Speech on Financial Transaction Tax,
Strasbourg 2/7/2013
Medical practioners will know the acronym FTT well. It stands for ‘Failure To Thrive’.
The idea of imposing new taxes on European business at a time of economic hardship and rising unemployment has been described a perverse and unacceptable by the former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson.
But this is not an economic decision, is it? This is a political Project.
Even Christian Noyer, governor of the Bank of France, stated recently that the FTT posed a very real “risk” to the economy, confirming the observation by Sir Mervyn King, Outgoing Governor of the Bank of England that even amongst the 11 member states that agreed to press forward there is not unqualified support.
For a financial transaction tax to work it would have to be global. As its proposer Tobin stated. But do we think for one minute that the G20 would be prepared to follow the lead of the people who inflicted the Eurozone on the world?
Tomorrow we will vote on whether to allow Latvia to buy the last ticket on the Titanic.
This Tax must never be allowed to set sail: It should be strangled at berth.
