The UK opposition Conservative party unveiled a gimmicky plan this week to offer discounted bank shares to the public in an attempt to stir up the siege mentality of British tax payers since the Government bail-out.

The seemingly rashly conceived scheme called people’s bonus – a parody of the continued furore over bank bonuses – will offer young people and those on low incomes extra discounts.

The plan, announced by shadow chancellor George Osborne, coincided with embattled PM Gordon Brown appearing on national television to defend allegations he is a bully, and has attracted a deluge of criticism.

The move by the Tories was deemed political vote-buying and an attempt by the opposition to appeal to the masses and specifically lower income groups – not a traditional staple of its voter base.

The British banking system has been a political hot potato in Britain since the run on Northern Rock bank in 2007 and all through the tax payer funded bail outs.

The collective of bank assets held by the British Government, including majority ownership of groups such as Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and full ownership of Northern Rock, are estimated to be worth a third of what the Government paid for them in 2008.

Osborne therefore said the measure would be a reward for the £850bn of public funds used to prop up the then failing financial institutions.

One option the Conservative Party poses is for individuals to buy the shares through savings vehicles such as ISAs, and introduce them to the benefits of tax efficient saving.

However given the dire state of the public coffers at present – Britain borrowed more than £4billion in January to service its debt – the main aim of returning the various banks to healthy balance sheets is to generate funds for the Government, not to reduce value further by giving shares away at a discount.

In defence of the move though, political engagement in the UK is all about the ‘shock factor’.

The only way to breach the utter deluge of relentless media grabbing in the UK is to play along in the same style.

On an almost daily basis, six out of eight newspapers are more likely to cover a sex scandal from the sporting or entertainment world over anything else on their respective front pages.

This is partly explained by the sheer amount of media in the UK, which has resulted in everything gravitating to the lowest common denominator.

Therefore while the scheme has been immediately scotched in various quarters, the question is the extent to which comments by the shadow chancellor such as the one below resonate with the voting public come the General election this year.

“The bankers have had their bonuses. We want a people’s bank bonus for the people’s money that was put into these organisations,” he said in an interview with the Sunday Times.