Ed Miliband and Labour took the initiative, realised the severity of the situation and public anger and called for a judge led public inquiry into the banking industry and the Libor fixing scandal, but for some reason better known to themselves, David Cameron, George Osborne, Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats do not want this and have forced a weak parliamentary inquiry to look at the situation. Ed Miliband maintains that this inquiry is too narrow and will not be able to take in the culture and practices of the UK banking sector. The inquiry is to be led by a Conservative MP (Andrew Tyrie) and is already open to partisan accusations and being branded as a total whitewash. A judge led public inquiry (as the Labour party are still calling for) would have a much wider remit and barristers would be present to forensically question witnesses. This is the depth of questioning that Labour want to see and it appears that it is this depth of questioning that the Conservatives seem to be scared of having.
The excuse Cameron gave for not wanting this extensive inquiry is that he wanted the inquiry to report quickly, bearing that in mind, Ed Miliband proposed that we still have a judge led inquiry but that it could consist of two parts - Part One: to deal with the Libor issue and to report by Christmas (giving the PM and Conservatives what they want) and Part Two: to be held over 12 months and to delve into wider issues relating to the banking crisis. Miliband proposed this in PMQs two weeks ago. At the time Mr Cameron dismissed the idea stating that the "second stage may not be able to begin if the Serious Fraud Office brought charges against anyone". However after the session of PMQs ended, a furious and red faced David Cameron made a beeline for Mr Miliband outside the debating chamber, shouting and jabbing his finger ar Mr Miliband yelling that "you ambushed me" ordering, "don't do that again". Mr Miliband replied that he thought the PM had handled the issue very badly. However, it now leaves the question that if a serious fraud has been committed that Cameron doesn't want the perpetrators prosecuted as this would hold the report up, so these bankers and dealers just get away with the carnage they have caused? Totally bizarre decision! If this was an ordinary person committing benefit fraud would Cameron be quite so lenient? This is yet another of Cameron's extremely bad judgement calls and one which this will undoubtedly come back and haunt him in the not too distant future.
Another of the Prime Minister's bad judgement calls was to allow George Osborne to get away with his disgraceful behaviour in the Commons, not only that but actually joining in with him in last week's PMQs, when the subject of a public apology was raised.
Mr Cameron maintains he would like cross party support on banking reform, however, after he allowed his chancellor to behave so disrespectfully and make slanderous statements in the House of Commons, and libellous comments in the Spectator magazine about Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls and former Labour ministers to the Treasury, how does he hope to achieve this? If you want the help of others it's a good idea not to insult them and impugn their integrity before asking! This wouldn't occur to the arrogant Cameron though and he manged to bring himself and his government down into the gutter along with his chancellor. Their crass childish behaviour is hardly likely to promote cross party harmony and a willingness to cooperate, especially as the Chancellor cannot even bring himself to publicly apologise and withdraw his false allegations, despite being urged to do so by senior members of his own party! What Osborne did was to use political disinformation by the Chancellor and the British Prime Minister, quite honestly, I have never witnessed anything like this from any politician in any party before and it was televised all around the world, utter disgrace bringing the "Mother of all Parliaments" into disrepute like that!
Spreading malicious rumours the way in which George Osborne did, not only damaged the reputations of innocent parties, it actually damaged the reputation of our parliament and this is not the way we expect our politicians to behave and begs the question whether Osborne and Cameron can ever be trusted again? This was not just cut and thrust of political life it was a serious attempt to harm the reputations of others by means of using malicious lies and disinformation and nothing short of a willful attempt to use the privilege of high office to intentionally harm an opponent and not only that, it was also a deliberate attempt to lie to, and misinform the public. George Osborne should definitely be facing some kind of serious disciplinary action for such outrageous behaviour! What example is he setting to all the school children and young adults that look in on PMQs each week? It's scandalous! It is also this kind of atrocious behaviour from politicians that is turning the public off of politics in droves and it is not an isolated incident either, this behaviour is present from Cameron every single time he enters the debating chamber, he is dumbing down our political system single handed!
