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 Guardian editorial says 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."
William Rees-Mogg in the Times suggests 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 Daily Mail is 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?"
The Telegraph leader column calls a tax on bankers "idiotic". Also in the Telegraph Michael Forsyth snubs 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. "
Jackie Ashley in the Guardian suggests 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."
Links in full
• Guardian | Pre-budget report: Fair's fair
• Times | Reinventing Government
• William Rees-Mogg | Times | Darling can't please Brown and do his own job
• Telegraph | A tax raid on Britain's wealth creators is idiotic
• Michael Forsyth | Telegraph | We must stop stealing from our youngsters
• Daily Mail | Darling, bank bonuses and a tax on greed
• Bruce Anderson | Independent | Save the bankers! Only they can deliver growth
• David Wooding | Sun | £1bn tax raid on bankers' bonuses
• Jackie Ashley | Guardian | Plan a 'make and do' Britain and Labour could flourish
• John Redwood | Drifting to disaster?
• Sean O'Grady | Independent | The big squeeze
