The Socialist 17 February 2009

Fight back now to stop job cuts

Anger as jobs slashed with an hour's notice

Car workers' jobs slaughter - begin the fightback!

Defend every job on the tube

Construction workers protest: Staythorpe power station

Isle of Grain picket

Meeting on Lindsey oil refinery dispute: Workers strike back

Why the bosses don't want an organised workforce

Stop fees

Students protest against attacks on Gaza

'Books not Bombs' at Nottingham

Concessions won at Queen Mary university

New Labour in blind panic

Regulators resign over financial meltdown

London Olympics battered by economic crisis

Yahya must stay Defend Saudi Arabian trade unionist from deportation

Coventry: Hands off our youth services!

Political vendetta against Tommy Sheridan

Wirral cuts: Fighting 'cultural terrorism'

Fast news

Defend the welfare state

Israel: Election results indicate a deepening political crisis

Costa Rica: Urgent solidarity action for unionists

Manchester Unison elections: Left candidates well supported

Usdaw presidential election: The campaign they tried to hide

Usdaw Activist public meeting

Fight the Unison witch-hunt

Launch of new broad left for Unite

Previous issues, etc

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Regulators resign over financial meltdown

GORDON BROWN carelessly managed to lose two key banking advisers last week. Sir James Crosby, former chief executive of HBOS bank, (which together with its merger partner Lloyds got £37 billion-plus emergency state aid last year) was deputy chair of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), advising the government on how to solve the mortgage crisis.

But Crosby had personally sacked 'whistleblower' Paul Moore - HBOS's former head of regulatory risks - after Moore told him that the bank was lending recklessly on mortgages and over-reaching itself.

By the time Moore was proved right, Crosby had become one of Brown's top advisers after leaving HBOS with a £9 million 'pension pot'. Crosby has now 'resigned' from the FSA.

Then, Glen Moreno resigned as acting director of UK Financial Investments, which oversees how bank bailout money, paid by our taxes, is distributed. Moreno had been a trustee of Liechtenstein Global Trust, a private bank accused of assisting large-scale tax avoidance.

Why did New Labour trust anyone who runs Liechtenstein banks? The bosses and rulers of Liechtenstein - population 35,000 - make many billions from rich people hiding their wealth from taxation.

Other capitalist governments have acted in panic to stop their taxpayers' money disappearing into this inland 'offshore' tax haven, but Brown gave advisory jobs to one of their biggest helpers and to one of the most bankrupt bankers.

Why were such 'pillars' of capitalist banking advising Brown's government on solving problems that they and their crisis-laden system caused?