I'm not the world's biggest fan of the Barking Bard, but this is inspired.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8467309.stm
Reckon this could be huge, maybe even leading to a Poll Tax style Government uturn.
Go Bill!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/18/withholding-tax-rbs-bonuses
How did it come to this? I've just been called an anarchist in a live radio interview by a woman who works for a company that head-hunts financial high flyers. Why? Was I suggesting that we should abolish all forms of centralised authority? Was I calling for the overthrow of the capitalist system? What exactly had I done to suggest to her that I wanted to tear apart the very fabric of society?
I had told her that I am withholding my tax until the chancellor of the exchequer acts to curb the bonus payments to investment bankers at RBS. "What if everybody did that?" she cried. "We'd have anarchy!"
There isn't much chance of everybody doing that, given that most people's tax is taken directly from their wages via PAYE. However, some of us will have recently received a reminder to pay our tax online by the end of the month. I came across mine the day after seeing RBS executive director Stephen Hester smirk as he told a commons select committee that, rather than explain to the public that he was about to pay his staff an estimated £1.5bn in bonuses next month, he'd avoid the ensuing rancour by sloping off on holiday for a long while.
Never mind that RBS posted the worst corporate losses in British financial history last year. He's had his empty coffers replenished with taxpayers' money and now he's going to fill his boots. Watching Hester's "let them eat cake" moment on TV, I felt both outraged and at the same time powerless.
Outraged because we'd spent the week being softened up for painful public service cuts by both the government and opposition and powerless because I knew that neither party has the will to do anything about excessive bonus culture.
Googling RBS, I found that, as part of the loan they took from the government, the chancellor has the right to veto the bank's bonus payments. That loan made us all shareholders in RBS. By rights, that veto belongs to us. So I wrote to Alistair Darling telling him that I would be withholding my taxes on 31 January unless he used our veto to limit the RBS bonuses.
What if everybody did this? Perhaps some form of anarchy would ensue. But if we are going to bring "what ifs" into the debate, then what if we lived in a society that heaped financial rewards on teachers and nurses and soldiers rather than bankers? What if we had a financial system that encouraged fairness rather than greed? Too utopian for you? Well how about this: what if we had a political party capable of winning power at the next election?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8467309.stm
Reckon this could be huge, maybe even leading to a Poll Tax style Government uturn.
Go Bill!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/18/withholding-tax-rbs-bonuses
How did it come to this? I've just been called an anarchist in a live radio interview by a woman who works for a company that head-hunts financial high flyers. Why? Was I suggesting that we should abolish all forms of centralised authority? Was I calling for the overthrow of the capitalist system? What exactly had I done to suggest to her that I wanted to tear apart the very fabric of society?
I had told her that I am withholding my tax until the chancellor of the exchequer acts to curb the bonus payments to investment bankers at RBS. "What if everybody did that?" she cried. "We'd have anarchy!"
There isn't much chance of everybody doing that, given that most people's tax is taken directly from their wages via PAYE. However, some of us will have recently received a reminder to pay our tax online by the end of the month. I came across mine the day after seeing RBS executive director Stephen Hester smirk as he told a commons select committee that, rather than explain to the public that he was about to pay his staff an estimated £1.5bn in bonuses next month, he'd avoid the ensuing rancour by sloping off on holiday for a long while.
Never mind that RBS posted the worst corporate losses in British financial history last year. He's had his empty coffers replenished with taxpayers' money and now he's going to fill his boots. Watching Hester's "let them eat cake" moment on TV, I felt both outraged and at the same time powerless.
Outraged because we'd spent the week being softened up for painful public service cuts by both the government and opposition and powerless because I knew that neither party has the will to do anything about excessive bonus culture.
Googling RBS, I found that, as part of the loan they took from the government, the chancellor has the right to veto the bank's bonus payments. That loan made us all shareholders in RBS. By rights, that veto belongs to us. So I wrote to Alistair Darling telling him that I would be withholding my taxes on 31 January unless he used our veto to limit the RBS bonuses.
What if everybody did this? Perhaps some form of anarchy would ensue. But if we are going to bring "what ifs" into the debate, then what if we lived in a society that heaped financial rewards on teachers and nurses and soldiers rather than bankers? What if we had a financial system that encouraged fairness rather than greed? Too utopian for you? Well how about this: what if we had a political party capable of winning power at the next election?
