City bankers won't move to Zug – there's no Spearmint Rhino. Such arguments weakened with the 50p tax rate. The UK government is now toying with a windfall bonus tax. Coshing the bankers will be satisfying. Making people feel better about public service cuts is savvy. It will also help in places such as Teesside, where thousands may lose their jobs because of Corus's closure of the area's last steelworks: the government is vulnerable to charges it bailed out the banks but failed to do enough for the manufacturing firms that buy British steel.
倫敦金融城的銀行家是不會遷到瑞士楚格(Zug)去的，因爲那裏沒有Spearmint Rhino（著名的脫衣舞俱樂部——譯者注）。但面對50%的稅率，這個理由會變得蒼白。英國政府正考慮開徵一項獎金暴利稅。拿銀行家開刀將會令很多人滿意，讓人們對削減公共服務感覺好一些是聰明之舉。這種做法在蒂賽德(Teesside)等地也會有所幫助——數千人可能將因爲克魯斯集團(Corus)關閉該地區僅存的鋼鐵廠而失業。政府將很容易受到這樣的指責：它對銀行進行了救助，而對購買英國鋼鐵的製造企業，卻未給予足夠的幫助。