Sorry is still the hardest word
On the show today we're previewing tomorrow's big announcement from the Financial Services Authority, which regulates our financial system, on the future of banking regulation. Already it's and restricting the amount that can be lent to just three times your salary -- which is roughly the way it used to be when I bought my first flat (and dinosaurs roamed the earth). Canada had a rule that no mortgage could be more than 75% of the house value -- and its banking system seems to have survived intact (unlike ours or America's, where borrowing rules were much more lax).
When the history of this historic financial meltdown is written people will wonder why we allowed massive mortgages -- sometimes 125% the value of the property -- and paid scant heed to borrowers' ability to pay. Commentators today might wonder why the government (and the FSA) did not do anything to dampen down this sort of borrowing. Some might even think it's worth an apology.
Some in Westminster are saying that this morning is as close as we're likely to get from the PM to an apology. But he only expresses regret that he did not push for greater international regulation sooner and his support for international regulation is taking on a certain historic myth status. Those who are clamouring for an apology are not thinking of that: they are thinking of a system which allowed the sort of cavalier borrowing by consumers and companies mentioned above and of allowing household and public sector debt to boom when money should have been laid aside for the tough years (i.e. now). But Mr Brown either refuses to acknowledge their mistakes or recognise that he is culpable. That is why he thinks he has nothing for which to apologise.
We'll have to wait till Wednesday to see what the FSA actually recommends but it's clear he's also keen to reign in the excessive risk taking of our high street banks and that, in its way, will be an implicit criticism of the regulatory regime that went before. We'll be discussing all this with our guests -- of the British Bankers' Association, , Labour chairman of the Commons' Treasury Select Committee and former Conservative Party chairman .
We'll also be looking at the problems facing Britain's charities with the head of the Charities Commission, , and following the Europe Minister to Brussels where she's discussing the Working Time Directive with EU colleagues today.
That's all at Noon on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ2 and later on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ iPlayer.
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