this government walks the walk as well as talking the talk!

How to solve bankers' bonuses

OK - let's cut through the bullshit...

Here's the problem : how do we solve the problem of bankers paying themselves fucking great bonuses whilst at the same time allowing them to carry on paying themselves fucking great bonuses?

Simples, init? This is how we do it :

The income tax rate at £100,000 plus is 50%

Employer's NHI contributions run at 12.8%

Corporation tax is payable on profits at 28% - which incidentally is too low!

What we do is this - we make bankers bonuses non-deductible when calculating corporation tax and subject to employers' NI whether they are paid in cash or not. This means all bonuses over £100,000 will return 90.8% to the country.

Frankly, we could put large company corporation tax back to 40% (which is where it was under Gordon), and leave small companies paying 20%. Then the taxpayer would get 102.8% - which is much more like it! So a £1m bonus would mean the recipent still gets £372,000 but the exchequer gets £1,028,000 in tax and NI.

Also this takes CT from big companies that can afford it and gives incentives to smaller companies who are stifled by it. So a boost for the economy and job creation as well...

So there you go Vince and George! Problem solved!

Got the balls to go for it?

How to solve bankers' bonuses

OK - let's cut through the bullshit...

Here's the problem : how do we solve the problem of bankers paying themselves fucking great bonuses whilst at the same time allowing them to carry on paying themselves fucking great bonuses?

Simples, init? This is how we do it :

The income tax rate at £100,000 plus is 50%

Employer's NHI contributions run at 12.8%

Corporation tax is payable on profits at 28% - which incidentally is too low!

What we do is this - we make bankers bonuses non-deductible when calculating corporation tax and subject to employers' NI whether they are paid in cash or not. This means all bonuses over £100,000 will return 90.8% to the country.

Frankly, we could put large company corporation tax back to 40% (which is where it was under Gordon), and leave small companies paying 20%. Then the taxpayer would get 102.8% - which is much more like it! So a £1m bonus would mean the recipent still gets £372,000 but the exchequer gets £1,028,000 in tax and NI.

Also this takes CT from big companies that can afford it and gives incentives to smaller companies who are stifled by it. So a boost for the economy and job creation as well...

So there you go Vince and George! Problem solved!

Got the balls to go for it?

Piss boiler of the Year

Once in a while there is a statement by some complete cunt that gets me close to throwing a brick at the TV whilst simultaneously bursting several blood vessels. This is one of them !!!

Some fucking idiot at the Bank of England has decided that savers should stop moaning and start spending in order to hasten the economic recovery.

Charles Bean, the Deputy Governor, says that older households could afford to suffer because they benefitted from property price rises.

Mr Bean (you couldn't make that name up could you?) said he "fully sympathised". But he continued: "Savers shouldn't necessarily expect to be able to live just off their income in times when interest rates are low. It may make sense for them to eat into their capital a bit."

He added: "Very often older households have actually benefited from the fact that they've seen capital gains on their houses."

Well that might be all right for highly paid public servants with fucking great index linked pension pots paid for by the tax payer, but what about all us ordinary citizens who rely on their savings - hard earned savings I might add - to provide them with a living income to supplement the pathetic state pension ??

And to put that in perspective, according to the Bank of England 2010 Annual Report, Mr Bean's salary was over £250,000 a year and he added £188,000 to his pension pot - now worth over £1.4 million -  so what the fuck would he know about living off his savings?

In the last couple of years - thanks in part to the same aforementioned fucking idiot cutting base rate - my savings returns have sunk from around 7% to well under 3%.

So let's try a little experiment. Let's cut the fucking idiot's pay by 60% and see how he gets on...

Piss boiler of the Year

Once in a while there is a statement by some complete cunt that gets me close to throwing a brick at the TV whilst simultaneously bursting several blood vessels. This is one of them !!!

Some fucking idiot at the Bank of England has decided that savers should stop moaning and start spending in order to hasten the economic recovery.

Charles Bean, the Deputy Governor, says that older households could afford to suffer because they benefitted from property price rises.

Mr Bean (you couldn't make that name up could you?) said he "fully sympathised". But he continued: "Savers shouldn't necessarily expect to be able to live just off their income in times when interest rates are low. It may make sense for them to eat into their capital a bit."

He added: "Very often older households have actually benefited from the fact that they've seen capital gains on their houses."

Well that might be all right for highly paid public servants with fucking great index linked pension pots paid for by the tax payer, but what about all us ordinary citizens who rely on their savings - hard earned savings I might add - to provide them with a living income to supplement the pathetic state pension ??

And to put that in perspective, according to the Bank of England 2010 Annual Report, Mr Bean's salary was over £250,000 a year and he added £188,000 to his pension pot - now worth over £1.4 million -  so what the fuck would he know about living off his savings?

In the last couple of years - thanks in part to the same aforementioned fucking idiot cutting base rate - my savings returns have sunk from around 7% to well under 3%.

So let's try a little experiment. Let's cut the fucking idiot's pay by 60% and see how he gets on...