Who Will Take Responsibility for Our National Humiliation?

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Who Will Take Responsibility for Our National Humiliation?

Iain Dale 10:04 AM

I'm not going to even attempt to analyse the acres of newsprint to the unfolding (second) banking crisis, except to say that the claim by the Prime Minister to have saved the world with his first bank bailout sounds even more hubristic than it did at the time he made it.

In these situations it is easy to dish out blame. And it's right to do so because those responsible for bringing this country to the brink of economic ruin should accept their share of responsibility.

And then they should take Jeff Randall's advice in those trailers for his Sky Newsprogramme...

What should they do? If it was me, I'd resign.

But it's not just the bankers who are to blame, although they must certainly shoulder most of it. It's the tri-partite regulatory system which needs to be held accountable. Where are the political resignations? Where are the resignations from HM Treasury? Where are the resignations from the FSA, and lastly where are the resignations from the Bank of England? Clearly, we can whistle for them.

We really are now in uncharted waters. It's clear that neither the politicians in government nor Whitehall civil servants have anything resembling a strategy. They govern by events without being able to spot the next crisis about to hit them. They govern by soundbite and are obsessed by one thing - giving the appearance of activity. Any activity.

Incredibly, there is a real school of thought developing which truly believes this country is heading for national bankruptcy - and it's not just right wing doom mongers, who believe that. Our national humiliation has some way to go yet before we reach the economic or political nadir, I fear.

If things get really rocky and we have to go to the IMF for a bailout, there would have to be an election. And the way things are going, that might be sooner than later. I hope Messrs Osborne and Clarke are already composing their national rescue plan. It may be needed sooner than they think.