Support for call to restrict bonuses (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Support for call to restrict bonuses

10:13am Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

Sir.–On Sunday, February 7, my wife and I travelled to London to spend an hour in Hyde Park offering our support to a singer-songwriter named Billy Bragg.

Mr Bragg has recently started a campaign to restrict the bonuses paid to the bankers who have brought the country to its knees.

He has refused to pay his taxes for the year 2009 until the Chancellor enforces the veto to restrict the bonuses paid to bankers to £25,000.

All of us who pay our taxes have become the major shareholder in the Royal Bank of Scotland. We own an 84 per cent stake in RBS and so far have bailed out the banks to the tune of £117billion.

I myself have spoken to dozens of people in Basingstoke and I have yet to meet a single person who believes these bankers should be paid these vast sums.

This election year, all the major parties are preparing us for the largest cut in public spending in a generation.

I and I'm sure the vast majority of your readers would rather see that £1.3bn to £1.5bn spent on paying back some of the money that is owed to us all.

Finally, I would urge all of you to sign up to the “no bonus for RBS” online campaign.

Sign the online petition on the 10 Downing Street website, write to Alistair Darling, write to Basingstoke MP Maria Miller.

Do something because at the moment, the bosses at RBS are laughing all the way to the bank.

–Ian Jobling Freemantle Close, Basingstoke.