Sunday 1 July 2012

If the bankers are institutionally corrupt, then so are Labour..

With not a policy in sight, Ed Miliband is turning out to be the most opportunistic politician in history. This week he has turned his wrath on the bankers, whom he described as 'institutionally racist corrupt'. Well it worked very well for Macpherson. 

You know who he's talking about; those masters of the universe Labour so assiduously courted over thirteen long years in power. You remember. The ones who financed Labour's current account deficit. The sector that designed, constructed and now benefits from Labour's over-priced PFI deals which our grandchildren will still be paying off in the 2040's. The ones, like Shriti Vadera, who advised the Treasury to bailout their friends on the other side of the boardroom table. Yes, I'm talking about the people who stayed up all night at the treasury devising that most sophisticated and difficult bailout for the British banking industry only minutes before the UK economy would go into meltdownAnd the complex, multi-layered deal that they finally brokered in the early hours of the morning? That, we will never forget. Because our children will live with the horrendous consequences for the remainder of their lives.


Labour socialised the bankers debts. 


All the privately owned bad loans made by their friends in the banks would be underwritten by the British taxpayer, who would additionally lend them £83 billion to refinance their balance sheets, plus northwards of £750 billion in newly printed money - called quantitative easing - to ensure enough profits to continue paying their bonuses, whilst interest rates are held at 0.5 per cent. 


And the conditions set for the bankers in this doomsday deal that ensured a decade of austerity on the taxpayers of Britain? Now let me see.. Absolutely nothing. Well done Labour. You certainly had the measure of those naughty bankers didn't you?


But Mr Miliband is right about one thing - we do need an inquiry into British banking. Just like Leveson, we need an inquiry into the all too-cosy relations between government and the bankers that led to the largest, deepest and longest depression in our history. We need to know why and how it happened; why the regulators failed; why our politicians failed; and we need to know how to avoid such a catastrophe ever again. 


From Mr Miliband's perspective, the reason for an inquiry is even simpler. Without such an inquiry, the answer to these questions will always be 'don't vote Labour'.