Daily View: Bankers' super-tax
Commentators continue to argue the merits of a so-called super-tax on bankers before Alistair Darling's pre-Budget report on Wednesday.
The a fair taxation would include a windfall tax:
"For its part, Labour needs to remember that it is far easier to design a progressive tax rise than a fair spending cut. Second, the chancellor must not hold back from taxing the banks."
that the pre-Budget report will create some tension between Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling:
"It is at this point that one sees the inevitable difference between Mr Darling and Mr Brown. Mr Darling is thinking about the Budget, and rightly so. No doubt Mr Brown does think about the Budget, but he is responsible for Labour's performance at the general election. The polls are moving against Labour again, at least this weekend. All the steps that the Chancellor would want to take require either higher taxes or cuts in public expenditure."
The undecided whether a windfall tax would do more harm than good. Instead it urges Alistair Darling to make cuts elsewhere:
"Is it too much to hope that in this week's crucial Pre-Budget Report Mr Darling might begin that process by taking an axe to our bloated public sector?"
a tax on bankers "idiotic". Also in the the idea of higher taxes in favour of public spending cuts:
"The key lies in curbing the growth of government and by nurturing small and medium businesses.
Of course, we are doing the opposite. Government bureaucracy is out of control. Instead of lowering burdens, the Government is crushing businesses with higher taxes, charges, National Insurance contributions and quango-imposed bureaucracy. "
that Labour shouldn't appease bankers but should invigorate new industry sectors instead:
"A campaign to rebalance the economy, returning us to a 'make and do' Britain, ought to be central to the pre-budget report and what follows next year. Measures to help the low-carbon economy, such as encouraging electric cars or wind turbines, should be a top priority. This has far more traction than the nature and timing of cuts. Why? Because there is a glimmer of optimism about it. It's about something Labour has found itself almost unable to say over the past 18 months."
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