Well that didn't take long

When the 'LIBOR fixing' story broke, I immediately wondered who else stood to benefit from lower interest rates. The government was my conclusion and so I tweeted my thoughts but no more. Today I read in the Mail that:

'Leaked documents last night brought the interest-rate fixing scandal that has shaken Britain's banks closer to the heart of the last Labour government. They suggest that Baroness Vadera, a former Cabinet Office minister and one of Labour's chief economic advisers, told officials in 2008 that bringing down the rates which determine how much banks lend to each other would be 'a major contribution to the stability of the banking system and to the health of the economy'. A paper prepared by the peer with former colleagues at the bank UBS was headed 'Reducing Libor' – the name for the inter-bank lending rate at the centre of the scandal. The document was circulated among officials and Lady Vadera's ministerial colleagues at the height of the credit crunch in 2008 and concludes: 'Getting Libor down is desirable.' But the briefing note was prepared only days after Barclays boss Bob Diamond, who is fighting to save his job after traders at the bank were revealed to have made millions by fixing the rate, discussed the issue with Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker.'

As far as I am aware nothing, so far, points to Lady Vadera or her bosses Gordon 'light touch' Brown and Ed 'bully boy' Balls in any way requesting LIBOR rates be lowered artificially. However it is worth asking if this document shows how keen the labour government was to keep Libor then if/how that concern was communicated to bank bosses and how did they respond.

Friday morning catch-up (part 2)

Even more Firefox tabs that need closing.

1) The Spectator thinks that David Cameron is heading towards a 'crunch with Europe':

'No contraceptive is 100 per cent effective: not even if it’s called Oliver Letwin. For that degree of assurance, you need the snip. That is to say: an end to Brussels diktats once and for all. Either out of the EU; or inside it, operating under the original 1975 free trade deal alone. That, I suspect, will be the end result. A crunch is coming. The only question is how long we have to wait.'

I wish I shared their hope but I have severe woriies about David Cameron's soundness on this as on many policies.


2) ABC News decided to look at Barack Obama's two year record on Egypt, a fact-checking exercise. There's a lot, here's one part:

'As ably covered by the Washington Post’s Fact Checker – and former State Department reporter – Glenn Kessler, the Obama administration was far more quiet on the need for Egypt to engage in serious political reform, at least publicly, than the Bush administration.

Perhaps more glaringly, while the Bush administration tried to directly fund civil society in Egypt – pro-democracy groups and the like – the Obama administration changed that policy and cut funding significantly, ending an effort to provide direct funding to democracy groups not “approved” by the Egyptian government, and reduced funding in the budget for programs to promote civil society groups.

As Kessler writes: Bush’s final budget “proposed spending $45 million on democracy and good-governance programs in Egypt, including more than $20 million on promoting civil society…But that nascent effort was largely shelved when the Obama administration took office. For fiscal year 2009, the administration immediately halved the money for democracy promotion in Egypt; the civil society funds were slashed 70 percent, to $7 million. Meanwhile, money that was to be given directly to civil society groups was eliminated and the administration agreed to once again fund only those institutions that had Mubarak's seal of approval.”'

3) The Israel Project printed some photos that we in the West are never normally shown - of Israelis injured by rockets fired at them from Gaza. Here's one of' Five-year-old Lior Ben Shimmel who was seriously wounded when a rocket directly hit her neighbor’s home, where she was playing Jan. 16, 2008'

4) The Liberal Media's hate figure, Sarah Palin, Tweeted:

'Media: ask “Will Obama Admin exert as much ‘constructive’ pressure on Iranian govt to change & allow freedom ~ as they just did for Egypt?”'

The BBC and US Media appeared not to notice or ask the perfectly sensible question.


5) Working Class Tory doesn't think that the UK is a shining example of multiculturalism working in the past:

'British history has not been a successful one - if you're looking to find harmonious relations between the countries of the British Isles. We haven't a history of multi-culturalism, we've a history of ethnic and religious war. To pretend otherwise would have very few points of contact with reality. '

He even explains why Enoch Powell felt he had to speak out about immigration, of course quoting enoch Powell immediately removes your right to be listened to (according to the British 'left') but I am not of the left:

'Many, many conservatives oppose multi-culturalism and mass immigration precisely because when you have (or in the case of immigration, import) lots of different, and competing, communities, they will inevitably clash. Enoch Powell was motivated to speak out on immigration because he saw the atrocities that took place during the partition of India and feared something similar could happen in this country. '

6) The centre for Security Policy thinks that Barack Obama keeps bad company:

'President Obama’s trusted circle has been, if anything, even more problematic. For example, Mr. Obama has consorted with people who are revolutionaries, communists, liberation theologians and Islamists. Some have even been appointed “czars” in his administration.

