Comments on Tory Bear - right-wing political gossip: Tobin Hood and His Merry Pinkos

Robin Hood Tax? Not fair, Robin Hood fought agains...

2010-02-14T13:13:34.475Z

Robin Hood Tax? Not fair, Robin Hood fought against tyranny and swingeing taxes. Gordon Brown wants swingeing taxes and to be the tyrant that implements (and benefits from) them.

It should be known as the King John Tax or, in recognition of his personal contribution, the Robin Bastard Tax.

O/T but rather ironic. I read that Lord Paul is considering leaving the UK. He wants to move his domicile, to avoid paying the swingeing tax burden that he and the rest of Labour voted for.

Tobin Hood: Men In Tights.

2010-02-14T06:38:09.052Z

Tobin Hood: Men In Tights.

I tried to post a reasonable comment on why this n...

2010-02-13T22:27:30.569Z

I tried to post a reasonable comment on why this naive policy won't work (including a post suppressed by their site) and your computer refused to recognise my identity. What do I do next?

I have a feeling the SWP members had to buy so man...

2010-02-13T20:57:42.951Z

I have a feeling the SWP members had to buy so many of these papers every month as a condition of membership.

Selling them was getting their money back.

Capitalist incentives - you can't beat em...

I tried to post on their website: "Have the ...

2010-02-13T20:38:54.589Z

I tried to post on their website:
"Have the Cayman Islands signed up?
No? then the Hedge Fund billionaires will be exempt whereas Granny will be charged when she sells the shares Grandad received from his firm’s Save-As-You-Earn Scheme to pay for his funeral. Changing banking licences would only affect banks and not Hedge Funds.
You haven’t thought how to deal with OTC. The whole of small investor individual dealing is done on regulated markets but the unregulated Chi-X now turns over more than London, Frankfurt or any other stock exchange in Europe(the FT says it is ranked second because the total of Amsterdam, Paris and Brussels are treated as one, qwheras each is smaller than London or Frankfurt). There are other unregulated “deep pools” as well.
Again the big banks (Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Nomura, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Societe Generale and BNP Paribas are big players on and investors in Chi-X) so, again the rich can dodge this tax while the little guys get caught.
Of course a tax on banks’ FX deals will impact retail transactions since the banks have to balance their FX books several times a day and every retail purchaser or seller of FX unbalances the bank’s FX book – so the transaction cost has to be passed on to the retail customer (unless the bank wants to go bust). If you want to stop people buying foreign goods (including oranges and bananas as well as Champagne and Mercedes) that is a debatable proposition, but please argue the case for it so that I can put up the counter-arguments instead of sneaking it through under the pretence of supporting charities.
There are a surprising number of Christians in the City, so next time you have a “bright idea” you should ask one of them whether or not it will work"
What happened?
Of course it got suppressed like all my posts to most of the Lefty sites (except Tom Harris) - e.g. Will Straw cannot accept facts on his "evidence-based" blog.
Naturally I object to self-styled "bankers" picking up a £million or so for adding no value but this is not a solution and does more harm than good.

2010-02-13T19:10:22.411Z

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

Just worth pointing out that although I support th...

2010-02-13T13:22:17.376Z

Just worth pointing out that although I support the Robin Hood tax and stand by the article which Tory Bear quotes, it was written by David Taylor for Left Foot Forward and not by me. David should get the credit!

All the best,

Will

TB, It is pointless using logic to argue a case ...

2010-02-13T11:04:27.390Z

TB,

It is pointless using logic to argue a case with lefties.

They only respond to things like pictures of starving children, sick puppies and toffs.

I'm starting to work on some concepts myself....

LOL! TB I just wanted to point out how much the SW...

2010-02-13T11:00:24.849Z

LOL! TB I just wanted to point out how much the SWP and you agree. Guido wouldn't, of course (or at least that is what I glean from his pronouncements on the dead tree media, which the Socialist Worker most definitely is).

Do you remember the fuel duty escalator that Major implemented (probably not, you are just a wee 'um, but it is still there on petrol). Tell me, is that tax 0.05%? Nah it wasn't and it isn't, it is a significant tax (imposed by a Conservative government, no less). As you know damned well the fuel duty escalator was supposed to persuade people to use cars less and to use more efficient cars. Has it succeeded? No it hasn't: people like cars.

Taxes raise money, that is what they are for and that is what they do. The "behavioural economics" of the fuel duty escalator failed, (as will the plethora of Steve Hilton's planned "behavioural economics" policies) taxes do not change people's behaviour. The Tobin tax is just that, a tax. You don't like taxes, I think they can be important. We agree to disagree.

Let us not forget the words of WS Churchill: "...

2010-02-13T10:15:48.548Z

Let us not forget the words of WS Churchill: "... for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

This tax, like all 'Tobin' taxes, is a tax...

2010-02-13T08:39:31.562Z

This tax, like all 'Tobin' taxes, is a tax on liquidity. Anyone advocating it should consider what happened last time money market liquidity was reduced: namely that house prices dropped 20% because nobody could get a mortgage.

That will also make it difficult for the government to borrow the tens of billions a year for deficit spending, potentially forcing 30% cuts in the public sector almost overnight. Perhaps it's another scorched earth policy?

Excellent post TB.

2010-02-13T08:20:54.067Z

Excellent post TB.

The "charities" on the usefully provided...

2010-02-13T04:19:14.478Z

The "charities" on the usefully provided list can stick their lefty campaigning where the sun don't shine.

Funnily enough Oxfam phoned me last week asking me to renew my subscription. Part of the script included the impact of climate change on poor countries which had seen increased flooding.......

Me: If we accept man made climate change occurs can you prove a link between recent flooding and climate change?

Him: No. But events have increased by 100% since the 1980's.

M: From how many to how many. An increase from 2 to 4 major floods is a 100% increase but that's the statistics of small numbers.

H: I don't know, but 100% is significant

M:........

H: Anyway, we're a purely responsive organisation and not a campaigning one.

M: I won't be renewing my subscription.

In light of this I'm doubly glad I didn't. I've always given a fixed % of my income to charity but I'm finding it harder to find worthy causes that don't also wish to undermine my polticial views. I note, incredibly, that the RSPB is signed up. Lets hope the RNLI don't jump on the wagon or else I'll have no one else to give to!

if that was the only point you could find to pick ...

2010-02-12T23:11:11.313Z

if that was the only point you could find to pick out of that post then it must be one of my better ones..

glad to hear you find the robin tax ridiculous as well.

TB, the SWP do not hand out the Socialist Worker, ...

2010-02-12T23:09:02.768Z

TB, the SWP do not hand out the Socialist Worker, they sell it. Yes, that's right they expect people to buy it. They really are proto-Murdochs at heart.