Britannia Radio

Readers would go on a hunger strike if I downloaded here all that is  
in the press today about the complete breakdown of the government’s  
policy for our crippled banking system.  We started off with two  
banks in deep trouble - HBOS and RBS.  We now have the whole of our  
banking system paralysed, with a workable bank (Lloyds] dragged by  
Gordon Brown personally into a disaster,  and all paralysed at  
astronomical cost both now  and for generations to come.

So I will for now -  and in this posting -  confine myself to one  
paper and after its leading article today give the headlines on page  
after page.  The main section of the paper is dumbed down to avoid  
the big news altogether and just deals with the pension scandal, but  
it sure makes up for it in the Business section.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx cs
TELEGRAPH     (Leader)         27.2.09
Dirty tricks as Alistair Darling dozes at the wheel
If the leak about Sir Fred Goodwin's pension was a government idea,  
it has backfired.

Telegraph View

The leaking late on Wednesday night of the details of Sir Fred  
Goodwin's £693,000 annual pension from RBS, the bank he led to the  
biggest corporate loss in British history, has the grubby hallmark of  
a Labour dirty tricks operation. It was guaranteed to provoke outrage  
from a public already sick to death of the excesses of the bankers  
who have landed us in the mire. As the hapless Sir Fred took his turn  
in the stocks, perhaps the true scale of the Government's failure to  
resolve the banking crisis – as evidenced by yesterday's second bank  
recapitalisation – would get lost amid the sound and fury.  [I  
suggested this yesterday when I questioned the authenticity and  
motivation of the BBC’s Robert Peston’s inspired leaks -cs]

If that was the plan, it backfired. For the Goodwin pension debacle  
has served once again to expose the seemingly fathomless depths of  
Treasury cack-handedness. Alistair Darling said that the first he  
knew of the size of the Goodwin pension package was last week. Yet  
Stephen Hester, the new RBS chief executive, revealed that the  
pension was agreed last autumn between the bank's old board and the  
Government. Either Mr Darling is not telling the truth – and no one  
believes the Chancellor to be a dishonest man – or he has been  
stunningly incompetent. The fate of RBS was the biggest file in his  
in-tray. The idea that he failed to check the precise details of such  
an incendiary item as Sir Fred's pay-off details is jaw-dropping.

Once again, the Chancellor of the Exchequer gives every impression of  
dozing at the wheel. Blaming underlings is no answer; the buck stops  
with him. So what confidence can we have in him when he stands up in  
the Commons, as he did yesterday, and unveils an Asset Protection  
Scheme involving sums of taxpayers' money that are beyond computing  
for most mere mortals? This is the last shot in the locker and has to  
work. But will it? Remember Mr Darling's words at the time of the  
first recapitalisation last October? He said the gigantic injection  
of public money into the banking sector would "get lending started  
again". It has not. And it would take the most enormous leap of faith  
to expect the latest bail-out to be any more effective.

In the past couple of days Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial  
Services Authority, and Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of  
England, have used appearances before the Treasury Select Committee  
to castigate the Government for the "hands off" approach it took to  
banking regulation while the credit bubble was inflating. Has the  
Treasury been any more diligent when crafting its latest,  
stupendously expensive rescue attempt?

Regrettably, under its present leadership, we cannot be confident  
that it has.
=========
HEADLINES THROUGHOUT THE PAPER TODAY,  27.2.09
Pages
1. Treasury approved £700,000 pension . says ‘Fred the Shred’
     - Brown and Darling are accused of breathtaking incompetence
4-5. How much did Brown and Darling know of Sir Fred’s £17m deal?
   -Shares in ‘phantom ‘ chancellor fall to new low
   - PM did run up too much debt, says King
21. A giant bonus for foes of capitalism
22. Indiscipline, chaos and decay: this is how governments die.
23. (Leading article as above)

B1. Taxpayer will own 95% of RBS.  Bank to place £325 bn of assets on  
government’s insurance scheme
   - State facing £50bn for RBS toxic debt
   - Whistleblower says HBOS chief given riski warnings

B3. Excessive interference on lending could land RBS with more toxic  
debt
   - “RBS and Lloyds nationalised in all but name” - Bank governor  
tells MPs
   - Default rate ‘will exceed peaks hit in depression’ [1930s].  
Credit expert predicts economic implosion.
   - RBS pledge to lend £25bn more this year welcomed/

B5. Dumping bad debts comes with few conditions.  Insurance for toxic  
assets is generous to a fault  - for banks

[BUT That’s not all,  as the web is continually updated so here are  
at lunchtime the main headlines from the same paper! ]

WEB HEADLINES (excluding any above!)
HOME PAGE

Prescott: Ministers must answer for Goodwin row
Former Labour deputy prime minister John Prescott says British  
government has questions to answer over the £693,000-a-year pension  
paid to Sir Fred Goodwin.

Lloyds shares drop after £10.8bn HBOS loss
Lloyds Banking Group shares fell after the bank confirmed it plans to  
dump toxic loans in Government's asset protection scheme.

House prices fall to 'lowest level on record'
Annual house prices have shrunk to a record low, according to Land  
Registry figures.

FINANCE
Lloyds shares drop, fails to agree asset protection
Lloyds shares fell after the bank confirmed it's in "advanced" talks  
to dump toxic loans in the Government's asset protection scheme, but  
failed to reach agreement on the terms

Sir Fred Goodwin refuses to return pension
Sir Fred Goodwin has refused to return his £693,000 pension from  
Royal Bank of Scotland and claims a minister approved the deal.