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How about bailing out those hit hardest by the slump?
WE launched this newspaper 26 years ago with the help of a loan from HSBC’s predecessor – Midland bank.
The loan was guaranteed by a scheme initiated by Mrs Thatcher’s government to encourage small businesses.
Within 18 months we had repaid the loan – and were operating successfully in the black.
That scheme made sense. We weren’t given a blank cheque. We had to first convince the bank we could make a success of this newspaper before we were lent a penny.
But what about the billions that are being poured into banks today? They appear to be getting a blank cheque.
“We need help,” whine the banks – and Gordon Brown heeds their call.
In the US, the $700 billion handout – to some extent – is tied in with, admittedly, an inelegant raft of controls over the operation of the banks.
Quite rightly, the Americans don’t believe the greed of bankers should be rewarded with a bail-out.
The same argument can be applied here.
The failed post-war industries – coal and rail, for instance – were never properly nationalised.
They were bailed out, too, and run bureaucratically – with no democratic control by employees.
The nationalisation of banks today should be done differently – with representatives of the public and the staff put on the boards and an end to the nauseous bonuses paid to executives.
Here executives have been paying themselves millions of pounds, leading a life-style equivalent to the Bourbons in France in the 18th century.
A strategy should be put in place to curb repossession of homes. The monopoly energy companies should be windfall-taxed.
In France and Germany, gas and electricity prices are pegged. Here, energy companies are allowed to do what they like.
As we argued before, the government should finance a massive council housing programme.
In the next two or three, or more, years, the private property market will remain lifeless.
But will Gordon Brown take this course? The signs aren’t promising.
Today, Britain has slipped into political apathy. If we have to endure a slump, the only gain will be made by populist parties who will target everyone but the true culprits. |
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