Whatever happened to Purdah?

Once upon a time a British Chancellor wouldn't let on what might — or might not — be in his forthcoming Budget. But tomorrow the present Chancellor appears to have lost the habit of purdah and leaked like a sieve on the likely content in his 'pre-Budget statement'. There is also that corollary of 'What goes up, must come down' in that if there are temporary reductions in VAT, for example, then that means they will go up even further afterwards. I was speaking with a friend of mine who owns and runs a small bookshop earlier today and she was telling me that this reduction — of itself not likely to bring shoppers flocking to the tills because its effect will actually be so small — will cost her substantial money in creating new tax rates within the business accounts along with calculating and publicising the new cost of each item. The strong rumour that a new higher-income tax rate will be introduced — 45% on earnings of £150,000+ or thereabouts — breaks Labour's election commitment that it wouldn't raise the top rate of tax although, to be strict about it, they aren't amending the current 'higher' rate just adding a new one on top. One which, personally, I'm in favour of. I was looking at new laptops yesterday in the stores down Tottenham Court Road, London's electronics centre, and am rather glad that I didn't make a purchase then. I'll probably save myself a 'massive' £15 or so by purchasing it on Tuesday instead.

The banks are just making complete monkeys of them.

The Guardian is reporting that the Royal Bank of Scotland, having received £20 billion from the UK tax-payer, has set aside £1.79 billion to pay six months' worth of discretionary and other bonuses to staff in its investment banking division — the same staff who required a £5.9 billion write-down of the Bank's profits.

Vince Cable (LibDem shadow Chancellor) has noted that "The government said they would attach strict conditions on bonuses and it is very clear they are doing nothing of the kind … The banks are just making complete monkeys of them."

In my humble opinion, Vince is the best UK Chancellor we haven't had — yet. You have your opportunity to elect him at the next General Election though!

Executive contracts

"François Barrault, who has been chief executive of Global Services [of BT] since April 2007, has resigned with immediate effect - although he is expected to receive a year's pay." (source ) Isn't it nice for him that he can quit without any notice period yet get paid for another twelve months when he has reduced the value of BT to below that at which it floated in 1984. Nice for him maybe, but not for the many thousands of shareholders (including my mother, as it happens) who have lost out by mis-management at the company resulting in today's profits warning. In any other 'normal' job where you had so dismally failed at your tasks you'd either be fired or someone would micro-manage you while you corrected the position; you certainly wouldn't be able to walk away with an effective bonus of a year's pay. No wonder people complain that CEOs of major corporations do not live in the 'real world'.