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For gods sake stop whinging. Yes banks got it wrong but it Suited Brown and Co as it made it seem everything was going well. We all know people that do not have the intellegence to look after their own finances and using credit cards to the limit, then they bleat about it being someone elses fault. Dont forget Brown presedided over the countries finances for 12 years and it was going down the pan 5 years ago as manufacturing was sqeezed by Brown to pay for Blairs extravgant policies. Now we all are paying the price even those that were prudent with their money.
You know what sickens me is that Brown & Blair & his cronies will all retire with plum jobs because they have cosied up to even more money grabbers in the EU.
We have just had 12 years of the most corrupt government in our history.

- Peter, Holbeach, 11/05/2009 17:57
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Estate Agents are also to be blamed for this whole mess that has brought the financial system to its knees, put the economy into recession and cost millions of people their jobs and quality of life. Estate Agents greed and irresponsibility has put house prices at stupidly and economy wrecking levels and still they put property on the market at boom time levels, and try to convince people that house prices aren't crashing/falling and will start rising to the moon at any moment. Estate Agents treat the public as if they were fools, i.e. without any respect, and use lies, deception, and underhand techniques as their main mode of operating their business. A whole generation is priced out of property. Another generation can't move up the ladder. And yet others are expected to ruin their savings and pension pots in order to help their adult children get a mortgage on a starter home. All this because of Estate Agent greed and irresponsibility. Estate Agents should apologise to the public like the Bankers and then should be tightly regulated to stop their greed from causing millions of people to lose jobs and millions of others to be priced out of owning a home. In the 1990s Estate Agents became hate figures of the time - the same is happening now if talk at work and in the pub is anything to go by. Estate Agents - you may not respect the public but you need to recognise how angry the public are with you and how little respect people have for Estate Agents.

- Dave, Birmingham, 30/04/2009 12:58
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Andyr, i find the fact that banks lend to people knowing they can't pay it back, simply bad practice.
It takes two to tango, people want money, banks want to lend. Tightening up this process protects both parties.

Banks need to take the lead on that.

- William Bailey, wgtn, 30/04/2009 10:43
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I amazed by that poll, would have thought Londoners had more intelligence than that.

Its convenient for Labour to continue this myth and shift the blame. I work in the City...this all started nearly two years ago in August within the banks...I remember the time well.

The government did NOTHING for 12 months after that despite the wriging being on the wall.

I think we probably would have been ok if the US had not let Lehman fail...that has been recognised as a significant mistake.

And finally...look at which banks have been propped up in the UK... Northern Rock (lends to UK customers), HBOS (lends to UK customers) and RBS (the only "City" bank).

These UK banks were lending to people who could not pay it back...there would be NO recession if people could pay back the loans.

- Andyr, St Ives, Cambs, 30/04/2009 08:07
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It's true that greed and ego infected the system at all levels but, surely, traders in banks and hedge funds were the vanguard. We now know that the super-brains were super-idiots all along.

- Richard Kennard, Welling, 30/04/2009 05:55
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anyone who supports capitalism is to blame - its such a short sighted gimme gimme gimme system and you yet you think it works because it affords you material luxuries.
Ha capitalism! A system promoted by the greedy...

- William Bailey, wgtn, 30/04/2009 01:15
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More to the point Bj its the mortgage brokers who lie and cheat so as to get their commission for the business not just the applicants

- Mike, London England, 29/04/2009 21:14
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Keith Price from Luton is the one labour voter thats been found thats what he is on poor chap, thought he had BSE at first

- Mike, London England, 29/04/2009 21:12
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Keith Price, Luton, England - ever heard the expression, "The buck stops here"?

GB wanted the job. He got it. There's a price to be paid. The fact that he was intimately involved in the shaping of the economic stressors and the like prior to becoming the top dog only compounds his culpability.

The Bankers etc? Yeah, they did what they are in business to do - make a profit. Its called capitalism, the market, whatever. The consumers were happy to go along with them when things looked rosy - but don't want to accept that they were involved in the collapse.

Wrong.

- Rogan, Irving, 29/04/2009 17:40
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hear hear, daniel from london and bj london, keith from luton what are you on ????

- John, New York, new york, 29/04/2009 17:36
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Overlooked: the lying cheating self certificating mortgage applicants who expected, along with the lenders, to turn a quick profit when the value of the property increased.

- Bj, London, 29/04/2009 17:08
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The only innocent one in all this, it seems, is Gordon Brown. keep up the good work Prime Minister

- Keith Price, Luton, England


Keith your priceless..hilarious. Do you do parties and Bar mitzvahs too?

- Ethan, UK, 29/04/2009 16:52
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Seems to me the only guy with any sense on here is Dave Davies. People who don't understand or know next to nothing of the problem should just shut up.

