Thatcher was a Traitor

It was the Tories who took us into the Common Market in 1972.

It was Thatcher who took us into the Single European Act in 1987 that paved the way for a federal Europe.

Thatcher took us into the Exchange Rate Mechanism that paved the way for a single European currency.

John Major signed the Maastricht Treaty in 1992.

Thatcherism destroyed Britain.

Thatcher globalised the British economy.

She sold off the council houses and ensured that today the British people have to wait years to get a council house, due to shortage of supply, and that the ones that do go out for rent today go to immigrants and asylum seekers.

She closed down the dockyards like Chatham and army barracks whilst sending troops to fight in the Falklands.

She nationalised British industries and threw millions of British manufacturing workers on the dole whilst globalising the UK economy and opening it for Europe.

She wasted the billions of pounds of North Sea oil money on privatisation schemes and PFI schemes that were cons on the taxpayer.

Now the Tories want to sell to the British people shares in nationalised banks they already own.

What a con.





Shares in state-owned banks would be offered to voters at a discount as part of a Tory effort to encourage young people and those on modest incomes to invest, George Osborne announced today.

The shadow chancellor said his 'people's bank bonus' would reward taxpayers for the £850 billion ploughed by the Government into propping up crisis-hit financial institutions.

During the financial crisis, the Government nationalised Northern Rock and took stakes in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group in return for bailing them out.

Cut-price shares would be offered to everyone with extra discounts for target groups, Mr Osborne indicated - in a conscious parallel with Margaret Thatcher's wave of privatisations.

Tory officials compared the scheme with the 1980s 'Tell Sid' campaign aimed at encouraging people to buy shares in British Gas which attracted more than two million first time shareholders.

They warned that the sale could only happen at a time when the Government stood to make a profit - which experts recently suggested could be as long as five years away - and that institutional sales would also form part of the package given the sums involved.

Bank regulation would make them safer investments by preventing 'irresponsible' behaviour, they suggested but critics dismissed the plans as a cynical "gimmick" that put taxpayers' money at risk.

But Business Secretary Lord Mandelson today dismissed the idea as 'a rather silly little gimmick'.

He told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: 'Given the share price of RBS now, rather low, people can buy shares and wait for the share price to rise in due course.

'But what I would say to George Osborne and David Cameron is that if the deficit really is the priority - and cutting it - what on earth are they doing playing around giving away the assets and shares in RBS at knock-down prices at this stage which would be at the expense both of the taxpayer as a whole and our future ability to reduce the deficit.
'It's another piece of headline-grabbing incoherence.'


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Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne said: 'The Tories' deficit reduction plan is now a certified farce.

'When it comes to the shares in the banks the public expect us to focus on getting their money back. That means selling them at a time and way that maximises their value, not an irresponsible and expensive political gimmick.
sid

The Tories' 'people's bank bonus' is being compared to the 1980s 'Tell Sid' advertising campaign. Sid was the 'ordinary bloke' charged with persuading ordinary people to buy shares in British Gas

'The Tories can't pretend that they care about helping the poorest save when they'd take the Child Trust Fund from families on modest and medium incomes.'

Liberal Democrat economics spokesman Vince Cable said: 'Dangling this prospect, when UKFI has said it will take at least five years before the likes of RBS are back in private hands, is Tory electioneering at its most cynical.

'They have no understanding of the economy they are aspiring to run.

'The nationalised and semi-nationalised banks should be reprivatised when the conditions are right to maximise tax payer return. Selling shares off at a discounted rate will not achieve this.

'These banks should be set the concrete objective of ensuring lending to sound small- and medium-sized businesses who are the drivers of our economic recovery.

'Actively encouraging people on very low incomes to invest in a volatile share market beggars belief and shows just how removed the Tories are from everyday reality.

'A young couple on low income is more concerned with putting food on the table than speculating on the stock market.

'If the Tories were actually committed to helping people on they would be trying to instil fairness into the tax system instead of coming up with this ill-conceived attempt to buy their vote.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1252633/Tories-sell-cut-price-shares-state-owned-banks.html#ixzz0gB45qHgC