Originally posted @ 11:25 pm, Wed 2nd Feb 2011
BBC tv's Newsnight decided to explore last night whether we needed the rich and whether we needed the City of London's financial services. And chose to illustrate it with a joke that they attribute to Lib Dem's Vince Cable, at the beginning of the interview with Conservative Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.
"What's the difference between a dead cat found lying on the motorway and a dead banker found dead lying on the motorway?"
"There are skid marks surrounding the dead cat".
Very funny said Boris Johnson. A useful way of relieving some of the existing tensions around the banking sector. Johnson had been wheeled on cos he did think the rich hadn't contributed enough during the financial crisis, although he wasn't in favour of sustaining the 50% income tax on the highest wages.
So Jeremy Paxman sought to challenge him on just how much they should contribute. Johnson didn't seem to know either how much they should or do contribute. He just kept saying we shouldn't be shooting the bankers, a bit melodramatic, especially from someone who objected to phrases like ethnic cleansing when it was applied to the expected flow out of London of those who depend most on housing benefit.
Johnson then cited how the free bicycle scheme in London had been such a success - and did Paxman deny it was? - and how the City of London had contributed to it. And finally he had something to say about how much more could be contributed by the rich, but only if it was framed in terms of the number of extra bicycles. (I understand the number was an extra 6,000.)
Surreal.
See also -
Comments