Mayor Boris has written to the Chancellor demanding a meeting to discuss his introduction of a 50% tax rate a temporary 50% levy on banking bonuses . In a move that was as vindictive as it was irrational the chancellor is raising the top rate of income tax to 50% in April, making London more expensive for residents earning £1 million a year than New York or Hong Kong, according to KPMG estimates. A London banker on that amount will pay £491,278 in income tax and social security payments from April, a third more than in Hong Kong and £58,500 more than in New York, the data below shows:

Now some might think great, we”ll squeeze ’em till their pips squeak, we’ll bash bankers bonuses. Not for long comrades.   Just as Pol Pot’s extermination of the counter-revolutionary middle-classes (teachers and doctors) left Cambodians uneducated and unheallthy, driving bankers offshore will hurt those left behind more financially.  High-earners are mobile, foreign firms will re-locate, and foreign financial firms definitely won’t choose to locate here in the future.  The predicted one-time billion pound boost to revenue will see many more billions drain away long term. The burden will just fall heavier on those poor taxpayers left in debt ridden Britain…

See also We’ll Pay for Banker Bashing.