This week has been a bad one for the government as investor in bank shares. If they go ahead with their purchases of HBOS and RBS, taxpayers will be sitting on an immediate loss in excess of £8 billion.
At a time when money is scarce and people are overtaxed, is this a good idea? Why not support the banks in a cheaper and less risky way?
Shouldn’t the PAC open an enquiry into this use of public funds?
About John Redwood
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College, and has a DPhil from All Souls, Oxford. A businessman by background, he has been a director of NM Rothschild merchant bank and chairman of a quoted industrial PLC.
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I am sick to death of politicians dithering and looking to set up committee after committee. Earlier decisive action by government both in the UK and in the US may have averted much of the problem faced at the moment.
By allowing banks to collapse in both markets this has created a nervous investor market leading to much of the erosion of shareholder value.
I accept that banks have acted with disregard in the past however this also comes back to government via the regulators
I am also lucky to be young enough not to be looking to draw on a pension, but I feel saddened for those that are caught in this mess for no fault of their own.
This is a time of decisive action not dithering
Mr Brown and the Chancellor are both ex students who were very, very left wing in their youth.
Nationalising banks must have been talked about then. Now they have their dream! They think they are in full control of the money supply!
I do not think they are going to let go that easily.