HIRED HELP?

The Conservatives (sorry Con Dems) since coming to power have imposed a bank levy which will raise an estimated £2.5 billion pounds a year. Sounds good and reasonable, unless, you note that during the same period they have slashed corporation tax rates from 28% to 24% which means that any impact on the finance houses in the City will be relatively minimal.

As for the levy itself, which originally proposed that a levy of 0.07% on all of a banks liabilities, HM Treasury has watered it down, saying that the banks won't have to pay the tax on the first £20 billion pounds of their liabilities. The chancellor has also chosen not to take forward the recommendation of Sir David Walker that banks should be forced to disclose all pay packages above £1 million pounds.

Also there won't be any action to curb the bonus culture which is expected to see £7 billion pounds splashed out this year. Just for the record, back in 2010, the big 4 banks between them managed to pay some 200 of their staff an average of £1 million pounds last year, very nice if you can get it., even better if we are in tough economic times and all in it together so to speak.

Oddly enough it gets better or worse depending on where you stand, the Conservatives have also been accused of introducing laws to give a full tax exemption for British companies tax haven branches which allows them to benefit from an 8% tax rate for profits diverted to havens via internal financing.

A Daily Mirror investigation suggests that of the 498 Tory MPs and peers some 134 have been or are employed in the financial sector, this figure also includes 70 of the party’s 305 MPs. It has also been suggested that among the 193 Conservative peers, over a third work or have worked in finance or banking.

The Financial Times has noted that an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism which has revealed that financial services companies and individuals donated £11.4m to the Tory party in the first three quarters of 2010. The investigation noted that some 450 separate donations to Conservative Central Office were made by individuals, companies and limited liability partnerships and that 27%, or £3.3m, of the £12.18m donated to the party came from hedge funds, financiers and private equity firms.

Clearly the Conservatives have come a long way over the last few years since those heady days in opposition when they needed to look good, by way of comparison with the years of new Labour sleaze. So it should come as no surprise that Mr Osborne will soon fly off to do battle on behalf of the City banks in Europe to prevent a pan European levy on the banks, still with hired help it's may be appropriate to pay for what you get. I wonder what his hourly rate is?