Miliband's Silly Demand

Mr Ed Miliband demanded in a speech at the Fabian Society this morning that there be a full, open and independent inquiry into banking. He was outraged this afternoon when he learnt that the government hasn't gone along with his request and are instead to launch an independent review into the manipulation of the Libor rate and how the Libor rate should be set in future. This review will be set up this coming week and will report before the end of the summer. Despite Mr Miliband's frustration the last thing we need is another Leveson type inquiry which would take forever, become a platform for all sorts of egotistical maniacs like Gordon Brown, Blair, Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and possibly even Hugh Grant to strut their strut and decide nothing much. London is a business centre and after this banking scandal needs to get back to business as soon as possible. An urgent review reporting quickly must be the most sensible way forward particularly as its findings can be included in the Financial Services Bill to put right all the horrendous things Labour got wrong in their much hyped lulu of a Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, an Act with which for my sins I had to work from time to time. One thing the Financial Services Bill will sadly not do is sort out the eurozone mess which despite the euphoria yesterday did not result in Mrs Merkel caving in. Open Europe maintains here that Mrs Merkel did give a little as there has been a shift of the burden from governments and banks in the eurozone periphery countries to taxpayers in the north. Nothing fundamental was though solved at the summit as the bail out funds are still too small, the Spanish banks still face huge problems and EU loans will still rank ahead of other debts. The Irish will no doubt benefit from what was agreed at the summit and Open Europe also think there is some merit in the ECB taking on a supervisory role in the eurozone area although how the City's position can be protected is going to raise all sorts of problems, unless of course we exit the scene at this point. This is something which Cameron says the voters are going to have no say in. He's wrong as they will have their say at an election if not in a referendum.