Libor inquiry: Politicians are the LAST people who should investigate corrupt City spivs

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Libor inquiry: Politicians are the LAST people who should investigate corrupt City spivs

July 4th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

By
Ian Birrell

PUBLISHED:

17:52 EST, 3 July 2012

|

UPDATED:

03:14 EST, 4 July 2012

Out of a job: Few will mourn Bob Diamond's departure from British public life

Out of a job: Few will mourn Bob Diamond’s departure from British public life

So farewell then, Bob Diamond. Few will mourn the departure from British public life of this arrogant and over-paid American, who only a year ago was lecturing us that it was time for ‘remorse and apologies’ over the banks’ behaviour to end.

Like so many prominent figures in torrid scandals, he sought to cling to his post as Barclays chief executive rather than do the right thing and resign, despite the disturbing revelations of his bank distorting a critical financial yardstick that impacted on everything from company loans to household mortgages.

Already there have been fines of £290m — only about ten days’ profit for this money-making machine — while everyone from shocked FBI investigators to salivating lawyers are circling one of Britain’s oldest and most famous financial institutions.

We are just at the start of this sleazy and sordid scandal. Many more banks will be snared.

And more of these strutting, self-aggrandising masters of the universe will be brought crashing to earth.

We have learned with incredulity the laxity of controls over critical tools used to manipulate the financial markets.

We have been given a glimpse of a world in which a microscopic modification of 0.01 per cent in an inter-bank interest rate can net a couple of million dollars for pin-striped hustlers.

And we have seen how bottles of Bollinger are bandied around between back-slapping bankers indulging in reckless behaviour.

It is vital that there is a full-scale judicial inquiry into the financial sector.

The Prime Minister’s proposal of a parliamentary probe is inadequate — a weak response that allows Ed Miliband to make the running on the major political issue of the moment.

Scandal

Right-thinking: Ed Miliband has caught the public mood by demanding a judicial inquiry into bankers

This is surprising, given the sure-footed way David Cameron responded in opposition to issues such as the parliamentary expenses scandal, forcing shadow cabinet colleagues to pay back questionable claims and his MPs to publish their expenses online.

This latest financial scandal highlights the emerging confidence of Mr Miliband, who has caught the public mood on corporate malfeasance and is playing hardball over insisting on a judicial inquiry, and the Coalition’s post-budget lack of direction.

It also raises issues over the uncomfortably close relationship between financiers and politicians. It is one I saw on election night as Mr Cameron’s speechwriter, watching brash millionaires in bespoke suits toast Tory victories with champagne at a celebration bash for party funders.

After all, who can really trust our representatives in Westminster to kick out the cancer of corruption eating away at the heart of the City of London when financiers fund their parties, have a hotline to their leaders and — like Mr Diamond — successfully stopped tougher regulation?

Earlier this year, for example, newspaper reporters posing as international financiers exposed Tory party treasurer Peter Cruddas offering them input into policy-making and access to the Prime Minister. Cruddas instantly quit in ignominy.

But it is not just the Tories who are in hock to hedge fund potentates and financial kingpins. It was New Labour that knighted Fred Goodwin, courted the super-rich and protected the banks from regulation, just as it was their soulmate Bill Clinton who allowed the unleashing of the sub-prime debt explosion in the U.S.

And leaked documents have dragged senior members of Gordon Brown’s team closer and closer to the emerging scandal over inter-bank interest rate-fixing.

This is why Mr Miliband deserves credit for demanding a robust inquiry, given the central position that he and Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, held alongside Mr Brown as the Labour government encouraged reckless financial behaviour.

It is quite extraordinary that four years into the calamitous banking crisis there has been no official and far-reaching inquiry into events that devastated public finances, destroyed thousands of businesses and caused such despair to millions of families.

We have, after all, had a £200m judicial inquiry into the Bloody Sunday killings in the Bogside area of Derry in 1972.

Deplorable

And we have the never- ending Leveson inquiry into events at the News of the World which, however damaging and deplorable, were insignificant compared to the bankers’ misbehaviour and consequent economic devastation.

In the U.S., a bipartisan panel sought to clarify the causes of the crisis in the same way the much-praised 9/11 Commission shone a light on to the terror attacks at the start of this century.

But it served only to demonstrate the problems of party appointees investigating the arcane, complex and highly politicised world of finance.

The ten-strong team was hobbled by internal divisions, struggled to grapple with the issues and ended up split along partisan lines.

In Britain, no one should hold any delusions over the need for a deep-rooted and independent inquiry into this latest financial scandal.

These bankers have scored a grotesque own goal for what is — like it or not — Britain’s biggest and most important industry. This time, there can be no rapid reversion to business as usual.

Those involved deserve everything coming their way.

Tainted? Even the Bank of England, that saintly old lady of Threadneedle Street, is embroiled in this scandal

It is all too easy to assuage our anger by lashing out at a few prominent figures. By all means, fling rotten tomatoes at Bob Diamond, just as they were flung at the equally arrogant and avaricious Fred Goodwin. They deserve it.

