This crises comes down to a few simple words:

Affordable Housing or Sub Prime Mortgage

Which words do you think were responsible?

Both phrases mean exactly the same – but one is morally right, while the other is morally wrong – to the righteous who rule the airways!

The question is, what will be the words which define the next crises?

It could be a good recipe for social cohesion and recovery from recession – be aware that none of us has all of the answers, and spare a thought for those brought low by this crisis, from the bloke next door to Fred Goodwin. And Gordon Brown too? Well, maybe.

Probably not many of JR’s faithful following get to read The Sun but Trevor Kavanagh’s Monday column always lifts the spirits of Brown baiters so here below is his take today on the ‘Say Sorry’ issue…and remember this stuff is what the ordinary swing voter is more likely to read than much of the comment that appears on the blogs so avidly gobbled up by folks like us!

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Flying home from Washington last week, the PM turned on journalists who asked him to apologise for his part in the Great Recession. But once Gordon started saying sorry, where would he stop? Would he apologise for turning Britain into a giant welfare state, with 12million adults dependent on taxpayers, either for their salary or benefit?

Is he sorry for opening the door to millions of unchecked migrants now in cut-throat competition for British jobs?

Is he sorry for selling off our gold at rock-bottom prices and wrecking private pension savings while bloating the public sector’s.

Will he apologise for refusing to build nuclear power stations? Or new prisons to hold those dangerous criminals now roaming free?

Does he regret the failure of schools to educate our youngsters properly for the tough times ahead?

No. After 12 years in charge, he can’t say sorry.

That would be to confess Labour has misspent more than a decade in power.

I borrowed quite a lot of money c.2004, in addition to the borrowing I had on my first house, to fund the purchase of a house in Italy. We now have 2 houses; both extraordinarily beautiful and in equally idyllic surroundings, which I hope will cushion them from the worst of the property downturn. Yeah, well.

Apart from the fact that I can remember saying, quite distinctly, to the lovely joe from the bank ‘But are you not concerned about our future ability to pay? What happens if interest rates go back to 15%?’ – his reply was what I wanted to hear.

I took his money, for heaven’s sake. Mea culpa.

Should not these people have been identifying the weakness of British banks’ credit worthiness long ago?

Is not risk inversely proportional to credit rating? If so, and the rating is correct, institutions seeking higher gains from higher risk investments would have their credit rating reduced, and this would provide a compensating mechanism without the need for government or a regulator to “tell” institutions what to do – the market would decide what was acceptable.

It just shows how un-Biblical the thinking of modern Christians in Britain is. The Bible advocates charity and a totally free market, not Socialism. Socialism hates Christianity.

G. McCullough

Marr: “.. Geroge Osborne says ‘we weren’t on the ball, nobody was on the ball’ ..”

Marr: ” .. Actually ..”

Mandleson: ” .. Well, it’s rich coming from the Conservatives who opposed the very regulatory system that we put in place, err, err, err, over those years, lets not take any lessons from the conservatives …”

Now, my immediate thought when I heard that was; Ah yes, the Tories opposed the very regulatory system that has so comprehensively failed.

Perhaps, Mandleson, if you weren’t so preoccupied with saving Brown’s neck and by association your own, you might be open to the possibility of actually learning something other than how to slither.

Marr, being a BBC Labourite droid, ignored the point.

I notice a distinct lack of political comment and a distinct ‘tape on loop’ feeling from the media?

This is my suggestion, which I think is the only realistic way forward even though it would mean reversing some of the idiotic, politically motivated, false moves made by the government over past months.

At least it would not involve the government in

a) funding its deficit by telling the Bank of England to print more money, and

b) putting the taxpayer on the hook for future liabilities running to potentially hundreds of billions of pounds.

A not-for-profit, state-owned, Resolution Bank, established by Act of Parliament, would:

1. Be owned by the Treasury.

2. Have an account with the Bank of England.

3. Be capitalised by a one trillion pound overdraft from the Bank of England – a PROPER use of “Quantitative Easing”.

4. Have senior managers appointed by the Treasury, in consultation with the Bank and the FSA.

5. Have other staff seconded from and paid by its clients, the commercial banks, in each case to clear up the mess the client has created.

6. Have a very closely worded contract with each of its clients, the commercial banks which have got themselves into trouble through their own stupidity.

7. Have the remit of buying the “toxic assets” from each of its clients, at the minimum price compatible with the survival of the client as a fully functioning commercial bank, and in each case then allowing the seconded staff to gradually sort through their employer’s mess, in some cases no doubt their own personal mess, and dispose of the “toxic assets” for the best prices they can obtain.

8. Return to each client any surplus over the price the Resolution Bank paid for its toxic assets, less costs.

9. And/or, claim back from that client any shortfall, plus costs, to be paid over a period of some years if necessary, with interest.

10. Be wound up when its job had been completed, and it had cleared its overdraft from the Bank of England, down to the last pound.

Government, Regulators and those politicians who spent the last ten years bickering, should ‘we’ be the nasty party, should we be ‘more caring’, the triumph of style [not much of that either] over substance. FFS [shorthand for an expletive].

As there are sins of commission, so too are there sins of ommission.

But let’s not forget, those folk in control of the ‘independent’ bank of England wanted interest rates low, encouraged people to borrow, and I recall harrangued the banks to lend to the ‘disadvantaged’. That is, they wanted banks to give savers money to people who haven’t a cats chance in hell of paying it back.

Now they are busy destroying the savings of responsible yes, prudent, folk. Next pensions.

Unfortunately some well known and well positioned and well paid Businessmen, Politicians, Sportsmen,and so called Celebrities, have shown an excellent example of personal greed and excess, and become some sort of Public Icon in the process.

The sad fact is that some of the Media has sought on occassion to promote these people and their lifestyle as if it is normal.

Those people doing Voluntary Charitable work (and there are millions who do) get little mention.
Neither do those who run their personal life without problems (the majority)

The problem we have as a Society is that those people with problems are now growing fast, whilst those who had no problems in the past are shrinking.

The Governments Policies are not helping those who have always in the past been responsible, so it is no surprise that at the moment we are going downhill as a Nation.

The real question is who will stop it, how will they stop it, and when.

It was also stupid.

Yet how many of the “moralists” in government who used the “post industrial” term have even yet said we should support productive industry by cutting the regulations, allowing us to have a world class electricity system or getting rid of much of the government parasitism that sucks up 50% of the economy.

I object to parasites claiming moral superiority (& as an atheist think that includes bishops).

it’s populist politics, pure and simple, and they don’t even realize the public sees right through it.
even uneducated people are far more intelligent when it comes to politics thanks to the last few years.