The election campaign isn't even officially under way yet, but we've already been treated to dumb, populist ideas by both of the major parties. A few weeks ago Labour announced its uncosted "free care at home" wheeze, which has appalled both the other parties and health care professionals. Now the Tories have upped (or is that downed?) the ante with a scheme to give shares in the nationalised banks to members of the public at a knockdown price.
The idea is that once the banks have been cleaned up ready for sale back to private investors, some of the shares will be offered to members of the public at a below market price. Tory Shadow Chancellor George Osborne calls this "the people's bank bonus", a way of paying back taxpayers for the risk they took in rescuing the banks. Problem is, every taxpayer took on those risks, but the only ones who will benefit from George's little bonus pool are those who can afford to pay for their piece of the pie -- who will, of course, be predominantly Tory-leaning middle-class voters. Whereas, of course, if all the shares were sold at full market value, the public purse, and hence all taxpayers regardless of their means, would reap the maximum benefit. By all means arrange the sale so that some shares are reserved for retail investors; but there's no good case for giving them away cheap.
This "initiative" and Labour's care at home scheme have something in common. They're both blatant bribes that the country can ill afford. Both would transfer money from all taxpayers, including the poor, to middle-class voters. This looks like being a truly depressing election.
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