Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne, has come up with a policy which he hopes will have the same impact as Margaret Thatcher’s right to buy your own Council house in the 1980s. He has suggested a ‘people’s bonus plan’ in which the public could be offered discounted shares in state-owned banks.
He believes that the measure would be a reward for the £850bn of public money used to prop up failing financial institutions. Young people and those on low incomes would be offered extra discounts.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable is very dismissive of the idea. He said that it was expected to be several years before the banks could be sold off, so “dangling this prospect” was “electioneering at its most cynical”.
“These banks should be set the concrete objective of ensuring lending to sound small and medium-sized businesses who are the drivers of our economic recovery,” he said.
“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.”
My view, which I know is shared by others, is that as we already own these banks through our vested interest in the state and in government, then why would we want to pay for them again? And why would the Tories be seeking to undermine our investment by divesting the state of these assets at a reduced price.
Like the share flotations of the 1980s and the 1990s the only people who will benefit from this scheme will be those who already have money and who are used to dabbling in the share markets. The Conservative dream of a share-owning democracy is in fact, nothing more than a share-owning Tory Party.
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