Even in your socialist utopia surely you cannot envisage every country in the world agreeing a punitive tax on finance.

They are a private sector think tank.

Am I the only person in this country who actually went and asked them the question?

Apparently so, for that is what they told me, that they are, and I quote directly

“WIFO is – as you would say in English – a privat sector think tank with a focus on empirical economic research.

The board of WIFO consits of representatives of the chamber of commerce, workers chamber, chamber of agriculture, trade unions, the federation of industries, bankers association, the national bank, a university and a research institute, the provincial governments, and the ministry of finance:

The institutions listed above (apart from the univiversities and other research institutes) are providing funds for public good services provided by WIFO. WIFO is therefore partly funded by the Austrian government but not exclusively. A considerable share of our revenues is earned by contract research with a wide range of clients.”

Then you might try actually reading the report to see the assumptions they make. Highly dubious ones. Like, for example, the idea that we could raise £100 billion here in the UK alone. Seriously? We can get more tax out of the City than their entire contribution to GDP?

It is to laugh.

When one actually stops to consider that the UK borrowed £11.4bn in October, 2009 and that this country will run a budget deficit equal to 13.2pc of GDP next year – the biggest fiscal shortfall of any major economy in the world and the biggest in our peacetime history.

Then with the Government borrowing £200bn annually for at least the next three years leading to the UK’s national debt ballooning from 44pc of GDP to more than 100pc by 2014.

With these sobering facts to consider, even the piddling £4.2 billion Compass thinks it would raise would be a start – especially since the report Will takes this from states they (Compass) would like to reintroduce the 10p tax band which I support fully. Good stuff….