Ah ha! Notes Die Zeit in one of its blogs: Britain has its own ‘transaction tax’ – Stamp Duty Reserve Tax charged on all share/stock sales. How can they possibly oppose a Europe-wide tax? Thatcher did it! Thatcher!!
This completely misses the point of the UK government’s objections...
During my time in Germany, I got the impression that some sectors of German society have a rather odd image of the British. Straightforward, cerebral and regal – Mr. Bean reflects our sense of humour, James Bond reflects our ability to get stuff done. While Britain and the British certainly trade on this image, I sense some Germans’ comic book vision of Britain verges more on an idealised version of Germany itself – what Germany could have been, had history played out differently.
It’s this attitude to the British that leads to the faulty assumption that the UK’s espousal of free market values at EU level means they follow through on the philosophy at home. Why, anything else just wouldn’t be cricket.
As far as national stereotypes are concerned, we are far closer to the French idea of perfidious Albion – operating (justifiably, I argue) according to purest self-interest. HM Government views any source of revenue favourably, and will set taxes as high as possible without driving too much business away – but will never willingly give up the power to determine how much is too much. You see, somebody has to pay for the Queen’s next yacht.
The British government cares little for a true free market system – look at the UK’s NHS and compare it even to the German insurance-based system. Germany even has a party in government* dominated by free market thinkers – Britain has no party with a free market vision. But Britain recognises that a high-principled free market defence is a (marginally) better rallying cry than ‘We just don’t want to!’.
The view of the British government being staunch defenders of the free market is just as misplaced as the idea that James Bond works at MI6. Though Mr. Bean does work at the post office... but that’s a topic for another time...
*correct at the time of writing – the FDP is in the middle of a slow-motion collapse...
Also important to point out that SDRT is only taxed on UK listed shares, which are a fraction of what is traded (and on which UK city jobs depend) and can be easily avoided through the use of derivative contracts (such as CFDs). The EU FTT is targeted at all financial tractions. Since most European trading of currency, bonds and derivatives is done in London, the UK rightly objects to bearing the brunt of this tax whose sole purpose seems to be to prop up the Euro and send jobs to Hong Kong...
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