Published: FT Letters, 24 September 2010
Sir,
The speech by Vince Cable, the business secretary (reports, September 22 and 23), has overshadowed statements made by Lord Turner at the Mansion House on Tuesday evening, reflecting on the causes of the global meltdown and the consequences for the UK (“FSA’s Turner attacks poor policies”, September 21). I have a great deal of respect for Adair Turner and worked closely with him in 2005 on his excellent work on pension reform.
However, while of course there is some truth that the lack of global regulation (and adequate domestic safeguards) contributed to our weak defences against the avarice, greed and downright irresponsibility of individual financial institutions and businesses, blaming politicians for failure of the market is a bit rich.
After all, it was those espousing the primacy of such markets who were the first to tell politicians to keep their noses out and that market mechanisms would deal with the rogues and weaknesses which arise from human frailty.
After all, we still, even in these libertarian times, blame the burglar for theft from our homes – not the fact that we didn’t have sufficiently robust alarm systems, or shutters over our windows!
Rt Hon DAVID BLUNKETT MP (Lab, Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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