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The perfect storm?Friday 27th Feb, 2009The furore over the evil Lord of the Dark, Sir Fred, and his dastardly plan to run off with all the loot, has served to confirm one thing above all else: the average British punter now takes matters relating to our banks very personally. In the past, fat cats were mere symbols of what people hated – they stood for inequality, injustice and greed. Doubtless their excesses were coming at a cost to someone, but who exactly wasn’t clear, and anyway, most of us would have given our right arm for the chance to be in their position. Now the symbolism has gone. The who is us, the cash is ours, they’ve nicked it and we want it back. But while all the fingers point mercilessly at Sir Fred, the bigger picture of the billions of tax-payer’s money propping up the banks gets obscured. Of course the Sir Fred story will come and go relatively quickly in the big scheme of things, but the legacy of everything that’s happening right now will be an ongoing personal interest of the tax-payer in how banks conduct their business.
With that in mind, how long is it before the perfect storm starts brewing on the horizon? Firstly you’ve got the evil bankers and their wicked money-grabbing, and then you’ve got the evil consultants and their wicked money-grabbing. Put them together and someone had better call Max Clifford a bit sharpish. Remember the row over the 2012 Olympic logo? You ain’t seen nothing yet.
The serious question, of course, concerns the impact that government ownership of banks will have on those banks’ ongoing ability (cost-cutting measures notwithstanding) to continue using consultants without public-sector-style scrutiny. By the way, did I mention my new consultancy? OJEU4FS Ltd.
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