David Cameron’s speech this morning was a clever and important piece of political positioning. By calling for the full force of the law to be brought to bear on those in the City who have acted illegally, Cameron is moving to defuse the idea that the Tories are on the side of the bankers not the people. They need to do this because Labour are just itching to make a guilt by association charge stick against the Tories—just count the number of times you hear Labour MPs refer to ‘the Tories’ friends in the City.’ As Jackie Ashley writes this morning, “the jibes about Eton and Bullingdon connections may be cheap politics, but are none the less effective for all that.
Cameron’s call is also the right thing to do. Those of us who believe most strongly in the market should be most outraged by abuses of it.
In the speech, Cameron declared that:
“…the Prime Minister has not been urging our authorities to pursue financial wrongdoing like in America is in my view, a failure of moral leadership.
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