The European Union's executive has proposed a new tax on bank transactions as the centrepiece of the EU's first €1trn budget, triggering a row with Downing Street, which dismissed the proposal as "completely unrealistic". Unveiling his blueprint for the budget for the seven years from 2014, José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, demanded a bigger share of its spending supplied from "own resources" – taxes paid to Brussels supplanting contributions from EU member states. He attacked the "prejudices and Pavlovian reactions" of EU governments, led by Britain, who have been quick to denounce his p ... (full story)