Michael Spencer Boasted Tax Would Be Vetoed By Government
Heard it “First Hand” from Very, Very, Senior Government Figure
Michael Spencer was the Tory Treasurer before Peter Cruddas, here he is an interview he gave to the financial derivatives trade magazine Risk. He boasts in the interview that he knows the government will veto the tax the derivatives brokerage industry in London fears most:
Risk Magazine: You expect the Financial Transaction Tax debate to fade away. What happens if it doesn’t?
Michael Spencer: I have had it first-hand from very, very senior members of our administration who I know personally and have had good relations with for a long time, that it will be vetoed without any doubt and without any reservation at all.
Risk: Have you heard the same from other firms? Would there be an exodus?
MS: It’s not a matter of dinner-party conversation because genuinely we think if the French decide to go it alone in imposing an FTT we wish them every good fortune, but there is not a prayer in Hades that the UK will sign up for it.
Risk: And you heard that personally from a figure in the UK government?
MS: Yes, indeed.
Risk: Who?
MS: I’m not comfortable telling you who I speak to in private.
Guido is comfortable telling you…
The Prime Minister David Cameron told the City tycoon who owns ICAP, the biggest broker of financial transactions in London with the most to lose from the Financial Transaction Tax that he would personally veto the thing that would most damage his business.
Over dinner.
Now is the time for a “Deep clean” .
Careless talk costs lives
Be like Dad, keep Mum.
And then fu*k a 17 year old intern, natch!
FFS peasants, let’s stop all this tittle tattle on oligarchy in the UK and get on with the important matter of bombing Syria and Iran for psycho Izzy.
So what? Good for Britain, is it not??
This tax would destroy the city and make me even colder.
Cam in the Slam?
Why the fuck would anyone except a brain-dead lefty sign up to the Financial Transactions Tax ?
Quite. Would ICAP be hit? Yep.
What does ICAP fear most? Exchanges. They are vulnerable to their business be commoditized and going online.
Whose next for the losses? Joe Public. We stand to loose most. As the ultimate consumers of this, directly or indirectly, it goes on our bill. Either as a tax we pay, or increased bid/offer spreads, or increased volatility.
Exactly. We’ve already got far too many taxes as it is and if the EU think it’s a great idea then it’s clearly not.
And it’s not as if Cammo’s opposition to the FFT is the biggest best-kept secret since Ecclestone bunged Tone a million quid. Dave even got Sarko to throw his toys out of the cot over it. Missed the target on this one, Guido. Should have sold it on to LabourLost.
Probably this news is only good for Mirror readers – or the Daily Star?
I fear this one will get worse for Cam.
We are all in this together – ask Miliband about his Roland Rudd dinner list and Ed Balls Lasagne evenings
Says the desparate tory.
Get the unpaid intern off the job and lets have the real Anymouse back.
we are not all in this together but with all that cash flying about …. let me in let me in!!!!
That’s HMG’s position, innit? Primeminister is chief spokesman for the govt. Don’t see the big deal.
Dave only saying in private what he has said in public about the FTT.
he didn’t tell me
What a complete non-story. The UK government would veto a FTT that would see 80% of its income come from the City…..what a shock!!!You don’t need dinner with Cameron to work that absolute no-brainer out…..
Is this supposed to be news? Are people really surprised by any of this? It’s been happening since the invention of the wheel and will always happen.
Yes, they would veto it for about a week. Then they’d agree to it.
Desperate Labour Troll. Do raise your game, you’re getting to be predictable.
I’m not sure I get this.
The question is – have any policies raised or discussed at these meetings and subsequently implemented damaged the UK’s interests, or damaged interests of other non-donor parties to the benefit of the donor?
In this case, no. The idea of this tax was bonkers.
Other cases may differ.
In fairness to our Dave an introduction of an FTT would de facto shut down the City (a corpus that doesn’t exist on any similar scale in other EU states), and he would be as likely to wave it though as Sarkozy would be to shut down wine growing in Bordeaux.
Can’t see how stating the bleeding obvious to a guest over dinner is somehow cash for policy.
Indeed. That’s why he vetoed the unworkable EU treaty before Christmas.
