Barclays Profits
Posted by Richard Benyon, MP for Newbury, at 15:33, Wed 28 February 2007:
I am always keen to hear from constituents. They can contact me on mp@richardbenyon.com . I am sorry if I have not responded through this site but I get asked to contribute to so many blog sites. If I responded to each request I would have no time for anything else! However, to get something off my chest here is a few thoughts from last week: Some MPs reaction to profits announced by Barclays Bank showed how economically illiterate we have become. Profits are good for us all, especially as in this case where the majority of these profits were made abroad. Profits are used for three things: investment back into the company; taxes that pay for the NHS, police etc; and for share dividends. Dividends are mainly paid to institutional investors, this means they pay for our pensions. Individual shareholders can spend dividends on buying things that increase the profits of other businesses. We all should feel the benefits of these profits as they trickle down through the economy. It sounds rather patronising to say the above but to listen to some MPs talk about this matter makes me feel they are stuck in the 1970s.
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Posted by barrie singleton, 15:56, Wed 28 February 2007: (Is this post abusive?) #
Thanks for your view of profit Richard.
I am not sure where you stand in the "spectrum" of Christianity, but as a Toaist, I nevertheless find a number of Christian aphorisms appealing.
"What benefit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul". I suggest this underlies the general unease when the perception is that banking sees fit to screw punters while making vast profits. I am currently reading the latter part of Oliver James' "Affluenza". I find myself in much agreement with his view of political mismanagement of "soul".
Barrie Singleton