Gordon Brown has always been in favour of stronger bank regulation!

Well that's what he keeps claiming; the truth, of course, is somewhat at variance with his claims. Here's a couple of examples:

"Last year we set out radical proposals for changing the way we regulate: minimising the administrative burdens of regulation; and ensuring that the realities of regulation, as you experience them on the ground, are transformed -- by moving away from the old blanket approach, of 100 per cent form-filling and 100 per cent inspection that is inefficient and wasteful of your time, to a new approach based on risk… And I believe, too, we should consider how we can continue to extend our risk-based approach, applying the concept of risk not just to the enforcement of regulation, but also to the design and indeed to the decision as to whether to regulate at all… And we will take the fight on deregulation to Europe." - Gordon Brown's speech to the CBI on 5 June 2006

"...on regulation: I have announced measures - both for the City and beyond - to tackle unnecessary and wasteful bureaucracy and red tape:

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all new FSA rules subject to scrutiny by our competition authorities;
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the Office of Fair Trading now specifically examining the impact of the financial sector regulatory framework on competition;
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and because 40 per cent of new regulation - and as much as three quarters of new financial sector regulation - comes from Europe I can tell this gathering that having won the battle for a Savings Directive against tax harmonisation, Britain has, having consulted widely with you, already insisted on improvements to the Prospectus Directive, the Transparency Directive, the Market Abuse Directive, the Occupational Pensions Directive and the Investment Services Directive - and we will continue to resist inflexible barriers being added into the Working Time Directive and the Agency Workers Directive.

And now that the UK Government has agreed with Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg to put regulatory reform at the heart of our four EU Presidencies through to 2005, putting every costly and wasteful regulation to a competitiveness test, we must ensure that if other countries fail to implement EU Directives we will not be discriminated against and there will be a level playing field." Gordon Brown in his 2004 Mansion House speech

Not entirely straight with us over this subject, as with so many, is he?