- Daniel, London, 29/04/2009 16:37
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The only innocent one in all this, it seems, is Gordon Brown. keep up the good work Prime Minister

- Keith Price, Luton, England, 29/04/2009 15:53
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It's simple. Everybody was greedy including bank bosses, but remember all those who borrowed the money as well. The Government didn't have to bail out the banks and especially didn't have to bail out their shareholders as they have. Could hve done the same thing the US did with S&L crisis, form a bad bank and force the banks to offload their bad loans or be shut down. We're guaranteeing them anyway so why not have any upside? Shareholders are wiped out, no fuss about people being paid for failure. So if you want to be angry with anybody it should be the idiots at No.10 & 11 Downing St.

- Mark, London, 29/04/2009 14:31
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Corporate lawyers are just as bad and should be accountable.

- Anikar, Londn, 29/04/2009 14:22
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Boredom Clown is the number one accused, this is what he said:

"The new model of regulation can be applied not just to regulation of environment, health and safety and social standards but is being applied to other areas vital to the success of British business: to the regulation of financial services and indeed to the administration
of tax. And more than that, we should not only apply the concept of risk to the enforcement of regulation, but also to the design and indeed to the decision as to whether to regulate at all."

Gordon Brown at the CBI Annual Conference in London, 28/11/05.

You can't squirm your way out of THAT, Clown, therefore, you are guilty, as charged. QED

- Ralph, London GB, 29/04/2009 14:05
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Yes Bankers are partly to blame but a complicit Govt / Treasury Dept also I think

- Wallytrader, London, 29/04/2009 13:38
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Too much sun Val?

- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, 29/04/2009 13:23
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Van - I think it's not so simple. This is all so chicken and egg. Why did the banks get into trouble in the first place? Yes they were lending irresponsibly, but it's also down to the consumer. If it ain't yours, then don't spend it. The materialistic society of today is desperate to have that new car or new TV even if they can't afford it. There is always a chance you will lose your job and not be able to repay. Supply follows demand. At the end of the day banks are financial institutions, companies, there to make profit, not to worry about whether something is morally wrong or right. It's all a cycal and by the very nature of a cycle there's no beginning or end so where do you really put the blame?

- Alex, London, UK, 29/04/2009 13:16
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The government assumed the directors of the banks would do whatever was best for the banks, not what was individually best for them for that year. The government were naive. The bankers are guilty of much bigger crimes.

- Alex C, London, 29/04/2009 13:06
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#Dave Davies

The thick one here is you if you think the bankers are blameless. Do you think Gordon Brown wanted to use hundreds of billions of taxpayers' money to bail them out, thus inviting the ordure being shovelled on him and his government. Or perhaps you think he should have let the banking system collapse, taking everybody's money with it. Your myopic views are beyond belief but nonetheless predictable for a Tory.

- Val Daniels, Mijas Costa, Spain, 29/04/2009 11:56
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I am saying the banks are partly, but not wholly to blame.
We have small business cycles of up to 7/8 years and large business cycles of 70+ years. These have converged on a downturn.
We have governmental financial missmanagement on a scale never seen before in the UK or US.
We have taxes on a historical high as a % of GDP. Who did that?
Oil pricing over 30 years has risen sharply, dropped and risen sharply again. Oil underpins a Western economy and price shocks have impacts.
Most importantly for me, we have the ongoing transfer of economic power from the "West" to the "East". It started with Japan but India and China have taken the mantle as powerhouses of growth.
We have the EU distorting local prices in a range of basics.
There is more but my fingers are tired, but banks are only bit part players in a much bigger global economy and a convenient scapegoat to deflect us away from the reality around us. Bankers, being highly paid also neatly fit this countries hate of wealthly individuals

- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, 29/04/2009 11:53
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In response to the question below, no, the overwhelming majority are not thick and I believe the majority are correct.

Many have dipped into the trough of supposed plenty, but the financial institutions have collectively driven economies to the brink. The Government for its part in this disaster will be replaced as hopefully will the failed regulator,the FSA.

However, there is still some way to go before the great and the good that have led the financials over the cliff in executive or non executive roles are held fully accountable.

- Mike, london, 29/04/2009 10:58
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Dave, Are you saying the banks are not to blame, they have to shoulder some of the blame with Gordon Brown, and the US banking policy leaders? Seems pretty obvious that the banking credit crunch caused by over agressive growth and risky practices, has resulted in this recession.

- Mike, London, 29/04/2009 10:38
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Dave, so the bankers are blameless then??

- Dom, London, 29/04/2009 10:36
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Why balme them? Its the Gov. who are 100% to blame no use trying to say anyone else. All Labour have demonstrated is lies,lies and more lies.

- Mike, London England, 29/04/2009 10:35
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As a regular visitor to the north of Watford, Londoners haven't even glimpsed what a recession looks like !

I too blame the bankers, and wonder why many aren't already in jail, stripped of their fraudulently obtained assets !

- Cap, london, 29/04/2009 10:31
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Not a good comparison!

- Angela, Essex, 29/04/2009 10:15
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I am glad its not the 1930s or they would be blaming the Jews. Are so many Londoners that thick?

- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, 29/04/2009 09:41
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