Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Another Labour u-turn
It is getting to the point that the only reason why anybody might want to vote for Labour is because they are not the incompetent shit-show that currently governs us. As for policy differences, many of us are struggling to name any.
Labour are in full reverse mode on the £28bn green investment pledge, they are promising no further investment in public services, have ruled out a windfall tax on bank profits, and it would be difficult to insert a fag paper between their tax policies and what we currently have. And now they have even abandoned any pretence at restraining the get-rich-quick culture that permeates our entire financial sector.
The Guardian reports on comments by shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, that Labour will not reinstate a cap on bankers’ bonuses if it wins the next election.
They add that Reeves said she had “no intention” of bringing back the cap, saying she wanted to be the “champion of a thriving financial services industry”:
The regulations, which limited annual bonus payouts to twice a banker’s salary, were introduced by the EU in 2014, in a move aimed at preventing excessive risk-taking after the 2008 financial crisis.
In 2022, the then chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced that he would be removing this rule as part of his now infamous mini-budget under Liz Truss’s short-lived reign as prime minister.
The decision received widespread criticism for rewarding bankers and failing to address cost-of-living concerns affecting households across the UK.
However, it was one of the few mini-budget policies to be kept under Rishi Sunak’s leadership, with the new rules coming into force in October last year.
Unions claimed Sunak was fuelling a “greed is good” culture in the City of London. The cap originally limited bonuses to two times bankers’ salaries, giving the average City worker an opportunity to pocket as much as £120,000 extra, equivalent to about seven times the average pay of a care worker, the Trades Union Congress said.
So, all that huffing and puffing by Labour over the last 14 years, about how the Tories are letting bankers off the hook, that they are nurturing greed, and that the rich are benefitting while the poor get poorer etc, has come to nought. Labour are signing up to the Tory agenda on bankers' bonuses.
Why am I not surprised?
Labour are in full reverse mode on the £28bn green investment pledge, they are promising no further investment in public services, have ruled out a windfall tax on bank profits, and it would be difficult to insert a fag paper between their tax policies and what we currently have. And now they have even abandoned any pretence at restraining the get-rich-quick culture that permeates our entire financial sector.
The Guardian reports on comments by shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, that Labour will not reinstate a cap on bankers’ bonuses if it wins the next election.
They add that Reeves said she had “no intention” of bringing back the cap, saying she wanted to be the “champion of a thriving financial services industry”:
The regulations, which limited annual bonus payouts to twice a banker’s salary, were introduced by the EU in 2014, in a move aimed at preventing excessive risk-taking after the 2008 financial crisis.
In 2022, the then chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced that he would be removing this rule as part of his now infamous mini-budget under Liz Truss’s short-lived reign as prime minister.
The decision received widespread criticism for rewarding bankers and failing to address cost-of-living concerns affecting households across the UK.
However, it was one of the few mini-budget policies to be kept under Rishi Sunak’s leadership, with the new rules coming into force in October last year.
Unions claimed Sunak was fuelling a “greed is good” culture in the City of London. The cap originally limited bonuses to two times bankers’ salaries, giving the average City worker an opportunity to pocket as much as £120,000 extra, equivalent to about seven times the average pay of a care worker, the Trades Union Congress said.
So, all that huffing and puffing by Labour over the last 14 years, about how the Tories are letting bankers off the hook, that they are nurturing greed, and that the rich are benefitting while the poor get poorer etc, has come to nought. Labour are signing up to the Tory agenda on bankers' bonuses.
Why am I not surprised?
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