Oct 26 2007
The Chancellor shows lack of grip
Alistair Darling’s performance before the Tresury Committee confirmed
1. He knew all about Northern Rock well in advance of the crisis.
2. The regulatory system is tripartite with him at its head.
3. He did not understand how short of cash the markets were and what damage that was going to do
4. He did not query why the Fed and the ECB made their markets more liquid whilst the Bank of England stood by and watched the credit crunch become severe.
5. GHe was unable or unwilling to help a private sector rescue of Northern Rock.
His testimony demonstared that he has to take the blame for the Northern Rock crisis. He was the most senior regulator on duty.
He did not take sensible action to prevent a run on a bank in the UK, and still seems to have a very hazy understanding of how the money markets work.
It would be a good idea if someone parachuted into such a role without the proper experience had to receive some training or demonstrate he was taking sensible advice - that after all is what he expects as top regulator for people working throughout the financial markets.
The big question now is Who regulates the Regulator? When Parliament is away on long summer holidays, the answer is no-one.
Yesterday Darling had the brass neck to tell the banks they had to stop hiding debts off balance sheet. This comes from the man who refuses to put PFI/PPP debt on the government’s balance sheet, and refuses to include the government’s great pensions black hole on it either - when all banks have to put their pension deficit on their balance sheets. Sometime it is difficult to believe that Ministers can behave in such a manner.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
John, you are very naughty. You haven’t proof read your work have you? You may think that this is pedantic, but with spelling errors one is lead to think that you may have meant to call this little essay “The Chancellor shoots from the hip”.
With Boris, there are no typos, so you can see straight away that he is talking nonsense. With you, we have to correct the English before we can find the underlying tripe.
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Not just the chancellor!
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Truly shocking hypocrisy from Alistair Darling. The Labour government have been far from transparent and con the public by keeping two sets of books. You are dead right in saying that his knowledge of the way the markets work and particularly the way the markets react is hazy. I subscribe to the view that only persons with an academic training in economics or who have experience in business/finance should be appointed chancellor. The role requires specialist and expert knowledge. The economy cannot be run by trial and error.
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I think everyone’s getting used to such hypocracy by now. Discussing world poverty over Moet and oysters, jetting around the world to discuss carbon emissions, voting above inflation pay rises for themselves then awarding nurses an effective pay cut.
Then there was the Euro MP’s that lit up in defiance of the smoking ban in their offices. Everyone knows MP’s drink at a subsidised bar whilst they tout the idea of minimum drinks prices being enforced on the rest of us.
How many MP’s are there that berate private education then go and send their kids tyo private schools. People expect nothing less than rank hypocracy these days.
I was more surprised when they decided that the palace of Westminster would introduce a full smoking ban instead of make use of their exemption than I was reading this.
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