Does the City deserve a kicking?

[Maxf]

Fittster said:

Maxf said:

Can some of the 'yes' voters let us know why they are advocating violent protests?

Protests are fine, but IMO - 'a kicking' is very wrong indeed. Unless of course the 'yes' voters are assuming this means a regulatory 'kicking'.

A free market kicking, where the government watches from the side lines but keeps the taxpayers wallet closed would be good.

I'm inclined to agree. Which is a switcheroo from my position last autumn.

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

Baby Huey said:

scotal said:

Baby Huey said:

scotal said:

Baby Huey said:

I don't believe there will be any violence towards individuals.

Why do you believe that?

As far as I know there hasn't been before.

So when the protestors went up the escalators at Liffe (which was about the worst place they could have picked) they weren't going aftet the floor traders??? I think you're wrong.

I don't know about that but I was working in the City the last couple of times this kicked off, and mostly it was pretty good humoured.

You try catching the 3 inch round rocks that were thrown, taken from the ground floor planters and think 'ooo this is fun and good humoured.'

Edited by ThatPhilBrettGuy on Wednesday 1st April 12:32

[Sheets Tabuer]

Watching sky news most of these protesters have banners reading "stop the war" and "Brown war criminal"

Nowt to do with the financial crisis half of it.

ETA forgot to add the climate change lot.

Edited by Sheets Tabuer on Wednesday 1st April 12:34

[anonymous-user]

Sheets Tabuer said:

Watching sky news most of these protesters have banners reading "stop the war" and "Brown war criminal"

Nowt to do with the financial crisis half of it.

ETA forgot to add the climate change lot.

They look much like the same grubby ex public school eco-marxist anti capitalism and glogalisation rent a mob lot that turn up for the May day protests.

[900T-R]

Fittster said:

Maxf said:

Can some of the 'yes' voters let us know why they are advocating violent protests?

Protests are fine, but IMO - 'a kicking' is very wrong indeed. Unless of course the 'yes' voters are assuming this means a regulatory 'kicking'.

A free market kicking, where the government watches from the side lines but keeps the taxpayers wallet closed would be good.

[mechsympathy]

BOR said:

NDA said:

The city contributes an estimated £67.8bn of taxes, 14% of the total UK tax take.

fk the tax take. How come you appologists ALWAYS boil everything down to how much money is involved ?

MONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEY

So what are we going to get rid of? Pensions? Benefits? The NHS? Perhaps the armed forces...

[ewenm]

BOR said:

NDA said:

The city contributes an estimated £67.8bn of taxes, 14% of the total UK tax take.

fk the tax take. How come you appologists ALWAYS boil everything down to how much money is involved ?

MONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEY

Aren't you complaining about greed? How do YOU define greed if not through money?

Rather than saying "It's not right!" why not give some alternatives? Solutions and ideas? Or just complaints?

[mitzy]

No

[Mr POD]

NDA said:

Quaint said:

Mr POD said:

Come the revolution anyone in a suit with smooth hands will be forced to explain what they do for money and why.

Well quite. Nothing like a good "Year Zero" bring-your-own-garden-implement-to-help-purge-the-bourgeoisie party, eh BOR? I wonder if he has a policy on the intelligentsia as well...

I have gone blue in the face trying to explain to well-meaning but ignorant acquaintances that only a tiny fraction of "city workers" receive enormous bonuses and so forth. The bulk of people working here are just doing a day-job like most other employed folk in the country.

Yeah, let's kick the bankers, anyone in a suit. Hang on, that sounds familiar.


Cambodia

"Thousands were killed for wearing spectacles, which marked them out as intellectuals. Knowing a foreign language became a death sentence; babies and the elderly were murdered because they were useless for work" “Sometimes it took just one blow, sometimes two,” he told The Times. “After I clubbed them someone else would slit their throats. But every time I clubbed someone to death I would think, tomorrow, this might be me kneeling here, with one of the other guards killing me.”

Yes that was my thought. But I was thinking more about the french revolution when the peasants checked people's hands for evidence of manual labour.

[BOR]

mechsympathy said:

BOR said:

NDA said:

The city contributes an estimated £67.8bn of taxes, 14% of the total UK tax take.

fk the tax take. How come you appologists ALWAYS boil everything down to how much money is involved ?

MONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEY

So what are we going to get rid of? Pensions? Benefits? The NHS? Perhaps the armed forces...

I'll settle for getting rid of tax evasion and the city firms who facilitate it.

[blindswelledrat]

BOR said:

I'll settle for ...
I need a wash and a haircut.

[Somewhatfoolish]

BOR said:

mechsympathy said:

BOR said:

NDA said:

The city contributes an estimated £67.8bn of taxes, 14% of the total UK tax take.

fk the tax take. How come you appologists ALWAYS boil everything down to how much money is involved ?

MONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEY

So what are we going to get rid of? Pensions? Benefits? The NHS? Perhaps the armed forces...

I'll settle for getting rid of tax evasion and the city firms who facilitate it.

What has tax evasion got to do with anything?

[Maxf]

Tax Evasion is clearly illegal. Tax Avoidance is legal, and if you believe this is the root of all evil you need to level your critisisms at the government who create the rules, rather than the individuals and companies who follow them.

They create needlessly complex tax rules, which allow avoidance. Of course, needlessly complex rules creates jobs.

[Maxf]

BOR said:

fk the tax take. How come you appologists ALWAYS boil everything down to how much money is involved ?

BOR said:

I'll settle for getting rid of tax evasion and the city firms who facilitate it.

Holy quandry, Batman.

[ewenm]

Maxf said:

BOR said:

fk the tax take. How come you appologists ALWAYS boil everything down to how much money is involved ?

BOR said:

I'll settle for getting rid of tax evasion and the city firms who facilitate it.

Holy quandry, Batman.

[Clammy]

el stovey said:

Does anyone actually know what the bailout figure is so far?

Ready for this?

£1.3 trillion

Yup.

One point three million million million of our British pounds has been ploughed in to rectify the recklessness of the banking industry.

And city workers are reportedly having the temerity to wave tenners at people expressing their emotion about this, unbelievable.

[ewenm]

Clammy said:

And city workers are reportedly having the temerity to wave tenners at people expressing their emotion about this, unbelievable.

If it weren't for the recession, they'd be £50s

[OJ]

Paddy_n_Murphy said:

Somewhatfoolish said:

BOR said:

mechsympathy said:

BOR said:

NDA said:

The city contributes an estimated £67.8bn of taxes, 14% of the total UK tax take.

fk the tax take. How come you appologists ALWAYS boil everything down to how much money is involved ?

MONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEY

So what are we going to get rid of? Pensions? Benefits? The NHS? Perhaps the armed forces...

I'll settle for getting rid of tax evasion and the city firms who facilitate it.

What has tax evasion got to do with anything?

Well if we get rid of Tax Evasion and Tax Havens, then we can make those poor Islanders and Countries without any other form of Income knackered and bankrupt............ no wait.

Not to mention the entire industry (NOT just a few city firms) that's built around tax avoidance

[Clammy]

ewenm said:

Clammy said:

And city workers are reportedly having the temerity to wave tenners at people expressing their emotion about this, unbelievable.

If it weren't for the recession, they'd be £50s

It was a report from the Scotsman, anything bigger than a fiver and they get confused...

[ducks behind line of Riot rozzers]

[BOR]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/27/bar...

Two out of three US banks have terminated their involvement in a wide-ranging tax-avoidance scheme operated by Barclays.

The banks had taken loans from Barclays amounting to $11bn (£7.6bn), which they were due to hold for another year. But sources at Bank of America and BB&T confirmed yesterday that transactions under Project Knight have been terminated prematurely and the loans repaid.

A third bank, Wachovia, refused to comment on the status of a $6bn loan it also took from Barclays under Project Knight.

The unwinding of the scheme is liable to hit Barclays' profits, as the three-year project was designed to generate tax reliefs of about £100m next year.

Bank of America sources said: "The financing has been terminated." BB&T sources said: "The loan has been repaid."

The banks' three loans, totalling $17bn, were made in 2007 and designed to generate tax benefits to Barclays over three years equivalent to approximately $270m a year, at the expense of the UK exchequer. The US counterparty banks were not avoiding US taxes but received a fee in kind from Barclays - in the form of cheap loans - in return for their involvement.

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Pay us what you owe.