George Osborne

[Dagenham Rover]

Just watched George Osborne interviewed on Calendar

\"The last government allowed the banking crisis to happen\"  

[DubaiRover]

unfortunately a lot of what the twonk says is true.

[BillyStubbsTears]

And the Tories' stance on regulation of the banks in 2007 was...?

[Filo]

It seems to be a standard Tory reply \"this is what we were left with\" without coming up with any reasons to support what they say, Cameron even avoided answering any questions in PM`s question time yesterday. And now we`ve got a silver spooned t**t like Gideon in charge of the country`s finance, the fool does n`t know the meaning of the word skint!

[BobG]

At the risk of being thought stuck in the past, I suggest that the current crisis is actually an almost inevitable consequence of the policies this country adopted 25 years ago. With the rush to get rid of 'Big Government' and the rush to allow the private sector to drive most everything, the circumstances were created that allowed the gradual maturation of a society based on greed. Greed and 'self regulation'. Ha ha. What is the normal state of man? Life may be short, nasty and brutish, and that, of itself, encourages a 'grab it quick' atitude. As the rewards of those at the top became increasingly dependant on more and more 'success' of course they were going to take risks. And the bankers did just that. And there was no organsiation, no structure and nobody in place to stop them.

I think this is just one of the prices this country is and will continue to pay for Mrs Thatcher. Worse even that this though was her success in creating a political climate where the now established orthodoxies simply cannot be challenged. Why don't we pay a sensible rate of income tax instead of car park charges in hospitals? Because no bugger dare even mention the subject. Why do we allow a totally fatuous railway system to continue to exist? Because it's another holy cow. Why do we allow the development of an American style ambulance chasing legal system with now vrtually zero access for the common man? Because that is yet another free maarket holy cow.

Free markets are a worldwide disaster. Lenin (or was it Marx?!) once said that 'capitalism contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction'. We can see several such seeds on proud display right now. Trouble is, at least two of them are now sprouting.

BobG - aka Cassandra

[VikingJames]

As an aside from his political views, he has got a proper punchable face aswell!