At the moment, though, we must be concerned not only with who Barack Obama considers his friends, but with those who deem him to be one of theirs: The record suggests he must be seen as a “Friend of Shariah.”

How else can we explain the seeming inconsistency between, on the one hand, the president’s indifference to demonstrations in Iran last year that were vastly larger and more sustained than those to date in Egypt, and, on the other, his insistence after a week’s worth of protests in the latter that there be nothing less than complete “regime change,” starting immediately?

The only obvious common denominator is that, in both cases, Mr. Obama is pursuing policies favored by those who adhere to the repressive, supremacist and virulently anti-American Islamic political-military-legal program its adherents call shariah. In Iran, shariah is already the law of the land, ruthlessly enforced by the Shiite theocrats of Tehran. In Egypt, the Mubarak regime’s failure faithfully to enforce shariah is one of the principal impetuses behind the Iranian mullahs’ Sunni wannabe counterparts, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB or, in Arabic, Ikhwan).'

7) Someone, and I forget who, has got very excited by a court decision on Council Tax.


8) The Mail reported that

'Axing speed cameras has caused road deaths to FALL

Road deaths dropped 14 per cent in three months while speed cameras were being axed or switched off.

Fatalities over a year fell 21 per cent to a record low, Department for Transport figures show.'

Why is anyone surprised? I have predicted this for a while.


9) Terry Smith thinks that ex-Labour Minister and friend of Gordon Brown, Baroness Shriti Vadera, doesn't really understand what inflation is:

'When the panel was asked about inflation Shriti Vadera replied:

‘If you strip out the inflation that is being driven by essentially emerging markets, the scramble for resources, whether its food, water and commodities, and any other type of one off event like VAT increases, that the underlying inflation levels are not yet at any point that we should be worrying about.’

To which I retorted: 'I find that if you strip out the bad stuff, things are always quite good!'. The idea that there is no inflation if you ignore the things where the price is going up has a rather obvious flaw.'

10) PC World magazine explained

'Get Internet Access When Your Government Shuts It Down
Does your government have an Internet kill-switch? Read our guide to Guerrilla Networking and be prepared for when the lines get cut.'

Rat or pathfinder?

Many are saying that Shriti Vadera's resignation to work for the G20 is a case of a rat leaving a sinking ship. In this case I think not. Shriti Vadera has been very close to Gordon Brown for quite some time; I think it more likely that she is joining the G20 as a preparatory move to getting Gordon Brown a job at the G20, maybe a top job.

It must be nice to be in the loop!

The Labour government and MG Rover

Take a read of Alex Masterley on the odd story of MG Rover, Baroness Vadera and Peter Mandelson....

The end of banking

Further to my post on Friday, the banking system looks like being on the verge of collapse. News that the Treasury are to work non-stop over the weekend on a solution to the latest banking crisis does not inspire much confidence in me. The thought that they are being directed by Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, Shriti Vadera and Peter Mandelson makes me feel sick with fear; that gruesome foursome seem will screw this up just as they have virtually everything else for the past 11 years.

More on this when I get a leak...

In the meantime, just one question, the BBC are reporting that:

"The prime minister has demanded that banks admit how many "toxic assets" they have on their balance sheets.

Gordon Brown told the Financial Times the banks had to "come clean" about these bad debts so people could trust them again. "

Does that mean that previously Gordon Brown attempted to shore up the banks with a £37bn recapitalisation scheme without having a proper look at their books? Was that sensible? Was that prudent? Should he be held responsible? Will the BBC cover this angle? What do you think?

"The goats ... are breeding."

No they bloody aren't.

Peter Riddell in The Times writes:

"Originally, there were five, now there are eight. The goats, as the Lords ministers from outside politics are known, are breeding. The appointment yesterday as Trade Minister of Mervyn Davies, one of the few senior bankers to emerge undamaged from the latest crisis, highlights how Gordon Brown has changed the balance of ministers and their relations with Parliament.

Back in June 2007, Mr Brown talked about a government of all the talents (hence the acronym) and looked outside politics for Baroness Vadera and Lords Jones of Birmingham, Malloch-Brown, Darzi of Denham and West of Spithead. Lord Jones has since stepped down, but the October reshuffle brought the creation of three new goats: Lords Mandelson, Carter of Barnes and Myners. And now we have Lord Davies.

