Instant and Utter Deficit Reduction Suddenly A Slightly Lower Priority

George the Progressively Regressive is set to demonstrate once more just what we're all in together and just who among us are more in it than others. Aside from such necessary and compassionate measures as fining poor people and depriving schoolchildren, the Treasury had considered imposing a levy on City banks. The proposed figures were slightly less than one twentieth of one per cent of the balance sheet in the first year, rising to slightly less than one tenth of one per cent later on, in order to raise a little under six thousand million pounds - slightly less than the seven thousand million which will be paid out in bonuses this year alone. However, George the Progressively Regressive and his little orange chums have discovered that this could raise more than expected - almost four thousand million a year - and are thinking, if that is the word I want, about lowering the rate in order to appease bankers who might otherwise throw their fire extinguishers at the economic recovery. The Treasury is anxious that the levy should "deliver the expected yield" and not a penny more, thus averting the moral and economic calamity which would inevitably result should bankers be obliged to contribute too much to repairing the situation which their actions brought about.