Over at The Times, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable argues that government should stop being so polite and lay down the law: free up lending, regulate risk and don’t sell the taxpayer short. Here’s an excerpt:
There is a battle royal being fought out over the scale and scope of regulation. There is some common ground: mindless, bureaucratic box-ticking has to give way to a form of supervision that identifies systemic risk; there is also agreement around the concept of “macro-prudential” regulation, with the Bank of England in the lead.
There are powerful forces arguing for the return to the status quo ante. We are being told nothing should be done to inhibit “innovation” or the “competitiveness” of our financial institutions. If the Chancellor has any bottle, he will say we have had too much financial innovation. And industries that fail or put too much risk on the rest of the economy are not in our national interest. Ask the millions who will lose their jobs and the thousands who will lose their homes because City gambling was allowed to get out of control.
You can read the article in full HERE.



One Comment
Absolutely. We should be reminding everybody that it was the Tories who deregulated the banks. Gordon merely feared them branding him a socialist.