Writing in the Mail yesterday (yes, the Mail: the newspaper which last week published the most complained-about article in British history) Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable contrasts two of the big stories of the last week: the investment bankers, announcing record bonuses, alongside the news of another big rise in unemployment. Here’s an excerpt:
A year after the collapse and rescue of the banking system by the taxpayer, the number of British workers without full-time jobs is still rising: 120,000 more in the three months to August.
But the big international banks – mainly US-owned but major players in London – are posting super-normal profits because they were bailed out. The last men standing are exploiting an imperfect market. …
… [there are] already just under 2.5million officially out of work and it is expected that the number will rise to just under 3million by the middle of next year. One in five young people aged 16 to 24 is out of work, as is one in three school-leavers aged 16 to 17. …
… self-restraint is absent in the world of banking. Following the crisis, there is less competition. Cannibalism has reduced the population. There is something approaching a cartel in the big financial markets. … So the banks can generate big profits and bonuses in the knowledge that they are too big (or important) to fail. They have a taxpayer guarantee. …
What governments can, and must, do is ensure that those individuals who are paid so lavishly from bonus pools pay their share in taxes. … It is time the best brains in banking, the law and accounting were employed helping good British companies and their employees, rather than playing complicated but lucrative games designed to make money for themselves and dodge tax.
You can read Vince’s article in full over at the Mail’s site.
PS: Lib Dem Voice, having been firmly chastised by the Delib website for cluttering up Twitter with the Category title CommentIsLinked@LDV, has set up the new title LibLink to mark out those posts highlighting the articles of Lib Dem luminaries which have appeared in the media. If our readers can come up with a better category name, please be our guests …
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One Comment
Great speeches and words are useless without action. Reported in the financial sections of the press, earlier this week, the head of lloyds banking group ( taxpayer assisted ) will quit next year with a pension of £190,000 per year and possibly as many as 7 million shares.
Totally obscene. The banks have got away with it. They should be bailing the country out after being the cause of the problem and receiving vast sums from the taxpayer.