The Government should avoid playing fast and loose with the banking system - Yorkshire Post Letters

We are still living through the after effects of the 2008 Banking crisis and the austerity that followed. Austerity has resulted in the withering away of our public services and the NHS over the last twelve years.

The poor long-suffering taxpayer had to bail out Northern Rock and the rest of the under-regulated banks who acted in a thoroughly irresponsible manner.

I grew up in Canada which has traditionally maintained a cautious and well-regulated banking system and therefore avoided much of the 2008 banking crisis.

The Canadian banker Mark Carney was brought in as Governor of the Bank of England and with it he provided a sense of probity and honesty to the British banking system.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced his new plan to deregulate the Banking system in order to stimulate economic growth.

The famous and notable economist Professor Sir John Vickers has warned that Jeremy Hunt’s relaxation of the rules could rebound on us very badly and repeat the mistakes of 2008.

This poses the question, ‘What lessons has this government learned’? Very few seems to be the answer.

We are now suffering from the effects of a disastrous Brexit which has resulted in a severe decline in exports to the EU and in turn provided us with little if any economic growth over the past years, it has also produced a severe balance of payments deficit.

Yes, to a lesser extent Covid and the Ukrainian War had an effect, but not to the extent that an ill thought out Brexit has.

The Government had a responsibility for its citizens' physical and mental wellbeing. This should extend to Britain’s finances. It should therefore stop playing fast and loose with the banking system.