They Just Can't Help Themselves

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The latest wheeze from the Tories' George Osborne is to offer shares to the public in the state owned banks RBS and LBG. Apparently Oxbridge boy George is touting it as a "people's bonus" plan as a reward for the £850bn of public money used to prop up failing financial institutions.

It's expected people would be offered shares worth between a few hundred and few thousand pounds at a discount on the market price, with extra discounts for young people, low-income families and parents saving for their children.

So let me get this right, the government has used my money and assets (as a citizen of GB plc) to buy the banks and to make sure that the bankers get their bonuses. Then he wants to sell to me the very thing I've just bought? There's more morals in cafe full of Nigerian 404 scammers than in HM's Opposition at the moment. A case for the Trades Descriptions Act methinks.

But of course there will be money to be made. By those with the cash to 'invest' and by the banking institutions themselves. The usual suspects.

I'm no fan of Mr Cable but Vince does get it right with the following:

"Actively encouraging people on very low incomes to invest in a volatile share market beggars belief and shows just how removed the Tories are from everyday reality... A young couple on low income is more concerned with putting food on the table than speculating on the stock market." 

It's not difficult to see that the Tories still have this knowledge gap, that they think anyone who is of value has money to invest, travels first class and has a pile somewhere in the Home Counties or Scotland.

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• RBS to pay huge bonuses after £7bn loss (newstatesman.com)