Ok, so I’m not directly quoting Brown in the headline above, but it does capture the general tone of the PM’s article on bonuses in the Times today. Basically, bankers are portrayed as evil, and all government action as wise and benevolent. Here’s a chunk of it:
“Everywhere I go in Britain, I sense and share the anger and dismay of millions of hard-working people who have watched in disbelief during a year in which irresponsible practices in global banks have brought the world’s financial system close to collapse.
Because this has had an impact on every high street and in every home in Britain, anger alone is not enough – only bold action to protect those endangered through no fault of their own will do.
That is why we took unprecedented steps last October to stop the collapse of banks. The recapitalisation programme was not to subsidise bankers; it was to ensure that no depositor or saver lost money. And because of the impact of bank failure on the wider economy, we also cut taxes and brought forward crucial public investment to put more money in people’s pockets. In January we announced the next stage of the plan, designed to increase bank lending and get finance flowing round the economy again. We will be setting out more details of this next week.”That Brown’s not softening his rhetoric does make you wonder whether he’s given up on the ‘apology’ idea.
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