But ousting a few chiefs does not solve problems that run far deeper. Forget the obscenely vast bonuses that tainted everything they touched.

This is just the latest — and most serious — of a series of scandals infecting the financial sector.

Even the Bank of England, that saintly old lady of Threadneedle Street, is embroiled.

So what reforms are necessary? Many of the solutions being proposed are far too simplistic.

Breaking up the big banks, for example, sounds good — but small does not necessarily mean sensible.

Small German regional banks, for example, were the biggest suckers when daft debts were packaged up and passed on before the 2008 collapse.

The answers may be troubling for those of us who believe in the essential strength of the free market and the power of capitalism to change lives, since clearly many people can’t be trusted to behave honourably when vast sums are at stake.

Immoral

We need effective regulation of these corporate behemoths — together with enforced transparency of their dealings and as much scrutiny as possible from strong independent watchdogs, an unruly blogosphere and an unshackled media.

Our pensions and our nation’s future prosperity rely on the well-being of the City of London. We have a shared interest in nursing it back to health and restoring its ancient reputation at a time when it has never been under great threat.

Not all banks are bad, just as not all bankers are immoral.

We simply cannot afford to be motivated by the populist thirst for revenge, nor by the cheap, short-sighted political machinations of Westminster.

This is why David Cameron needs to perform a very rapid U-turn — or should be forced into one by MPs when they vote on the issue tomorrow.

For the sake of the entire country, we need a full-blooded judicial inquiry into the lack of ethics in the world of finance.

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

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I constantly ask for the name of the firm that supplies governments with its WHITEWASH as I want to invest in it.

– benevolentdictator, Washington, 04/7/2012 11:25

Politicians have to call in consultants for everything, they are inept, period.

– martin, kent, 04/7/2012 11:18

In the USA, rich people are admired and it is thought to be bad form to raise doubts about any questionable activities giving rise to their wealth. This culture was imported into our banking system with the consequences we are now contemplating. They had forgotten (or perhaps never learnt) that LOVE of money is the root of all evil. I doubt if this particular genie can be stuffed back into his bottle, but let’s hope so.

– bemused, forfar, 04/7/2012 11:11

Must admit I was sat laughing at Sky News when MP after MP called out for an inquiry and the strongest possible action to be taken against these wrongdoers. They seem to have short memories about their own misdeeds that went largely unpunished…

– Chris , UKexpat, 04/7/2012 11:09

Let’s not be getting in too early cheering Milliband. After Diamond names and shames his mob later I bet we will see a sudden change of heart.

– Dutch Ovens, Still stuck in this hellhole that used to be Geat Britain, 04/7/2012 10:51

Ed Balls is just calling for a judicial inquiry because these last at least 2 to 3 years and he knows the general public soon get bored and so they can plan their cover ups after all the majority of this started under a Labour Administration and it is amazing with all Browns contact with the bankers that they say they were not involved you only have to look at R.B.S. failure Fred Goodwin was awarded a huge golden handshake by Labours Lord Adonis who was representing Gordon Brown the man who completely relaxed the banks regulation Goodwin should really have been dismissed with no reward and faced a criminal investigation but he probably knew to much,
So what we want is a short thorough investigation with all involved prosecuted and new strict regulation in the financial sector quickly and the banks must be split up with domestic banks being seperated from the investment banks and all this should be done before the end of 2012.

– peter, manchester, 04/7/2012 10:31

Judge Hutton conducted a fine public inquiry into David Kelly’s death – not! Who would you trust more, an unelected job-for-life unaccountable judge drawn from one closed shop, or a politician who stands to be counted for what he has done. OK it isn’t an easy choice and you can’t say neither

– Peter, York, 04/7/2012 10:26

You can’t trust politicians full stop. Except to lie, cheat, and whine when they get caught.

– Mute Requiem, England, 04/7/2012 10:25

I think the Insurance companys should be looked into too.

– Kathy, UK.., 04/7/2012 10:19

100% agree. A parliamentary inquiry would be yet another whitewash. How about doing it along similar lines to a “truth and reconciliation commission”. What is also absolutely essential is that, if crimes have been committed, and they almost certainly have at a number of banks,the people responsible are brought to justice. Since an edict from John Major after the quashing of the Blue Arrow verdicts in July 1992, senior people in large institutions have been more or less immune from criminal prosecution in this country (even if they have wilfully committed crimes including fraud, false accounting, money laundering etc, etc). Clearly a feeling of unassailability among bankers and other market participants, fostered by Blair’s disastrous “light touch” approach to regulation (which is notable for its absence in other jurisdictions such as the US, Nigeria, Iceland etc) has played a major part in turning the City of London into the embarrassing cesspit that it has now become.

– Ian Fraser, Edinburgh, Scotland, 04/7/2012 10:06

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