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We need a “rational and unemotional debate” about the City of London
Following the release of a report from the St Paul’s Institute about the attitudes of City workers towards wealth, UKIP is urging campaigners to remember that the City of London generates thousands of jobs for those outside of the financial sector.
The report, Value and Values: Perceptions of Ethics in the City Today, makes it clear that many respondents believe that bankers and traders are paid too much. However, it neglects to consider how this wealth benefits thousands of people who do not work in the City.
UKIP has just launched its campaign to protect the City of London as the financial sector faces a sustained attack from EU-regulation which could see many financial companies quit the City altogether and base themselves in a country with less regulation and restriction.
The party believes that many do not fully understand the wider implications of attacking the City and taking a tougher stance against financial institutions.
Nationally the financial sector employs around 1.1million people. The City alone contributes £52billion in tax to the UK’s coffers.
Janice Atkinson, UKIP’s City of London spokeswoman, said: “Attacking the City is fashionable at the moment but if the financial sector is hit too hard with regulation then many will lose their jobs and it will not just be those at the top.
“Bars, cafes, sandwich shops, cleaning companies, IT businesses and cabbies all benefit from the wealth generated by the City of London. Those that work in these areas do not get big bonuses, they are just earning a living.
“Banker bashing is the new national pastime, but a rational and unemotional debate needs to be had about the value of the City of London and what it contributes to our economy. Many are being too short-sighted about this.”
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Lawrence confronts Ken on London Olympics cost
Don’t vote for someone with form, says Lawrence
Police don’t need new powers, just freedom to enforce existing ones
By LAWRENCE WEBB
It is nonsense to suggest that the police need new powers to force people to remove face masks; does this extend to burkhas as well?
The problem with all laws are that they only apply to the law abiding; if you have decided to go looting (something which is already a criminal offence, as is theft and criminal damage; any of which could have been used to arrest the opportunist thugs over recent days) you are unlikely to be perturbed by the risk that you might be breaking yet one more law.
The greatest problem with the policing of the recent riots is not that individual police officers did not want to intervene to prevent the looting taking place, but that there was a lack of clear leadership from senior officers. Perhaps the reason for this is in part that the senior ranks of most forces are filled with fast-track graduates with their degrees in sociology and their masters in flower arranging rather than having time-served officers with real experience of what it is like to be out on the beat.
Once the rioting has started ordinary people do not care what the causes are; whether they be social or economic they want their homes and businesses to be protected and if that means using all necessary force then so be it. What the touchy-feely brigade seem to so often forget is that victims have human rights as well and I sure most people would agree with me that if you decided to break the law then your rights should be secondary to those of the victims.
Both Boris and Cameron are too weak and indecisive to make good leaders. Evan the lowest ranks of the police or army know that if you are out numbered you call in re-enforcements and if you are still out numbered then you use what is know as a ‘force-multiplier’ to even the score and in the case of the police who do not have heavy artillery at their disposal they at the very least had baton rounds (plastic bullets).
But as it was the police the only bit of kit the police brought in to use was their PA system ordering the crowd to disperse, sticks and stones (read; rubber bullets) can break my bones but words are no deterrent to a determined looter.
As mayor I would not give the police any more powers I would simply give them the freedom to use the ones they already have.
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