I had to check more than once that I was reading the right
newspaper:
...anyone who thinks that the EU financial transactions tax is a good idea for this country is stark raving bonkers.
As the Eurozone moans and groans under a Himalayan-size debt mountain, Brussels has come up with a wheeze to avert disaster – a tax on all financial transactions across the EU. Where would the tax hit hardest? In Europe’s leading financial centre – the capital of our country
The EU in its present form is on its last legs. Greece is just the start. History will record that the euro was like everyone on the same street sharing a bank account. One day very soon the poor old Germans will get sick of bailing out their free-spending neighbours....the idea that we can have real economic growth in this country without a buoyant financial sector is simply bananas.
Without economic growth, this country is stuffed. Cuts to our public services will never get us out of this mess. There has to be real economic growth or the million young people currently on the dole will spend their entire working lives on benefits.
I understand and share the general antipathy towards the banking industry. But driving business to Hong Kong or New York is cutting off our nose, ears and lips to spite our face.
An EU financial transactions tax would cripple this country’s economy. It would kill growth stone dead. It is an idea cooked up by the unelected, increasingly desperate fat cats of Brussels. It would do untold damage to our country for generations.
We must ask ourselves – do we really hate bankers so much that we want that to happen?
I had to check more than once that I was reading the right newspaper: