Trying to buy a Lamborghini for under ?250K in East Dulwich is near impossible

[Zebedee Tring]

It's a scandal. All those Barclays bankers (choose your own rhyming slang) who want to spend last year's bonus on a nice car and not a Lamborghini showroom in sight in ED. Please do your best to persuade them not to leave the country to buy one for under ?250k - we need their skills so much.

[Loz]

The financial sector is 10% of the UK economy and 45% of London's economy. If you encourage that overseas do you really think it will not have a knock on effect on your own finances?

[Zebedee Tring]

No, it won't affect my finances.

And that's just the kind of special pleading used by the finance industry to justify ginormous bonuses. This led in due course to the crash of 2008 and the mess that the world is in today.

A bit more investment in industry than in the glorified gambling trade that is the finance industry would make a helluva difference

[Loz]

You won't stop ginormous bonuses - just the country in which they are awarded. And spent.

Watch and see the exodus from RBS.

[????]

Don't bother Loz, people just don't get it London was knocked off the perch as the primary global financial centre earlier this year to New York, it's draining away. People seem to think we can lose all of this without any harm to the economy, tax revenues, public services, they have no grasp of the fundamentals of economics, at all. Depressing. Most of Gordon Brown's spending flourish post 2000 was on the back of City Taxation if we want to get rid of it fine they say ....but that means similar 'trims' to the Public Sector on top of the cuts already witnessed. Good luck with that....

And, no, for the millionth time I don't work in the City or FS or in a any related support area - Management consultancy, accountancy, Legal, high end restaurants, etc etc....

[Zebedee Tring]

Rather than further massive benefit cuts, how about raising taxes, especially the top rate of tax, plus a property tax as we had until the 60s?

Q: Who was the PM who presided over a 60% top rate of tax for most of the 1980s.

A. Not Harold Wilson, not Jim Callaghan - but that famous socialist Margaret Thatcher.

If it was good enough for Thatcher (as was a nationalised British Rail), then true Tories should embrace this with open arms.

And good riddance to the RBS bankers. They wrecked the economy and it was the Government who had to bail them out. People who claim benefits are "scroungers" but banks who demand massive hand outs from the Government of course aren't. Or are they?

And I do know something about economics. However, unlike so many economists these days, I'm not a monetarist but more of a Keynesian, a philosophy which is coming back into fashion at long last.

[????]

Yup, higher top rate of tax is going really well for France. That's where you can look to for how well those policies work (and what ed Balls suggested)........even Ed Milliband keeps stum about France and his support for Hollande now.

[Zebedee Tring]

France is not the only country with higher taxation. Scandinavian countries have had high taxation, and much better social services, for decades, without the massive inequalities of wealth than we have. But of course if we had followed the Norwegian example of investing our North Sea oil revenue in retooling industry rather than squandering it on enormous tax cuts, then we might be in a better position now.

It's not too late for us to become more like a Scandinavian country. It would however help if we stopped spending so much money on defence and stopped kidding ourselves that the British Empire still exists. This regrettably seems unlike whoever is in government after 2015.

[StraferJack]

"Life carries on..."

http://twitter.com/kayaburgess/status/460729262585020416/photo/1

[david_carnell]

Zebedee Tring Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> France is not the only country with higher

> taxation. Scandinavian countries have had high

> taxation, and much better social services, for

> decades, without the massive inequalities of

> wealth than we have. But of course if we had

> followed the Norwegian example of investing our

> North Sea oil revenue in retooling industry rather

> than squandering it on enormous tax cuts, then we

> might be in a better position now.

>

> It's not too late for us to become more like a

> Scandinavian country. It would however help if we

> stopped spending so much money on defence and

> stopped kidding ourselves that the British Empire

> still exists. This regrettably seems unlike

> whoever is in government after 2015.

And last time I checked, Oslo and Stockholm weren't financial centres either. Yet somehow they cope....

[PeckhamRose]

To answer OP, but even if I won one I'd sell it and buy a couple of decent bikes....

[Tr?]

ZT, just out of curiosity, what do you think a bank (let's say an investment bank) does?

[Jeremy]

Who the hell wants the UK to be like Scandinavia? Have you seen how much a beer or a decent bite to eat costs in Stockholm/Oslo/Copenhagen? No thanks!

[david_carnell]

Jeremy - Copenhagen is no more expensive than London for eating out.

[Jeremy]

My post was a little tongue-in-cheek... but actually we found it really expensive. But the beer was the real killer.

[david_carnell]

I guess the better quality of life means you don't need to get battered as often.

Happy people drink less? Costs their health service less then too.

[StraferJack]

is this site accurate?

http://www.pintprice.com/region.php?/sweden/

doesn't seem worse than London to be honest

[StraferJack]

although it has London down as ?3.60. Hmmmm

[El Pibe]

if you're including free house back street boozers and weatherspoons in those averages, then that's probably spot on.

[StraferJack]

True, true - anyway, my image of Sweden and booze has always been "we had a beer with our food and a small bottle cost us ?35!!" or somesuch

[david_carnell]

Weirdly Israel is right up there....not sure if beer would help or hinder in the middle east to be honest....

[Zebedee Tring]

It gambles with its money, rips off its shareholders by paying excessive bonuses and provides lousy service to its customers. And if we are really unlucky, the government has to bale them out when they go bust.

[Loz]

david_carnell Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Jeremy - Copenhagen is no more expensive than London for eating out.

Denmark has never been that bad, price-wise. Sweden and Norway, on the other hand, are eye-wateringly expensive.

All the Swedes head to Copenhagen for 'cheap' weekend benders. Thus the Danish joke, "What do you call a drunk person lying on the Str?get?"

"Swedish"

[Jeremy]

Was kind of a throwaway comment... cost of living is high in all those countries. But GDPPC also much higher. I'm not at all against higher tax if it results in a more equitable society, higher living standards, better public services, etc. But would question whether it's possible to emulate that style of economy within the EU.

[Seabag]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> And, no, for the millionth time I don't work in

> the City or FS or in a any related support area -

> Management consultancy, accountancy, Legal, high

> end restaurants, etc etc....

Out of interest and because you seem to have a measured view on all this, what is your back ground ?

Economics is obviously a strong point. Though I'm not asking tooth and claw detail here, just a sketch

Just interested in how people form their views and opinions