Tim Almond

From The Telegraph:-

“The Conservative leader launched a fierce attack on bankers who he said are failing to lend to business customers, threatening the future of many firms and jeopardising the UK economy.”

He’s said some stupid, protectionist, nannying things before, but telling the banks that they don’t know what their business is takes the biscuit.

He highlighted the case of a married couple in their sixties who run a small computer consultancy business.

They wrote to Mr Cameron to tell him about their bank’s failure to extend an overdraft facility while they waited for an invoice to be paid.

They told Mr Cameron: “The overdraft is well over £4,000; we continue to incur additional fees and interest rates on a daily basis, both by NatWest and by those whose payments we have missed.”

Mr Cameron said the case was an indictment of the banks’ recent behaviour.

“What a disgraceful way to treat good, honest, hard working people who are simply trying to provide for themselves and their family,” he said.

Tell you what, Dave, you lend them the money. Your wife’s filthy rich, so you’ve got the money, and you think NatWest have misjudged the case and there’s a sound investment there, get in and lend them it and make some cash. If you’re not prepared to do that, then why should NatWest?

Ministers are spending £37 billion of public money recapitalising major banks that faced collapse earlier this year. Mr Cameron suggested the banks should show more gratitude for that help.

“What a shameful way for banks to act towards the very same people - the taxpayers - who have supported them in their hour of need,” he said.

The man is an idiot, a thoroughly incompetent idiot with no grasp of what banks do, and no grasp of even the fundamentals of market economics. Banks lend to people who they perceive to be good risks to get a return. Whether the taxpayers supported them or not is irrelevant. That’s a past decision. They still have to work to the fundamental rule of lending to good risks. As taxpayers, that’s exactly what we want them to do. We want them to make lots of money so they make lots of profits (that we get) and we can see the share price rise, and then we get them sold off as quickly as possible.

In order to encourage more lending from banks, the Conservatives propose a temporary new Government body - the National Loan Guarantee Scheme - to underwrite directly lending from the banks to British businesses.

Government guaranteeing lending is a recipe for disaster that will end up riddled with corruption and political interference. Will it guarantee a loan to someone who wants to start a new lads’ mag? Will it guarantee a loan to someone starting a bar which markets cheap booze to younger people? Will it guarantee loans to a small company that wants to sell Hummers? You know that the minute it does, there would be a political outcry about government “sending the wrong messages”, or “being unrepresentative”. So, instead, businesses that get lent to will be those that tick the right boxes and make the right noises, rather than the best investments.

OK, anyone who plans to vote Cameron - here’s my question: Why? Why do you think you’re getting a Conservative in anything but name?

Tags: Politics //