You could hardly think of a more embarrassing thing for Gordon Brown on the eve of the G20 than for his local building society to go under. But that's what has happened to the Dunfermline Building Society. From the BBC report HERE, it seems clear that the regulators, yet again, had taken their collective eyes off the ball. Yet more evidence that a single regulator is what is needed? And it's called the Bank of England.
Inevitably, the government is going to sink more money into rescuing the Dunfermline Building Society, and thereby saving Gordon Brown's face.
The worry thing is this. If it's the Dunfermline today, which one might next, because you can bet your bottom dollar it won't be the last.
20 comments:
Amazing how Labour can save Labour-area Northern Rock and Dunfermline BS, but ignore the real plight of Equitable Life pensioners.
We probably are not considered to be Labour voters ....
Alan Douglas
and who pray, from 1983 through to 2005 was the Member of Parliament for Dunfermline? Indeed am I not right in thinking he lives in North Queensferry, part of Dunferlmine Constituency.
I must admit when I first saw this on the news I thought...Dunfermline & Brown, a solid link! I do feel sorry for the building society but I wonder how much more money can be pumped into it to save Gordon's face.
"I wonder how much more money can be pumped into it to save Gordon's face"
No amount of money can saw old Jaw-Drop's face. Nor pumping in Botox, or even plastic surgery !
Alan Douglas
Brown will be impervious to public opinion when he pumps in the necessary millions to save this building society. The man is so deluded, he doesn't have a clue.
"Yet more evidence that a single regulator is what is needed? And it's called the Bank of England."
No. This is evidence that the single regulator model was too much a jack of all trades, master of none. There were a variety of regulators before the FSA and they were consolidated.
Yet again the Government absorbed lessons from the private sector - consolidation is cost effective - and applied them to an arena that was unsuitable. A general regulator may have been cheaper but what they did was wipe the slate completely clean. A variety of specific regulators will always be tasked with keeping their patch in order regardless of pressures from anywhere else. The independence of each regulator was paramount to their effectiveness.
Labour said to get the best we had to pay the best. Clearly we haven't. Nigel Lawson pointed out in a recent interview the old way was to employ retired people from those sectors at relatively knockdown rates. Poacher turned gamekeeper but with no commercial interest in their field.
Ditto Mr Douglas.
Appalling.
They made such great ads too.
I still cherish MGM Assurance - the company that boasted the company registration of 01 - all the way back to 1852.
Delicious, and timely, on the heels of his public dressing-down by Mr. Hannan!
More from Hannan here:
http://mainstreetmattersmore.blogspot.com/
More bailouts for Scotland.
Now HMRC has also moved its banking business from the Bank of England to the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Amazing.
What do you think Gordon has against the Bank of England - perhaps its the title ? ( Doesn't he realise it was founded by a Scotsman ? ).
"Gordon Brown demands new bank to destroy", read a headline in the Daily Mash recently. Seems it wasn't a joke.
Inevitable, says Dale. Sadly, the government don't agree.
Wait a second, this is a building society - what on earth were they playing at to have got themselves in such a state?
More public money will inevitably be pissed down the drain with this one; backed up by constant cat calls of 'we're doing everything we can to help hard working families' whenever the whole messy situation is brought up.
Alistair Darling's Treasury has refused the offer from the Scottish government of a £20m 'loan'.
It's his problem, he's a Scottish MP and his boss is one too. They're just so determined to bring Scotland to its knees. But that won't happen because the Scots are made of stronger stuff and will learn a lot quicker from this financial crisis.
Why is only the banking and finance industry bailed out by Gordon during this recession? Can anyone explain why the welfare of time-served engingeers in manufacturing is given less value than cashiers'? Is it because the Treasury knows it made mistakes and hopes to quickly disguise them from the electorate with money screens? If a car or van firm or a pottery works gets crunched the global recession can be blamed because manufacturing industry lacks even one (not three) regulators.
Iain, Sorry to correct you but there will not be a bail-out. The building society will be be put on the market. Off course it is embarrassing for Brown. What isn't these days!
Anyone notice a trend in the worst banking mess-ups? 2 biggest banking disasters in UK-
Royal Bank of Scotland
Bank of Scotland (about 80% of the huge HBOS losses were BoS Corporate)
Now Dunfermline- OK much smaller but still largest building society in Scotland.
And Scots used to have a reputation for prudence. Oh. Ah. Oh dear, and another one is PM...
It should be allowed to go under. It is not too big to fail. This is setting a precedent that will cost the tax payers. Is nobdy allowed to fail. This reminds me of the politically correct fools saying "it's not failure just deferred success". Well how do we know who to let fail? It's called Market evolution. The fittest survive. Without it the whole economy will eventually fail.
JoeF 4.48pm
This is a conspiracy theory that I have been putting forward for some time. I cannot prove any of this, but I think there was a plan for Scotland to become a very large player in the financial industry. I also think McBust had some involvement and the large extra payout to Fred was hush money.
and the BBC Website's lead item is:
"Brown offer to Dunfermline savers
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has moved to reassure savers in the Dunfermline Building Society their money is safe. "
This is off the map.
For the first time in this debacle, and probably for the wrong reasons, they have done the right thing and let it go.This is what they should have done with NR, RBS et al..
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