Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes
Every week Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland writes a column for local newspapers in his Borders constituency. Here is this week’s edition. Queen’s Speech Last week, we saw the State...
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Cable: The City is a massive cesspit
The Independent reports: The Government was under growing pressure last night to call a public inquiry into the behaviour of Britain’s bankers as the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, admitted the...
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LibLink: Nick Clegg – Beware the risks and rewards of a banking union
Writing in the Financial Times this week, Nick Clegg warned: In the debate on banking union we back greater co-operation on various aspects of an integrated financial system: common rules on the...
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++ Barclays chairman set to resign
Breaking News from the BBC Marcus Agius is to resign as the chairman of Barclays, the BBC has learned. There will be an announcement on Monday morning, BBC business editor Robert Peston says. It comes...
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Nick Clegg wants to see more resignations at Barclays
The Press Association reports: Nick Clegg has ramped up the pressure on Bob Diamond by indicating he believed the Barclays chief executive should follow the lead of the bank’s chairman, Marcus Agius....
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Nick Robinson: Chancellor to announce banking inquiry this afternoon
From the BBC’s Nick Robinson: The government is to set up a wider inquiry into banking to report by the end of the year. It will not be a full Leveson-style public inquiry. However, it will be...
View Article++ Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond quits
Yesterday Nick Clegg called for more resignations at Barclays in the wake of the rate-rigging scandal. Well, he’s just got his wish in part fulfilled, with the news that chief executive Bob Diamond is...
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Barclays and the Bank of England: BAD rate-rigging and GOOD rate-rigging
The Barclays rate-rigging scandal has conflated a number of issues — Bob Diamond’s bonus, ‘casino’ banking, failed regulators — making it hard to get behind the media’s shouty headlines to understand...
View ArticleThe banking system was rotten to the core – Clegg
The deputy prime minister is interviewed in tonight’s Evening Standard, where he speaks about, among other things, his attitude towards the British banking system. Here’s an excerpt: “There is no doubt...
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Lib Dems should back a judge-led inquiry into financial scandal
I get why the Tories are opposed to a judge-led inquiry into the scandalous rate-rigging practices employed by Barclays and other banks: their experiences of the Leveson Inquiry show how scandals, even...
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PMQs: My honourable friend makes an important point
I think David Cameron broke his own record this week: (To Nicolas Soames) My right honourable Friend makes an important point. (To Julian Brazier) My honourable Friend makes two very important points....
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Opinion: Make the bankers pay
Back in May I posted on a distinctive message for the next election. This post looks at the defining global political issue since 2008: no, not the House of Lords; the financial sector. Long before the...
View ArticleLibLink: Stephen Williams says MPs should move their money from big banks
In an article in The Spectator, Stephen Williams argues: The Libor scandal has shown the UK’s banking sector in its worst light. The public has lost trust in the big banks and are concerned that their...
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Opinion: Brussels vs. the banksters
European Parliament building Almost no-one in the UK would these days dispute the fact that the country’s banking sector needs a serious overhaul to correct the runaway behaviour which helped nudge...
View ArticleOpinion: Britain has become a corporate state, not a free society
In the months after the financial crisis in 2008, I recall a conversation with an American friend of mine; we discussed the fallout and numerous rescue packages by countries. Financial media outlets,...
View ArticleOpinion: Don’t complain – walk out!
The story of UK banks is the one that just keeps on giving. While we may be shocked by the LIBOR scandal (even though – let’s face it – we don’t really understand whether we have lost out or benefitted...
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William Powell AM writes… Why we must protect rural banking
Almost every week brings news of the closure of bank branches in rural areas. As an Assembly Member in Wales representing a large rural region, I know at first hand the real effects of bank closures on...
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Opinion: Government must act to stop Basel reforms
Most of my working day is spent scuttling between sombre conferences on Central Banking best practice and meeting city economists to get their instant reaction to economic developments. So when an...
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Cyprus bailout plan: good idea, badly implemented?
Cyprus’s parliament couldn’t have been much clearer in its rejection of the plan, negotiated between eurozone members, to bail out the country’s failing banks. As a result, Cyprus is now turning from...
View ArticleThe Independent View: How the Payments Council is delivering a payments...
Since the beginning of the financial crisis there has been real appetite for reform into how our financial sector works and how we want it to operate. The Liberal Democrats have played an important...
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