It shouldn't go unsaid either that if Ed Balls and former Treasury ministers were guilty of anything, then why did they press so hard for a full powered independent judge led public inquiry? In fact why is the Labour party continuing to press extremely hard for a full inquiry? they would hardly be in a rush to reveal wrongdoing about themselves! It is the Tories who do not want the full inquiry - why?
Perhaps it has something to do with the Conservative party being completely in hock to the City? That is not me saying this, it is none other than the Deputy Prime Minister, although he did say it back in 2010 before he prostituted himself and his party to the Tories. Back then Clegg claimed that:
"the Conservative party will never reform the banks and rebuild our economy because they are completely in hock to the City of London". "They are the party of choice for rich bankers, and no wonder when their major tax policy is to give tax breaks to double millionaires. They even have plans to cut taxes for the banks and raise them for solid British manufacturing companies. They will never change Britain for the better because they are only interested in helping people at the top."Nick Clegg May 2010Clegg said all of this before going on to wholeheartedly endorse the Tories in all their plans to give rich bankers tax breaks, paid for by taxing pensioners.
Facts About Bankers and the Tories that David Cameron and George Osborne do not want us to know.
- From 2005 - 2010 when Cameron the Tories accepted £15 million from City bankers in cash donations
- Prior to the 2010 general election 10% of all Tory candidates were bankers or have worked in the sector, compared with 1.5% of the country as a whole.
- More than a quarter of all Conservative MPs and peers have held jobs in banking or the financial sector.
- George Osborne let the banks off the hook by imposing a levy of just £2.5billion. ( while at the same time, Mr Osborne has slashed corporation tax rates from 28% to 24% meaning the impact on the finance houses will be minimal.)
- The Treasury has also been criticised for allowing City high-fliers to keep pocketing exorbitant bonuses.
- The Treasury has also watered down the levy. Originally the proposal was for 0.07% on all of a banks’ liabilities. But the Government has said the banks will not have to pay the tax on the first £20billion of liabilities.
- Of the 498 Tory MPs and peers 134 have been or are employed in the financial sector, this includes 70 of the party’s 305 MPs.
- Among the 193 Conservative peers, more than a third work or have worked in finance or banking.
- Up to 2011 Eleven Tory MPs and peers have worked for Barclays, including Richard Bacon MP, Jesse Norman MP, Andrea Leadsom MP and former Chancellor Lord Lawson, Earl Howe
- A further eight Conservatives have been at Rothschild, including John Redwood MP, Mark Garnier MP, former Chancellor Lord Lamont and Jacob Rees-Mogg MP.
- Other Tories worked for Lehman Bros, the company whose collapse sparked the financial crisis. They include Steve Baker MP, Chief Architect, Global Financing and Asset Servicing Platforms at the company from 2006-2008; Brooks Newmark MP and Lord Freeman.
- Others with links to the financial sector include billionaire Lord Ashcroft, welfare minister Lord Freud, Harriet Baldwin MP and Kwasi Kwarteng MP.
- David Rowland: Former Conservative Party Treasurer - was forced to resigned from his position of Tory Treasurer because of his questionable business deals, where he used a series of tax havens for his take overs (so he would not have to pay UK tax) . Making Rowland Tory Treasurer is another seriously bad judgement call of David Cameron's. Rowland has donated over £1.16 million to the Tories and is linked to the;
- Banque Havilland
- Blackfish Capital Management - Hedge fund who describes itself as "offering a 'flexible' approach to business opportunities"
- Other bankers who have donated to the Conservative party.
- Flowidea Ltd, Arbuthnot House £68,800 (owned by Henry Angest)
- Richard Q Hoare £55,000 Bulldog Private Bank
- Simon Robertson (Sir) £50,000 Goldman Sachs
- Jeremy Isaccs £50,000 Former head of Lehman Bros
- David L Mayhew £50,000 JP Morgan
- Adam Fleming £50,000 Fleming Banking Dynasty
- James R Lupton £50,000 Investment banker
- Mr Osborne has also failed to take forward the recommendation of Sir David Walker that banks should be forced to disclose all pay packages above £1million.
- There has been no action to curb the bonus culture of the banks, the only pressure that has been exerted has come from the Labour party and the general public.
- Michael Spencer, chief executive of financial transactions company Icap, has given £173,000 to the Tories since 2006
- Henry Angest – who controls a company that loaned the Tories £5m to help fund the last general election campaign. Reportedly worth £45m, the Swiss-born banker is a trenchant critic of attempts to impose greater regulation on the City. He is critical of the UK's "punitive tax system", which was softened by Osborne in the 2012 budget. Has donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to Scottish Conservatives through his company Flowidea Ltd. Funded Atlantic Bridge the charity mixed up with former Tory Defence secretary Liam Fox and his "friend" Adam Werritty scandal which forced Fox to resign.
It seems that many people who donate to the Tory party do so through various different companies they own keeping their donations to £50,000 or below. Their names do not necessarily show up it's a way of donating hundreds of thousands of pounds without the total being decalred, it's a funding loophole a that needs to be closed. For more information of bankers who donate to the Tories see HERE (on this blog)
It's totally ludicrous that Cameron a Tory, has ordered a Tory parliamentary inquiry headed by another Tory into a serious banking scandal, when the Tory party is made up of a large proportion of bankers and former bankers as MPs and peers and is being financially funded by Tory bankers to the tune of millions of pounds? The whole thing is a whitewash and Andrew Tyrie who is heading it has already been accused of having his mind made up before the inquiry even started! How can they possibly remain objective when their positions are wholly compromised before they eve start?
Bankers have got away with their greed for too long, they have trashed our economy, joined with the Tory party in blaming the former Labour government and anyone else they can think of for the havoc they themselves have caused. I don't know what is worse, their trashing of the UK economy or their failure to own up to doing it and seeking to pass the buck and blame elsewhere?
The public are quite rightly extremely angry, why wouldn't they be, it is they that are being forced to bail thse bankers out, while these Tory bankers just carry on awarding themselves huge bonuses as if nothing has ever happened.
We had a golden opportunity to hold the banks to account for what they have done by means of holding a full independent judge led inquiry, but Cameron refuses point blank and is once again ignoring the public and what we want - why? What is he so afraid of? The Conservative party has accepted many millions of pounds in donations from the banking industry, perhaps it is this and the true extent of their involvement with bankers that they do not want to become common knowledge?
People like bankers do not give money that kind of money away for nothing, they certainly wanted something back, which would probably have come out ion a full inquiry which is why the Tories do not want one.
The coalition is cracking all over the place it is not going to last another year, I would be surprised if it lasts another 6 months. However, Cameron came out today giving the impression that the coalition was in trouble, it is, but his pep talk was all an act, designed to give Clegg a boost, to make it look like there was deep differences between them, that was done in order to try and win back Clegg some of his lost votes. They haven't learnt anything they are still trying to take the electorate for mugs, it's quite insulting really. It was also done because Cameron is an egotistical narcissist, he believes that his little rant in the paper was going to divert attention away from the monumental cock-up the Tories have made of the security of the Olympic Games!
This horrendously incompetent government's days are numbered, it's just a matter of time before it folds, I believe it will not be entirely because of the coalition though, it will come as part of three or four things. The Jeremy Hunt and Rupert Murdoch News International debacle will burst back into the news; The economy will worsen and we may lose our AAA rating; Something really serious will be revealed about the Tories and the banking industry regarding cash for policy; David Cameron will completely lose control in the House of Commons and of his government, and all of it will place an enormous strain on the coalition which will buckle under the pressure as they realise that the only chance they have for survival of their party is to walk away from the coalition and trigger a general election.
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