Last autumn I wrote about Labour's plan to give parents of three and four year olds 25 hours a week free childcare ("Labour's free childcare policy", 24th Sept, for the curious). Ed Balls said the childcare scheme would be funded by increasing the Bank levy. This was a curious state of affairs since he had previously said similar taxes would pay for other policies including VAT cuts and Regional Growth Funding. I described the Bank levy then as "the gift that keeps on giving".
I've rather missed the Bank levy in the last six months and am pleased to find it's back. It is a guarantee of political amusement.
Yesterday Balls announced a compulsory jobs guarantee for the young unemployed which will be partly funded by "a one-off levy on bankers' bonuses". As the Guardian notes this morning, Balls' plan immediately "came under attack from some think tanks, who said it was too complex and unlikely to be securely funded". Well maybe. But that isn't the funny thing.
What's funny is that Balls said (according to the Graun) that the levy on bonuses "will not be used for any other purpose". Putting aside the VAT cuts and Regional Growth Funding for which the levy had previously been earmarked, this came as news to Balls' colleague Stephen Timms, shadow employment minister. Timms was asked to explain how Balls' promise of exclusivity squared with previously-announced plans to fund 25,000 new homes using, er, a Bank levy. He had to concede that funding for the 25,000 new homes "may have to be rethought".
I particularly like the use of the word "may" in that sentence. That's "may" as in, "Following the sinking of the Titanic, plans for a lavish dinner to celebrate arrival in New York may have to be rethought".
I like Balls, who is master at defending the indefensible. But is Labour prepared for Government?
