mr president i am unconvinced of the case for a tax on financial transactions but i accept the sincere motives of the supporters of the proposal
it is an issue on which people of goodwill can come to different conclusions
what there is no case for whatsoever is the imposition of such a tax exclusively in the european union
a tobin tax applied only regionally will result in a flight of capital to those jurisdictions where no such tax pertains so why has this house just voted in such large numbers for a system which will disadvantage the european union
the answer is that it ticks all the boxes of a certain kind of member of this house
it attacks the bankers it attacks the city of london and above all it furnishes the european union with an independent stream of revenue which means that it does not have to go to the member states
taken together with the various other proposals that we see coming for the harmonisation of financial supervision the alternative investment fund managers directive and so on we see an epical threat to the city of london and we see the european union being consigned to poverty and irrelevance
