Billy Bragg to withhold tax in protest at bank bonuses
I’D BEEN wondering what headline-grabbing action Burton Bradstock’s most famous resident was going to take in the run-up to the General Election. And now we know.
In an article for The Guardian, Billy Bragg explains that he’s withholding his taxes until the Chancellor of the Exchequer acts to curb bonus payments to investment bankers at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
In the 2001 and 2005 General Elections, Billy Bragg set up an anti-Conservative internet-based vote-swapping scheme in West Dorset and South Dorset. The primary aim was to help Labour win South Dorset, but coming a very close second indeed was the desire to help the Liberal Democrats beat top Tory Oliver Letwin in West Dorset.
I was going to ring up Billy to ask what – if anything – he was planning to help Labour this year. But I don’t think I’ll bother for the moment. He ends his Guardian article by asking:
“What if everybody did this? Perhaps some form of anarchy would ensue. But if we are going to bring “what ifs” into the debate, then what if we lived in a society that heaped financial rewards on teachers and nurses and soldiers rather than bankers? What if we had a financial system that encouraged fairness rather than greed? Too utopian for you? Well how about this: what if we had a political party capable of winning power at the next election?”
It sounds to me like he’s given up on Labour, for now. Against this kind of backdrop, perhaps the Liberal Democrats are right to be confident that in South Dorset they will get more votes than Labour’s Jim Knight. That is certainly what West Dorset councillor Ros Kayes (the Lib Dems’ candidate in South Dorset) is aiming to achieve. And then, in her sights, is the Conservative Richard Drax…
In West Dorset, the Liberal Democrats are constantly trying to persuade the area’s stubborn rump of Labourites to vote for them instead. Could it finally happen?
One Response to “Billy Bragg to withhold tax in protest at bank bonuses”
No matter who you vote for, the Government always get in.
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