Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/550/6444
From The Socialist newspaper, 2 October 2008
The bishop and the 'bank robbers'
LAST WEEK the Archbishop of York, John Sentanu, attacked many business people - at the Worshipful Company of International Bankers' annual dinner! He singled out those "who made £190 million deliberately underselling the shares of [the bank] HBOS... and drove it into the arms of Lloyds TSB." He called them "bank robbers and asset strippers." Some sensitive souls complained.
Sentamu was speaking when the Bush administration was confident that its £700 billion 'rescue deal' would go through. The Archbishop quite rightly commented that this financial crisis "makes action on poverty look utterly achievable. It would cost $5 billion (£2.7 billion) to save six million children's lives worldwide. World leaders could find 140 times that amount for the banking system in a week. How can they tell us that action for the poorest is too expensive?"
Of course, Sentamu's Church of England itself makes enormous money on the finance market. Church assets of over £5.6 billion are invested, much of it in property and private equity businesses.
The finance executives effectively run the CofE and many other establishment institutions. Perhaps if Sentamu seriously wants to chase the 'money changers' out of his temple, he should join forces with the working class and put forward a socialist economic alternative!
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In The Socialist 2 October 2008:
Socialist Party editorial
Credit crunch
Bradford & Bingley: We need real nationalisation
The bishop and the 'bank robbers'
What is short-selling and will the ban have any effect?
Another nail in New Labour's coffin
Socialist Students
Lots of new recruits for Socialist Students
Global Warming
Climate change calamities: Socialist planning needed
Cuts and privatisation threaten new floods
Socialist Party workplace news
Local government pay dispute in Scotland: solid support for strike
Unison goes to arbitration - a strategy or surrender?
Union calls ballot over health pay
Unions must fight to defend Ford jobs
Lincoln - fight council cuts plan
Socialist Party campaigns
Comment
Socialist Party review
Liberty by Glyn Maxwell at Shakespeare's Globe
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