Labour were in power for a lot of years with a big majority. The idea that they can somehow blame changes made under Thatcher is laughable.
The BBc analysing the changes in bank regulation put the blame, or credit if you so consider it, squarely at the door of the tory administration starting with Thatcher and ending with major. See
Big Bang (financial markets) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 1986, Thatcher.
The changes Labour did make were an absurd attempt to replace morality with legislation.
Morality? Every bank crisis there has ever been has been about someone exploiting someone else in order to make money for themselves. Government MUST hold the ring and prevent those with power exploiting those without.
The old system was that you do what is right because it is right - the new that you do what the regulations allow.
The old regulations simply did not allow trading on the scale we now have. As soon as the city was given its head it started doing all sorts of things which regulators have tried to stop peicemeal ever since.
I think Labour are desperate for a public enquiry because it will take forever and ensure that no criminal prosecutions can subsequently be brought because it would not be possible for anyone to get a fair trial post public enquiry.
Dont worry, no one is going to jail whatever happens. Allegations of fraud are very difficult to prove. Exactly who is going to be giving evidence...against themselves. The only way anyone is likely to go to jail is if parliament right now introduces specific crimes which will be applied retrospectively. Its highly questionable whether the conservatives will introduce such new crimes even to apply from now.
The smoking gun is that ALL our big banks are involved in this scam not because they were all simultaneously nasty in the same way but because the last government instructed them to act in this way.
Diamond or Barclays just issued a statement where apparently Diamond (or whoever was talking to government while the bank crash was going on, might have been diamond who was then in charge of the investment arm, I didnt catch this but it will be in the news) said to the government official that although Barclays had not been fixing the libor rate, Barclays knew that other banks had been doing so. (it has now been shown this denial that Barclays was involved was a lie) The official line from Barclays/Diamond seems to be that they did discuss with the Bof E measures to help in the crisis but that Barclays senior management did not understand such measures to include rate fixing. A third executive has now resigned without comment, but allegedly he was responsible for a 'mixup' instructing staff to fix rates to improve the apparent solvency position of the Bank.
It is clear that Barclays was fixing the rate for years for its own benefit. It seems it then proceeded to fix the rate to further the wishes of the Bof E. That would seem to be perfectly natural, given Barclays was quietly doing this already without apparently being found out. It is quite possible the staff at Barclays did not do one thing different, just changed their motivation for rate fixing and made it a bit more ideologically sound. Whether the Bof E already knew Barclays were lying and might have been nudging them to carry on I cant say, but Diamond has in effect denied this was the case.
The criminal prosecutions should therefore be against Blair, Brown and Balls.
For omission to act? Then how will you punish Thatcher, major, whoever was chancellor at the time of the big bang for actually staritng these events? Hanging?
i see only one solution... We have to close every bank witch is involved in the manipulation scandal.
Well that is 20 banks under british regulation. How many more worldwide. You want to close all of them?
This is the end of the city of london
That is why the Uk government will not be closing them. As I posted above, I dont think it will punish them in any way. I agree, the banking industry is in major decline.