Government to give us a grand

Since the Royal Wedding, there's not been much good news in banking but today is a positive day.

What could be positive about banks and banking?

The fact that there is a growing recognition that not all is foul in the pond of finance.

For example, there is the great news today that the government plans to sell their stake in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds in the future, and give every adult in Britain a £1,000 bonus as a gift.

Now I said a while ago that the government would make a sale as a package deal in the run-up to the next general election, as giving back the money from our bank bailout is a sure fire vote winner.

So doing this around the 2013 timeline is quite likely.

And it’s not a new idea.

The idea was originally proposed in a paper from Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Williams and Portman Capital back in March.

The idea is an interesting one, but the practicalities of distributing shares in the banks to 46 million taxpayers is challenging.

Who is eligible for shares and who is ineligible, and why?

Will the public understand what they’re getting, what they’re worth and how to use the investment wisely, or will the majority just sell whatever they get to turn a quick buck?

If the latter, do we end up with 44 million adults selling shares in the banks to the 2 million who are wise enough to hold out for a year and see a doubling of the investment?

There are many other challenging questions, but it’s interesting to see that the Conservative Party are now taking this Lib Dem idea seriously as their Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) now supports the idea, as does Lord Saatchi, Chair of the CPS, and senior conservative policymakers including Matthew Hancock, George Osborne's former chief of staff.

If I were a betting man, I’d therefore bet that every voter in Britain is gifted £1,000 of bank shares before the next general election.

What a good idea.