The blame game is played very differently in China and the UK. In China, the two executives most responsible for the tainted milk scandal get death sentences. In Gordon Brown’s Britain, no one is to blame for the financial crisis. Certainly not him nor the Governor of the Bank of England (who’s actually most to blame, see ASI Briefing Financial Crisis: Is regulation cure or cause?, nor Chairman of the FSA, nor any Bank director. The blame lies, he says, with global events and market failure, all nebulous concepts that cannot be penalised.
In Brown’s world, an engine driver who ignores red signals and runs his train into another is not to blame. It is a rail network failure.
The FSA was created, inter alia, to prosecute insider dealers. How many have they prosecuted in 10 years? Not one.
Obama has proclaimed a new age of responsibility. Good for him. Let’s see some recognition of personal responsibility here. Let’s strip Fred Goodwin of his £500,000 a year pension and let’s put Mervyn King in gaol.
