Far from secure
Peter Hoskin 12:08pm
Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling have just delivered an absurd medley of deceptions, unwarranted boasts and blame-shifting. Their Northern Rock press conference in brief: everything's the fault of global forces, and we can be happy that Brown's "long-term decisions" will stave off the worst of it all. There's plenty of material there for the Spectator's Brownies campaign.
The worst part, though, was Brown's claim that "the reputation of London [as a financial centre] is secure". In truth, there are few scenarios which will dissuade foreign investment more than the forced nationalisation of a bank. When you factor in the Chancellor's track record - the misguided capital gains and non-dom tax proposals, and the attacks on executive wages - then it's clear that this Government has massively undermined business confidence in the UK.
The worry for investors is that - with the full force of the credit-crunch yet to be felt, and with Darling at the helm of the economy - things may only get worse...
Previous
Comments
Greg Skinner
February 18th, 2008 1:28pmThis isn't Black Wednesday. It's a very dark Brown February.
john band
February 19th, 2008 4:34pm"In truth, there are few scenarios which will dissuade foreign investment more than the forced nationalisation of a bank." You seem to be getting confused between the forced nationalisation of a viable bank, and picking up the liabilities of an insolvent bank. Business cares deeply about the former, but (aside from the hedge funds punting on the government paying them to go away and stop making trouble) isn't too worried about the latter. (FDIC's takeover of Continental Illinois did not destroy the US's reputation as a financial centre, for example...)