Tories announce People's Bank bonus

The Conservative party has been under pressure for some time now regarding limited new initiatives with severe criticism from Labour party supports. However, it looks as though David Cameron and George Osborne may well have gazumped Gordon Brown yet again with the suggestion that taxpayer share stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds bank will be sold off to the UK public at a discount to the prevailing market share price.

While there is no suggestion that the shares will be sold at a loss, the Conservative party has indicated it will look to sell off the shares at a discount to the market price when the time is right. Putting the policy forward as the "People's Bank bonus" this has caught the Labour Party on the hop and it is unlikely that the government will support the idea. The idea of a public shareholder base in the UK is more of a Conservative party policy than a Labour Party ideal.

It will be interesting to see how this particular initiative is received by the UK public because on one hand there are now more shareholders in the UK than ever before but on the other hand is it right to offer discounted shares only to those who can afford them?