Way Too Late

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has finally apologised for reversing his manifesto pledge of not raising tuition fees; he hasn’t said that the current policy of charging the extortionate amount of £9,000 per year is a bad policy, just that he originally made a promise that couldn’t be kept. So that’s okay then; he says he won’t break any pledges again and we’ll just take him at his word … I think not. As far as I’m concerned, Clegg lost all credibility as soon as did a deal with the devil, i.e. formed a coalition with the Conservatives. After that it was no surprise that other moral principles fell by the wayside. Former leaders Charles Kennedy and Menzies Campbell were able to vote against the fee rise along with 21 other Lib Dem M.P.s, but Clegg just couldn’t manage to honour his word because the power of government was too important to him. This apology is a waste of time: the Lib Dems will get trounced in the next general election and will only stand a chance of recovering once they’ve got rid of Clegg as their leader and put a great deal of distance between themselves and the Conservative Party. And students, I fear, will have to suffer long-term debt for many years to come.

 

Labour Beats Hester

Stephen Hester, chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has finally refused to accept his bonus of £963,000. But let’s not give him much applause. The only reason he’s backed down is because Labour were going to put the issue to a vote in the House of Commons, which they almost certainly would have won as the Liberal Democrats would have remembered at last that they were meant to be a party with a conscience! If it had been left to the Conservatives, Hester would have received the bonus (which, believe it or not, was only 60% of what he’d received in previous payouts - imagine how much he already has!) because the government did not want bank executives to think about going elsewhere to ply their trade. Let them go, as far as I’m concerned. In these days of austerity, we’ll find a way to manage without the greedy fat cats; economic advancement isn’t the only thing worth caring about.

Capitalism Costs

The stock markets are taking a slump (again!), this time because Dubai has finally announced its high level of debt. Ah, Dubai; isn't that the one which set up Palm Island, a place where celebrities who are already extremely rich can stay with each other in order to feel even more financially superior and somehow morally rewarded for their lifetimes of greed? Yes, that's the one. And yet people are now seemingly surprised that this avarice has resulted in the accounts taking a turn for the red. How blinkered people can be sometimes. Unfortunately, I fully expect the perpetually wavering stockmarkets to make a full and swift recovery; but at least capitalist ways of obtaining false luxury have received another slap in the face.

Also relating to millionaires today, the Liberal Democrats have doubled the threshold at which people should pay annual mansion tax. It used to be their policy that anyone owning a house worth more than one million pounds would be subject to a 0.5% charge; only right and proper for those of us who believe in the redistribution of wealth. But now (for some reason wishing to give in to the excessively rich), the Lib Dems have said that (an albeit increased) mansion tax will only apply to properties over two million. At which point does any millionaire need to be felt at all sorry for? Nick Clegg says the increased rate will generate more income overall meaning that poorer taxpayers would have to pay less, but then why not implement that higher tax for more expensive properties without taking away the tax for houses between one and two million pounds? That would be the fairest outcome for less well off people. But then I'm not an economist, only a moralist.