“In fairness to our Dave an introduction of an FTT would de facto shut down the City”
With respect, this is nonsense. The City would have you believe that stronger regulation, the introduction of a FTT or a bonus tax would lead to scores of bankers leave. Rubbish. The City has so many competitive advantages over other places (language, legal system, infrastructure (law firms, accountants, brokers, PR), time zone, quality of life (yeah, really)) that the idea that whole businesses would “simply” move to Hong Kong or Dubai is, quite frankly, ludicrous.
What is more, a FTT (provided it goes to the Treasury) would help immensely with the deficit. Let’s not forget why we are in this mess (and, for once, I don’t mean only Labour).
A lovely thought for the government but in reality the volumes would shift offshore with only the advisory stuff remaining in the Square Mile, I suspect. Why do a deal in London when you can pick up extra margin for the same programme trade executed in say Singapore?
And as for stronger regulation, it hasn’t happened, lots of talk of crackdowns and toughening up and tightening but again, the reality is that like bank telling, the process is being gradually de-skilled and many of the City jobs are now the preserve of “Goldman’s muppets” and other rulebook-toting functionaries. Witness Bermuda and insurance, to give a random example.
The wise and the fleet of foot are off somewhere else directing operations from afar.
Guido working well on this story. That’s a compliment. Does that mean this comment won’t be censored unlike the critical ones?
Oh come on – no one thought the GB HMG would agree to a FTT. Hardly a relevation.
It’s like claiming he knew we wouldn’t get a 98% Income Tax band.
So business man says Government will veto a tax that will damage the UK economy. Surely that is the government acting in the best interest of the economy? And only a loony government would sign up for something that would damage the country. How is this even “news worthy”?
It’s not newsworthy Jane. It’s a pile ‘o’ shite to be honest.
they really dont like it up ‘em do they
Time for the Tories to remove Cameron and get a new leader in before the party is permanently tainted by him. Leaving him in place runs the serious risk of letting Miliband in. The country will not survive a Miliband Labour government.
Well that’s a good thing – because it’s rather unlikely that we’ll see that happening at present:
For example:
“Mr. Miliband, what would your policy be on, well, anything?”
Edanoid Milipede “We would promise to ban death, give free moon trips for the over 65′s, find every single illegal immigrant, criminal and tax dodger and sell them off at a huge profit for the hardworking British taxpayer and completely rebalance the economy with the profits, and Ed Balls will bring every good little girl and boy whose parents vote Labour their own Bentley or Aston Martin on their 17th Birthday, PLEASE VOTE FOR ME, PLEASE, PLEASE!!! IF I DON”T GET BETTER AT THIS I”LL BE OUT OF A JOB!!!
Old saying “No smoke without fire”. Modern version “If there’s a smell then then there is a pile of shit”
Get the tumbrels rolling!
So what? Seriously, what is gotcha about that. FTT was never going to be approved because of damage to City. Much ado about nothing I am afraid.
Guido. You’re trying too hard now. This was vetoed because it is a shit idea and bad for Britain, not because Spencer bunged the Tories a few quid. Eccelstone this ain’t.
When will we have a media investigation dubbed PUBLIC SECTOR JOB ADS FOR POSITIVE NEWSPAPER COVERAGE?
High time labour gets questioned under oath whether all branches of government that they directed until 2010 deliberately let Guardian publish job ads for government. In return the Guardian would write positively about everything labour (including final salary pensions for bureaucrats and postal voting), positive about libdems if helpful to labour (when it was obvious that Brown would not win majority) and negative about everything conservative (always using ‘tory’ to rub it in with everyone living a little north of the M25).
We all know the answer, but wider public should be brought up to speed on this clever labour scheme.
Not to mention more favourable license fee settlement to induce beebistas to tell you on telly what guardianistas have written up on behalf of labour (as long as final salary pensions that beeb and other governmental departments enjoy stay in tact).
There are two Camerons in the news today, one of them wishes he was 7 miles deep under the ocean today!
James Cameron hasn’t made a truly great film since Terminator 2. True Lies and Titanic were fun but Avatar was a steaming pile of shit.
Virtual pile or a real pile…??
IMAX 3D pile.
I wanted to attend an NHS rally to show my support but I was suddenly taken ill. I recovered after 2 hours and was able to attend a match at Hull FC. The multi-millionaire owner insisted I be driven there in a Rolls Royce. I said I’d be happy to get a minicab but I relented as I didn’t want to seem rude.
