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Welsh Affairs

Let me just finish my argument, please. Then I will happily give way. What most people think, and what common sense tells us, is that, after all that taxpayers' money had been used to prop up the banks, the deal was that the banks would look again at how they did things, and that they would start to behave more responsibly. As the Secretary of State said, people do not understand how the Royal Bank of Scotland—the majority of which is owned by the taxpayer—can make a loss, as announced today, and at the same time argue with a straight face that it needs to pay substantial bonuses. Last year, I introduced my own Bankers' Pensions (Limits) Bill, which would have addressed the absurd pension packages being awarded to failed bank executives. Therefore, I very much welcome the one-off bankers bonus tax introduced by the Government. Even better than a one-off tax would be a tax on every year's bonus round. We should go further still. I fully support the idea of a Robin Hood tax on global financial transactions, which could be used to address the causes of global poverty, to fund some of our own public services, or just to underwrite the financial system so that it is in a position to bail itself out in future. That is one of a number of measures that could inject a little more responsibility into the financial system. I am pleased that the Prime Minister has said that he supports the idea, as long as he gets global support for it, and I hope it will become a reality.