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Bill Nighy and the Banks

66 replies

ItsGrimUpNorth · 03/03/2011 19:08

I hope more and more voices are added to the clamour

OP posts:
freshmint · 03/03/2011 19:13

why should I listen to an actor about financial services and taxation? why doesn't he stick to his day job? why doesn't the guardian pay someone who knows his arse from his elbow to write about it?

irritating

WinkyWinkola · 03/03/2011 19:20

I think he talks a lot of sense actually. Is an actor not allowed to have an opinion on such things?

Perhaps Mr. King doesn't know his arse from his elbow either. Hmm

freshmint · 03/03/2011 19:23

If you really think Mr King doesn't know his arse from his elbow then I'm not too sure what you are doing contributing to this thread.

I don't understand why actors lecture us on stuff which they don't know about. Why don't they ask a florist to talk about tax? A patissier? The second bassoonist from the London Philharmonic?

I just think it is pointless

sharbie · 03/03/2011 19:28

hmmmmmm when will see the article written by mk about how bn can be a better actor?

WinkyWinkola · 03/03/2011 19:36

Of course I think King knows his arse from his elbow. I just think it's silly to think that just because you are of one profession, you shouldn't be allowed to express an opinion about something that has affected everyone and will do for generations.

How do you know Bill Nighy doesn't have an understanding of this issue anyway? That's a big assumption.

I've been greatly interested in the Robin Hood Tax concept for a while and he's championing it. I guess as with most causes, a publicly familiar face helps with getting attention. I don't really see him as lecturing anyone.

BeenBeta · 03/03/2011 19:42

I dont like the idea of a Robin hood tax but I am extremely annoyed at the way the banking industry got of scot free and is pretty much back to its old ways paying huge bonus and taking huge risks.

The way to cut the risk and the bonuses is to make banks hold far more capital. The politicians and central bankers like Mervyn King knows this I want to see it implemented.

nickytwotimes · 03/03/2011 19:44

I agree with him.

'why should i listen to an actor?' well, you don't have to. it's an opinion piece. he's not puporting to be a financial expert. we ALL should have a big interst in the banks/finance sector. after all, leaving it to self regulation hasn't really worked out that well...

ItsGrimUpNorth · 03/03/2011 19:48

The Robin Hood Tax proposes miniscule taxes that would raise so much money. How can it not make sense?

Beenbeta, I agree with you as well. Do both, I say.

I think this is going to snowball as more and more people get wind of it

OP posts:
ZephirineDrouhin · 03/03/2011 19:51

freshmint/sharbie - did you read it at all? Nighy is in agreement with Mervyn King.

MadameCastafiore · 03/03/2011 19:53

I wouldn't listen to a thing anyone who does not work in or have a very good grasp of the industry says.

Whatever tax is levied on us and not on the rest of the world's financial market will do nothing except harm our economy and therefore have a huge impact on the man on the street and their mumsnetting spouses.

Financial transactions are taxed by way of corporation tax and income tax - a huge amount of that being from bonuses as well as their salary. Put the UK banks at a disadvantage on the wrold stage and you are doing nothing beneficial for anyone.

sharbie · 03/03/2011 19:53

ooops my mistake just assumed that the gov of boe would be on the side of the bankers - blimey even he is banker bashing now

ZephirineDrouhin · 03/03/2011 20:06

Mervyn King has been quietly "banker bashing" for quite some time - obviously too quietly.

freshmint · 03/03/2011 20:10

I realise he agrees with king - obviously he does as he knows nothing himself.

Taxation is not a subject that amateurs should be lecturing people about.

BecauseImWorthIt · 03/03/2011 20:12

And Bill Nighy isn't just writing a self-indulgent piece as an actor - if you had bothered to read the piece you would see that he's an ambassador for the Robin Hood Tax campaign.

bibbitybobbityhat · 03/03/2011 20:12

I am a lefty and therefore, I assume, have the polar opposite political views to you freshmint.

But I do find Bill Nighy and Richard Curtis taking on the banks deeply irritating and inappropriate.

Who the fucking fuck do they think they are?

Politicians on the left should be in their places.

MilkMonitor · 03/03/2011 20:22

Well, as a member of the British public, a public who has spent billions bailing out the bank, I feel absolutely entitled to pontificate for aeons about taxing the banks. I suspect many others would too.

Good on you Bill Nighy. At least someone is speaking about about the bull "oh the banks will leave these shores if we tax them."

I suppose Bob Geldof was talking shit about Ethiopia and Band Aid, was he? Because he is just a musician and not entitled to an opinion? Ladies, how dare you have an opinion on where and how you want to give birth - you are not obstetricians or midwives. You are not capable of researching or understanding anything beyond your own little lives. What a bizarre and extremely patronising way to think! I guess that's how the banks have managed to maintain their protected status for so long.

Mr. Nighy is talking common sense. I really don't think it takes a lot of brains to understand what he's proposing - a teeny tiny tax on the billions and billions made by the banks.

ZephirineDrouhin · 03/03/2011 20:24

Well here's the thing. The general public by and large doesn't give a shit what Mervyn King has to say. With the media we've got it takes a few celebrities to get these issues into the public consciousness and available for public discussion. Given the seriousness of the situation we have that can only be a good thing, whatever you think the solution may or may not be or who you think knows their arse from their elbow.

freshmint · 03/03/2011 20:26

I'm a bit of a lefty too bibbity

I just don't see why anyone who has been on a screen playing a part should lecture us about things they know nothing about (well nothing more than any amateur)

Its bloody annoying

Mervyn King doesn't give acting classes

freshmint · 03/03/2011 20:27

you are silly milk monitor

i can have an opinion about anything I want to, I'm just asking why the guardian is paying him to lecture people about something he knows bog all about

bibbitybobbityhat · 03/03/2011 20:27

Yes, that's what I find deeply frustrating. That it takes a celebrity to speak up before people take notice. We are too much like sheep when it comes to people in the public eye. Colin Firth is just a bloke, I tell you.

GretchenWiener · 03/03/2011 20:28

oh fgs bill nighy

piss off

BecauseImWorthIt · 03/03/2011 20:28

Oh but what a bloke, bibbity ...

freshmint · 03/03/2011 20:29

do you think I'm a banker? I'm not. I'm a public servant whose work budget is being cut to crap.

but I don't need nighy to interpret mervyn king in his own sweet way and then lecture me about it

stick to love, actually bill (worst film ever made - in my amateur opinion)

GretchenWiener · 03/03/2011 20:30

ooh mintoid

ive never described myself as a publice servant before

doffs cap

bibbitybobbityhat · 03/03/2011 20:33

Just a nice enough bloke biwi. Honestly. And v good actor, of course.