If you think bankers do a bad job of banking, just wait until government tries its hand. This seems to be what Ed Miliband is proposing today: a Labour government would set up two new banks, to challenge the existing five big ones. And so his 1970s revival continues. There’s no evidence that new banks would help much, as the Bank of England Governor has already indicated. But as I say in my Telegraph column today, Ed Miliband isn’t too worried about lack of evidence. He’s proposing to be a different kind of political leader.
His list of ‘predators’ – ie, nasty businesses to whom he promises to give six of the best – grows longer all the time. Energy companies, short-term lenders, people who make fixed-odds betting machines, homebuilders – and, now, high street banks. Spank, spank, spank, spank, spank.
He was speaking without notes, so I’d like to think the following quote was a mistake.
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