Thursday, 5 July 2012

Letter 73: LIBOR 2012: Casino Banking 1 Treasury Select Committee 0 (1-0)


"Dear Dave,
So. Rigging LIBOR, what a mess, hey? I'm shocked that you are still resisting the best way to investigate. Do you really understand the depth of public concern and anger? This isn't about one man, chairman or bank. I've heard this scandal described as a global issue, so how can a parliamentary inquiry be satisfactory? There's a widely held feeling, not just amongst Labour politicians and the public but also within financial services sector, that any inquiry has to be beyond reproach, so it seems better to expose matters to proper scrutiny in a judge led inquiry. Just watching George's partisan behaviour over the past few days has been enough to undermine any confidence in the ability of MPs to rise above the Chancellor's playing politics. It was bizarre to see him attempting to spin that Labour has more than you to lose by a public inquiry. I had no idea he cared about the Opposition so much! Maybe he should be more concerned about voters realising how much the Tory party regularly receives in donations from the City, or that people may have seen the story in the Independent on Sunday about top Tories being dragged into the scandal? Surely you both understand that it's become even more important to have absolute transparency, now we see that all political parties and many banks (including the Bank of England) might be implicated


I understand. It's hard for you that Ed Miliband could be right, but his request for a two part inquiry seems really sensible. After all, when Mr Diamond came before the Treasury Select committee today, what did we learn? That unless politicians are able to work as a team, very little. The MPs arrived with their own agendas and nothing seemed to touch Bob; despite a thin apology, he accepted neither complicity nor incompetence. And what of Barclay's Board? You need to hold them to better account than we witnessed this afternoon, or Ed's words at PMQs today might come to haunt you. Voters might well think that you are more interested in Party rather than National interests.And for the second time Ed will be remembered as the politician most willing to challenge corruption in an industry we all need to trust.
With best wishes, etc"

6 comments:

Unknown said...

you know what makes it even worse is Bob Diamond was calling the MPs by his/her first name as if it was a Trip to Alton towers.

Bern O'Donoghue said...

You're right Bob, the over familiarity did show how seriously he took his appearance.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Kery said...

I like that pictures. Good job

Mary Owen said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

That pictures are so cute!