Austerity Measures Now - Banking Reforms Maybe Sometime

I notice that Vince Cable, the UK Business Secretary was trying to get some progress on banking reforms yesterday. There's a report due on the 12th of this month when The Independent Commission on Banking is likely to recommend that banks ring-fence their retail sides, from their investment (casino) sides.

I wouldn't bet on that happening any time soon. The Tory contingent in the ConDem Coalition wants to defer the changes until after the next election. All the usual suspects from the banking sector are outraged already, with their thinly veiled threats about how we're all doomed, if we try to do anything about their gambling addiction.

Vince Cable's Tory boss, Chancellor George Osborne is keeping schtoom at the moment and there seems there might be a bit of friction between the Lib Dem and Tory factions of the Coalition, but as far as I remember banking reform was one of the central issues at the outset of the Coalition. The other big issue was student grants, and we all know what happened to that (in ever decreasing circles - where the sun don't shine).

So the bankers are dragging their heels, which, of course, is their wont - and the minute they think we've all forgotten, they'll kick the issue into the long grass again. More likely, however, they'll just have to wait until "events dear boy", emerge to cause the nation some enormous distraction. Simon Cowell normally deals with that side of things.

Another thing the Coalition did when it cobbled itself together, behind closed doors in May 2010, was lock their selves into a five-year parliamentary term. So there we have it: Austerity measures for the hoi polloi, to pay off the gambling debts of the banksters, within a five-year term (there’s no other way because that other lot spent all the money - remember).

However, when it comes to pulling the plug on the fruit machines, we all have to wait until after the parliamentary term by which time they’ll have found another excuse to duck the issue. That's what addicts are like of course - always in denial, looking for excuses and blaming everyone else - but the rest of us are just as bad for, indulging them their addiction.

I think what they need is some 'tough love'. I’d suggest a visit from a super-nanny, but we all know how they feel about the Nanny State.

You have to admire the cheek of these characters in banking, when they try to justify their positions on the matter. It’s cute, in the original sense of the word. There was some crusty old character on Newsnight (UK TV), last night; I don’t know who he was, but there he was, bare faced, or tongue-in-cheek, (I still can’t make up my mind which) giving forth with words to the effect that the politicians bailed out the banks - not to refinance investors’ punts, but to protect the public’s savings.

I expect that’s true. (We overindulgent plebs have far too much influence over our elected representatives.) So I assume he thinks it would be a good idea for everyone just to continue putting the proceeds of our blood sweat and tears, from a deteriorating quality of working life into his casinos. We should all just take a punt that it’ll be there when the now privatised, utility companies dip into our bank accounts by means of the greatly encouraged direct debit system, with their inflated bills. Of course, that's their way of demonstrating that “we’re all in this together”.

Anyway, the bankers are howling with anguish at the anticipated reforms. As I understand it, they’re saying that if we tell them to stop gambling and creaming off our money it’ll put the recovery at risk, (is there a recovery?) because imposing such measures risks denting lenders’ confidence and cutting the supply of credit.

I’d gladly tell them into which part of their anatomies they should stick their supply of credit - but we’ve had little enough sun shining out of anywhere this summer. However, first I'd ask them to explain how they got their sticky fingers onto such a stash of cash in the first instance, when working conditions have been deteriorating so much over the last 30 years for the rest of us. Perhaps it could have something to do with suppressed wages and skyrocketing profit, which meant ‘the people’ had to take on debt to keep pace with the cost of living.

In reality, banking is about the only industry we have left now. Since the asset stripping of these past three decades, we don’t have an industrial pot-to-p*ss-in. I think it’s a prime example of putting our proverbial eggs all in the same basket case.