Must I Paint You A Picture...

In the rush to play my cut is bigger than you or my tax plans are more secretive than yours, which is all very primary school playground, the anger of the voters towards the greedy grasping bankers has been largely ignored by our political leaders.

In an interview on Jeremy Vine’s programme in Radio 2, the musician and left wing activist Billy Bragg disclosed that he would be withholding his income tax as a protest against the excessive bonuses paid to what Bragg referred to as the highest rewarded public servants in the country. He claimed that the bonuses would be paid to the bankers the month after collection of Income Tax, and as a result he would be withholding his tax until bonuses were curbed at £25000.

Arguing against Bragg was Heather McGregor from the firm Taylor Bennett, who completely misunderstood the argument by trotting out the now worn out argument that these people deserve their bonuses, and that bonuses were needed to incentivise workers (bankers). Bollocks. Ms McGregor unsuccessfully defended the indefensible, that the people who crashed the economy should have the right to incentives, even if they do not deserve those incentives. In any case these people get bonuses whether they do a good job or not. That’s not creating an incentive, that sounds more like a tax dodge or something far worse.

The truth is that with no criminal proceedings in the offing (unless Inspector Knacker knows something else) for the four horsemen of the economic apocalypse, our politicians rolling over whenever these bankers threaten to take their economy destroying skills abroad and more worryingly the contenders in the forthcoming General Election wanting to sweep the bankers bonuses under the carpet, alongside their own examples of largesse, Bragg felt that he had no option. Unfortunatly the rest of us have to take it… at least until the General Election.

The interview can be heard here until the next Monday (25th January), and starts about an hour and 36 minutes in…

UPDATE: 19/1/2010, 19:53 - there is a link to the BBC story, which has now been posted, here...