For those who missed it, another opportunity to see toytown Trot Owen Jones get the Brillo treatment.
What a cick thunt! He sounds like Andy Kershaw and thinks like Andy Pandy.
What is this – bring you kid to work day, even if he does have ADHD?
Attention deficit my arse – more like fking brain freeze!!!
I have to watch this every time i see it, its just pure car crash tv on a grown up program.
Point of order, Mr Fawkes;
“ICAP, the biggest broker of financial transactions in London with the most to lose from the Financial Transaction Tax ”
Like most taxes, ICAP won’t suffer them. Taxes get passed on to the poor bloody customer, as usual. The losers will be us.
“Taxes get passed on to the poor bloody customer, as usual. The losers will be us.”
If you set the threshold at, say, 250k (in other words “Premier League”), it won’t affect ordinary folk buying or selling a few shares in BT.
“The Prime Minister David Cameron told the City tycoon………..that he would personally veto the thing that would most damage his business.”
That would be the same as his veto of the EU Treaty in December would it ?? Personally if I was a Tory Donor I’d ask for a refund under the Sale of Goods Act
“Over dinner.”
Over cognac, surely?
I’ve heard David Cameron say this a few times and he didn’t invite me to dinner to tell me, I saw him say it on the television when Sarkozy first proposed it. I presume I wasn’t the only one that was watching
…. and here’s your £15 M&S gift voucher, now piss off
This could be a turning point in the Cameroon era.
I’m afraid that, dirty or unethical or not, this donor stuff is simply politics — happening across every party in every country.
Not to condone crony capitalism, but…it is endemic in democracy.
is this it—could of been said while eating banofee pie
What the government has said is that a Tobin tax is not necessarily a bad idea, so long as it were implemented worldwide on an equal footing (which, of course, it will never be). Implementing it unilaterally would be financial suicide, even for the French (no matter how much Sarko froths about it).
Tax is always a bad thing
Do I need to be taxed for getting extra pissed by some twat who doesnt even pay for his own booze?
I could go on but am now going to knock one out to the mental Image of Quentin Letts blasting his man goo all over the faces of the Eagle twins
Lesbian incest combined with traditional Tory Views
I wonder if Dickie Desmo nd would pay for such a thing?
-
I hate to say “I told you so!” (actually I fucking love saying irt)
However!
Frat Bentosser face is just another whore who will do anything for attention and love
I reckon that if you paid him enough and was allowed to watch he would allow a tramp to spunk all over his wifes tits as Alex Johnson lcked up all of the champagne frrom Sams swarosvski vajazzled front lady parts
Frankly I’m getting pissed off by all these faux “scandals”. It’s reaching the point where some meeja will demand the resignation of an MP who forgets to switch off the bathroom light.
The real danger is that policy-makers are becoming so afraid of saying or doing the “wrong” thing that the void will be filled by those self-righteous guardians of morality from the Left, who are every bit as bad.
They accuse the Tories of being undemocratic. I don’t recall anything democratic about the massive socio-demographic change (to put it politely) that has taken place in our cities over the last 10-15 years.
Give me a womanising piss artist like Churchill or Lloyd George any day over these sanctimonious creeps.
How about this for a policy?
“Dont step on me”
A rope around the neck tends to focus the mind of most people
We’re all in this together
And by this I mean us rich boys pissing down on you unwashed masses.
Trickle down economics we call it.
A coke head whose best chum loves to be thrashed by coke sniffing dominatrixes untill he screams “LOUISE” are in charge of our counntry, supported by an illegal immigrant and some twat who looks like the sort who would turn up at your house in a battered landrover wearing yellow half mast cords and the discuss your soil before sending you a fucking huge invoice and a bag of carrots covered in sh51te
Guido, you really are a prick at times, this does nothing to promote your cause today, it just shows the strength Cameron feels about the Tax.
No story move on
is it true a lot of comments on here drown crossing the Orish sea?
What exactly does Call me Cast Iron Guarantee Dave know about business? He has never worked in business. Nor have the majority of MP’s.
Thank the Lord! If cameron has promised, then I have absolutely no doubt he will stick, faithfully, and fearlessly to his word!