Michael Meacher MP

It might just as well have been Gordon Brown hosing down the City grandees with paeans, as he did so often at the Mansion House, for their unmatched contribution to the British economy, their global aspirations, and their efficiency and innovativeness.   But last night it was Osborne offering a ‘new settlement’ for finance as though the greatest damage to the British economy, far greater than Hitler’s bombs ever inflicted, had never happened.   Not only was there no hint of redress (punishment would be too jarring an expression in such honourable company) for their recklessness and greed, there wasn’t even a scintilla of reform to jolt the proceedings.   There was a nod in the direction of the feeble Vickers report, proposing Chinese walls between the retail and investment operationsof banks, but the inefficacy of that was clearly revealed when share prices in the Big 5 hardly even trembled.   So, as they say, is that it? (more…)