From the response to the last post on this subject I get the impression that people around here don’t much care if the government can did itself out or not. Some readers of The Bright Stuff have asked how I can justify wanting Labour to win the next election? But more of that later.
First I want to examine the horror of the situation a little.
I have finally read the Independent on Sunday’s interview with HBOS whistleblower Paul Moore. Jaw-dropping or what! It’s always wrong to leave the Sindy till last in the weekend reading pile because so often it punches above its weight. It would be one of the saddest victims of the recession if it is forced to close.
Sometimes interviews produce a killer quote and for me this is it: “Brown presided over a policy based on excessive consumer spending based on excessive consumer credit based on massively increasing property prices, which were caused by excessively easy credit which could only ultimately lead to disaster. But no, in Gordon’s mind it was all caused by global events beyond his and anyone else’s control.”
The news “write-off” also provides a great summary and do read to the end because Jane Merrick’s analysis (“How the Prime Minister smoothed the way for ‘disastrous’ HBOS takeover”) is excellent. I remember the day after Brown’s meeting with Lloyds TSB chairman Sir Victor Blank, a Blairite government minister saying to me: ” Whatever you say about him Gordon does seem to have sealed the deal.” The Prime Minister certainly seemed happy to take the credit for it at the time.
So why do I want this government to win the next election? Because I don’t see anything in what David Cameron, George Osborne or Ken Clarke have said which makes me believe they would have done anything to curb the excesses that led us into this mess. And nor have I seen anything in their solutions that suggests they have anything radical to bring to the party. As I have said elsewhere, Britain is facing the worst choice in over 30 years at the next election.
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