Each of these has big departmental responsibilties. In the past, all but a handful of Lords ministers were primarily spokesmen, answering questions and doing the tricky and often arduous task of carrying through legislation, but with no real role in their departments. This began to change under Tony Blair, but it has been taken a big step farther by Mr Brown.

...

Does the growth of the unelected ministers matter? There is an accountability question. Lords ministers cannot appear on the floor of the Commons: yesterday, Lord Mandelson watched from the Peers’ Gallery as Ian Pearson, his junior minister, answered a question on business loans. But Lord Mandleson had appeared earlier before the Commons Business Select Committee.

The real lesson may be for MPs. Unless more of them have greater experience of the world outside politics, prime ministers will include more goats in their administrations. But political skills also matter and few goats have them."

Stop attacking goats, but feel free to attack the likes of Peter Mandelson and Shriti Vadera.

"a few green shoots"

Oops, Business minister Baroness Vadera seems to have dropped a clanger - the BBC are reporting that

"Baroness Vadera was asked when the UK could expect to see some "green shoots" and replied: "It's a very uncertain world right now globally... I wouldn't want to be the one predicting it."

"I am seeing a few green shoots but it's a little bit too early to say exactly how they'd grow." "

"Insensitive" is the cry from the Conservatives. For myself I would like to know what these "green shoots" are and would suggest that an eye-test may be in order.

What did Gordon know?

The Rover debacle may be about to resurface and embarrass the beleaguered Gordon Brown. The "Phoenix Four" of John Towers, Peter Beale, John Edwards and Nick Stephenson were the scapegoat for the collapse of Rover just before the 2005 general election. I hear that they are now preparing a number of Freedom of Information requests so as to ascertain what the role of the Treasury was in the last days of Rover and what part Gordon Brown and his senior advisor Shriti Vadera may have played. Apparently there are rumoured to be some interesting emails that may help clear the names of the Phoenix Four and further sully that of Gordon Brown.

In theory the truth will out; but as ever when dealing with this Labour government that may not be the case.

Oh dear Darling

It would appear that as many expected, Gordon Brown is keeping firm control over the Treasury. The job of Chancellor of the Exchequer under Gordon Brown as Prime Minister was never going to be an easy job and not many people envied Alistair Darling his new position. The Northern Rock debacle has shown how much trust Gordon Brown has in Alistair Darling. It seems that Gordon Brown has been using his former Treasury "fixer", Shriti Vadera, to help resolve key financial issues; Ms Vadera who was ennobled in the summer, was allegedly involved in discussions with Lloyds TSB about a rescue deal for crisis-hit Northern Rock. If that was a one off that she only became involved in because Lloyds TSB is being advised by UBS the investment bank in which Lady Vadera was a senior executive before joining the Treasury then Alistair wouldn't feel quite so bad. However the Telegraph also report that Ms Vadera "is also said to be involved in discussions to water down Mr Darling’s proposals for reforming capital gains tax.".

Now of course all of the relevant parties have denied anything of the sort. "Shahid Malik, her boss at the Department for International Development has blocked their requests saying: "Ministers and senior officials meet a range of individuals and organisations to discuss policy and delivery issues. As was the case with the previous administration, the Government does not provide details of all such meetings."

Lloyds TSB declined to comment but a Treasury spokesman said: "No information on any proposed sale of Northern Rock has been provided to Baroness Vadera, nor have there been any meetings whatsoever between the Treasury and Baroness Vadera to discuss Northern Rock.

"Furthermore, it is incorrect to suggest that Baroness Vadera has held talks with Lloyds TSB, UBS or anyone else in the City on a potential takeover of Northern Rock. Tax policy is a matter for the Chancellor and decisions are made as part of the Budget process. Shriti Vadera has not been involved in discussions on capital gains tax.""

You can choose who to believe.


One interesting story to come out about Shriti Vadera, that may ring a few bells, is that she was the person who during the Railtrack High Court case described Railtrack shareholders as "grannies" who "added no value to the company".

The Telegraph reports that "One official noted that Lady Vadera was in many ways like a female Gordon Brown – fiercely clever, serious, demanding but loyal to those who perform." I do not know about Ms Vadera but I only associate two of those qualities with Gordon Brown.

As the economy collapses you can expect Gordon Brown to rely more and more on his unelected advisers and less on elected Ministers. The Ministers will be worried about their reelection chances whilst his advisers will not.