Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Vince Cable calls for big banks to be broken up

Sage words from the Lib Dem shadow chancellor on BBC Newsnight Scotland yesterday:

Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable has said large banks such as Lloyds and RBS should be broken up as they pose too great a risk to the taxpayer. ...

Mr Cable said it was unhealthy to have banks of that scale.

He said they should be split up before they are returned to private ownership.

He also criticised the combination of ordinary banking, such as business lending and mortgage payments, and so-called casino banking

"These two things should not co-exist in the same institution ....

"It is highly unstable. It means the British taxpayer is underwriting very dangerous high-risk activities, so for that reason alone they should be split up."

Why is the Labour government so timid when this is clearly what ought to be done?

1 comment:

dreamingspire said...

"Timid" characterises the (short) Broon era... But another characteristic of this Millenium start decade, which seems to have a bearing on the timidity (or at least unwillingness to enter discussions on an even handed basis) of so many in the public sector, is the way in which we make use of the products of the information age: we take in information, search it out even, we ask questions, we challenge - and I admit that sometimes we are very rude.
On BBC R4 Today this morning, one of Trevor Phillips' Commissioners was asked why he had not given an interview about the changes to the Equality and HR Commission and the change in its composition due this autumn. She responded "Why should he"? Ooops - the Commission is for us, so its upcoming changes should be explained to us by the man at the top (or, if he has a real problem with doing that himself, by someone who we will be able to understand speaks for him).
Recently I encountered the top crat in another quango - and that man hasn't got a clue about the effect of the information age - he is from the era that does things to us.