Monday, March 10, 2014

Labour's magic porridge pot

Do you remember the children's story of the magic porridge pot? One day it produced an unending supply of porridge. I am reminded of this by a Labour announcement today that yet another spending commitment is to be financed by the tax on bankers' bonuses (which will presumably impact on the finances of the Coop as well as the banks Labour used to admire.) With so many commitments to be paid for by this one tax, Labour are going to need more rich bankers getting even bigger bonuses to raise sufficient revenue for their spending plans.

The Lib Dems did some research last year on just what Labour have agreed to spend their £2.5 billion bankers' bonus tax on. I used it in the December edition of Parliamentary Campaigner so for your edification, I have included it here:

1) Youth Jobs Guarantee – £1.04 billion
2) Reversing the VAT increase – £12.75 billion
3) More capital spending – £5.8 billion
4) Reversing the Child Benefit savings – £3.1 billion
5) Reversing Tax Credit savings – £5.8 billion
6) More Regional Growth Fund funding - £200 million
7) Cutting the deficit – ? [cannot be costed]
8) Turning empty shops into community centres – £5 million
9) Spending on public services – ? [cannot be costed]
10) More housing - £1.2 billion
11) Childcare - £800 million
Total: At least £30 billion and counting!

I'm not entirely sure what Labour has for breakfast. Perhaps fewer magic mushrooms and more porridge would help.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No wonder Labour are planning another multi billion pound raid on pensions as reported in the weekend newspapers.