Spectator’s Notes

The Governor of the Bank of England raised his legendary eyebrow and Barclays tried to singe it. If there was any doubt about the badness of Barclays’ behaviour in the Libor-rigging scandal, it is surely removed by the way Barclays has dealt with its denouement. Bob Diamond and co claimed they had no part in rigging, and yet they released the October 2008 letter written by Mr Diamond purporting to show that Paul Tucker, the deputy governor of the Bank, was giving them permission to rig. If it does show that, they are liars. If it does not — as three official investigations have already concluded — then they are just throwing mud. It was bad enough Mr Diamond revelling for years in his role as Master of the Universe; it is worse now that he tries to paint himself as that equally unattractive figure of modern times, the whistle-blower. At the beginning of the week, Mervyn King privately told the chairman of Barclays that Mr Diamond should go. The manner of his departure proves that Sir Mervyn was right. Mr Diamond and his bank have proved their selfish disregard for the safety of the system. They thought they had got away with their behaviour yet again, and now they have found they have not, they are trying to pull the temple of Mammon down on top of everyone. In the course of the permanent crisis since 2007, there have been waves of public but mostly anonymous attacks on the Governor. No doubt some of the criticisms have been justified — his slowness over Northern Rock, for example — but, throughout, Sir Mervyn and his team have consistently tried to make sure that banks serve the interest of the public. Hence his constant protest against ‘too big to fail’ and his calls for the return to a ‘Glass-Steagall’ separation of investment and retail banks, which governments, still frightened of the banking lobby, have still not quite dared do.