Independent UK: Bite the bullet and nationalise the banks

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Steve Richards: Bite the bullet and nationalise the banks

The Prime Minister is the equivalent of a doctor asked to save the same life several times. At first the relatives are grateful but then they wonder why his services are required so often

Tuesday, 20 January 2009


The sums involved are staggering. The banks were more reckless than even the most pessimistic minister had feared. The previous much-hailed rescue package has failed. Now Gordon Brown steps in again.

Not surprisingly voters are alarmed as the Government navigates in near darkness armed only with billions of pounds of their money. They are not the only ones who are worried. Brown is bound to be fearful too, far from certain whether this latest throw of the dice will work and much more aware than he was about the frightening scale of the banks' toxic debt. Once more perceptions of him change and he "bounces" no longer in the polls. Currently the Prime Minister is the equivalent of a doctor who is asked to save the same person's life several times. Originally the relatives are grateful but then start to wonder why his services are required so often.

Yet in such epoch-changing times the long-term political consequences are as unpredictable as the economic ones. There is still an extraordinary mismatch between the sudden ideological confidence of younger ministers and the growing Conservative lead in the opinion polls. At a weekend conference organised by the Fabians, ministers spoke like liberated prisoners emerging from the darkness. They do not underestimate how bad things are and how much worse they might become, but for them the near-collapse of the banks is a form of ideological vindication. The mismatch became most vivid late on Saturday afternoon. As they delivered speeches about a new progressive era news seeped through of the last poll giving the Conservatives a 14-point advantage.

The huge gap between their new found confidence and deepening unpopularity is both easily explained and without obvious resolution. Anxious, angry voters turn against the Government as they pose questions which no minister can answer with complete confidence. Will the latest proposals persuade the banks to start lending again? Who is responsible in the end for the banks' toxic debt – the taxpayers or the banks that acted with such deranged irresponsibility? Will they get back the hundreds of billions of pounds that appear to be thrown at the crisis? .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-richards/steve-richards-bite-the-bullet-and-nationalise-the-banks-1451394.html