FSA Meeting Today September 28th
Guido understands that the FSA's Directors meet FSA chairman Sir Callum McCarthy is no fool and is politically attuned having worked for both Roy Hattersly and Norman Tebbit in his time. He even proudly displays in his office a large picture of him and Blair grinning at each other. Nevertheless he will no doubt make sure somebody checks the numbers...
Previous stories.
15 comments:
I can't see the FSA taking this up. However, despite losing banking regulation to the FSA I believe the Bank of England still have responsibility to oversee the stability of the financial system and to protect against systemic failure.
It's hard to argue that a minnow like Up The Brothers could affect the whole system but failure by the FSA to regulate the banking sector properly could be part of a failure of the overall system, and thus within the remit of the Bank who could instruct the FSA to act.
OK so it's not going to happen but it would be funny. In the meantime the washing of cash for policy goes on.
I wonder if the Charity Commissioners (admittedly a deeply lax bunch) have a view on the use of UTB by registered charities - whose trustees have a duty of care over the safety of their funds, presumably.
Perhaps someone should ask the Commissioners.
If the FSA fail to follow the letter of the law the forthcomming Government (i.e. the Tories) will have sufficient reason to break the FSA up into smaller units within the Treasury. The rent in Canary Wharf alone must be worth 3 fully staffed hospitals!
Is it time for a FoI request for a copy of today's directors meeting minutes relating to Unity Trust Bank. Who said what ? (but we'll never know why).
If the FSA becomes the supine lackey of NuLab, then the whip needs to be taken up by the Bank of England and the membership of all those unions and charities that have deposits with Unity Trust Bank.
Treasurer's have a fiduciary duty not to risk monies by placing deposits in risky investments. They must satisfy themselves that the balance sheet of the deposit house is not extended or shaky.
Now is the opportunity for the Union moderates to show themselves. They now have the chance to rid the country of Blair and the rest of the gang of mendacious shits and do us all a favour.
Who will rise to the challenge.
I think this is potentially the worst scandal so far. (Strange how the cover-ups always seem to be worse than the original offence.) Well done to Guido for spotting it. However, I'm not optimistic it will cause Labour any damage for the following reasons:
1. The FSA directors are all lickspittle timeservers appointed to a sinecure by Blair and Brown, with virtually no accountability to Parliament or anyone else.
2. The Charity commission doesn't care about Labour corruption. Based in Liverpool, it seems perfectly happy that over 80% of all 'charities' receive almost all their funding direct from the Government (according to the Telegraph) in return for supporting Goverment policy.
3. The bank of England (ditto comments for point 1).
4. The mainstream press, who apart from one article buried in the Evening Standard have completely ignored this story. You would have thought that union members would be concerned/interested that a bank operated on their behalf would be in danger of going bust. But apparently not, according to the Guardian.
This reminds me of the Clinton era. He was accused of using private tax returns for political ends, receiving mob money, ordering Vince Foster's 'suicide' 'suicide' and bombing foreign countries on a bad domestic news day inter alia. Whether or not these accusations were fair, the only thing that the purient press could bring themselves to follow-up, however, was the cigar story. Yuck!
when wil nonentity nick break this story on the BBC 10 pm news ?
probably NEVER
Gadzooks, me thinks Guido must be on the wacky baccy if he believes that the FSA have the bolleaux to get involved in this business!
Just look at some of the board members:-
Sir Callum McCarthy an economist, say no more!,
Dame Deirdre Hutton Chair of the Food standards Agency (what about the effect of genetically modified foodstuffs?)
John tiner ex Arthur Andersen..whatever happened to them?
Clive Wilkinson, Chair of Heart of England NHS (spends £1.3m per year on one way journeys for patients!)
Who will risk getting the Black Spot and end prospects of future quango appontments?
Captain Chaos, my sentiments exactly.
Who was it who said, only a fool is independent?
Anyway, why are we even waiting from them to discuss it? From what they've said to Guido ('don't believe what you read on the internet', especially if it's anti-Labour), it sounds as thought they've already made up their minds.
What is not said will be far more interesting that what is not said, shurely? What is sorely needed is a Big List of Embarrassing Questions under FOI.
On an aside, my dad is so Old Labour that when he moved to a tiny Tory village in the heart of Toryshire, he defiantly painted the front door red before even starting to unpack the furniture. When I told him about this latest he turned purpler that Barney the purple dinosaur's big purple knob end and started to vibrate. I suspect many other unionistas will do the same - can we convey the message that their subs are under threat to the heart of flat-cap-flat-beer-stale-sandwich territory?
mikey
Very good idear as I have no faith whatsoever that the BBC or the MSM will investigate this scandle. Not until all the money has gone down the drain, anyway. It is the Trade Union members money after all not ours. As far as I can tell Tony Blair is more unpopular with many of them, than he is with many Tory voters.
Maybe letting Labour borrow the money and then the bank going bust is our only chance of ever getting ridd of this current revised form of British Nazi party.
When we elected this Labour government we clearly elected a socialist dictatorship that never intended to lose power whatever it had to do to keep it.
IMHO only a consistent 15% mid term Conservative poll lead will get some of the rats to start leaving the ship.
Too many in the state institutions have already sold their souls to these devils. They have morgages, partners, families and mistresses to worry about, like the rest of us.
Only when they think the game may be up will anything change, even a little bit.
I wonder why the date has been changed. The meeting has been rescheduled for the penultimate day of the Labour Party conference.
Think it might be related more to the fact that the entire City does bugger all in August.
At some point either Labour are going to have to pay back the loan or UTB will have to write it off. If Labour can't pay it back (which signs are it can't) then UTB will have to write it off, in which case it becomes a donation, busting Labour over the donation limit and hitting UTB's capital, in which case FSA will be obliged to do something to protect depositors from potential losses. In any event, this source of income from Labour has dried up, along with all the individual donations and loans.
Watch this space...
Why not New Labour the problem. The stigma of bankruptcy is much reduced these days. Let the old party go bust and set up a new one. "Labour 2007" led by Gordon. Blame it on the old boss (old what's his name). Or should that be "Labour 2008"...., "Labour 2009".... Has anyone guaranteed this debt?
Post a Comment