Labour Angry About Tory Levy On Bankers

The world is officially nuts—or the UK’s Labour Party is fucked up beyond all recognition:

George Osborne, the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a surprise announcement today, accelerated the implementation of a levy on British bankers, essentially a windfall profits tax aimed especially at banks that got government largesse during the 2008 Financial Crisis, and at exorbitant banker bonuses.

The levy was supposed to be phased in over time—but Osborne decided to speed it up ahead of next month’s budget announcement.

The Labour Party had a fit: Calling Osborne’s decision “hurried and panicky”, as well as accusing him of “moving the tax goalpost” and throwing a “damp squib” on the financial sector, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, was practically frothing at the mouth, as Osborne and the Conservatives effortlessly robbed Labour of its populist mantle. Labour’s reaction so far has been so bad that it seems to this observer to be sliding into the perverse position of siding with the UK banksters, who are just as cutthroat and vampire-squid-like as their U.S. counterparts.

A video interview of Osborne after the jump: