Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has once again shown himself an utter moron with his plan to levy an extra tax on bankers’ bonuses and curb tax relief on pensions for higher earners to “end youth unemployment.” He is a moron because his plans will not work but he is at least playing well to the crowd.
In today’s Britain bankers are hated. So saying that you will tax them more heavily will win votes. Balls should go further and announce plans for windfall taxes on other groups who are almost universally despised, such as paedophiles, Piers Morgan or members of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary party. It would win votes but like his bankers tax plan such schemes would not work.
Why will it not work? Firstly bankers will find ways around it to move either their bonuses or indeed themselves offshore. If a Government interferes with market forces by penalising one section of society of whom it disapproves what next? A super-tax on accountants or lawyers working for Pinsent Masons (I quite like that one)? Mess with market forces and in a mobile global market you will lose out. Just look at what has happened in France
So the take on that will be less than Balls expects
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