Osborne accuses the FSA of "pulling its punches" on bank bonuses

George Osborne has attacked the Financial Services Authority’s new rules on how financial institutions should determine pay and bonuses.

The Shadow Chancellor said the FSA had “pulled its punches, leaving the promises of the Prime Minister and others to curb excessive bonuses absolutely worthless.”

He stressed, “Banks need to be told that the support provided by the tax payer is there to rebuild their balance sheets and resume normal lending; it is not there to help with mega payouts to bankers.”

“This failure to act is further evidence of the need to put an institution with the clout and authority of the Bank of England in charge, and that is what a Conservative Government will do.”

Where is the Government's strategy on the banks?

George Osborne stressed that taxpayers are “right to be angry” about Labour’s handling of the banking sector following the results announced this week by Barclays, HSBC, Northern Rock and Lloyds Banking Group.

The Shadow Chancellor said that “profits have been privatised and subprime losses have been nationalised” after Barclays and HSBC reported large profits, whereas the taxpayer-owned Northern Rock and Lloyds lost billions.

George attacked the Government for having “no strategy at all”, stressing:

"Time and again the Prime Minister and Chancellor said they'd stop big bonuses, now we see mega pay packages and massive bonuses off the back of taxpayers' money.”

“Time and again the Prime Minister and Chancellor assured us that they had binding agreements to secure more lending. Now we find lending is falling by unprecedented amounts.”

George also criticised the Government for failing to get the Asset Protection Scheme, which is vital to helping banks lend, up and running.

He stressed, “When it comes to banking this Government offers no leadership, no strategy, and no plan. We need a change of Government."

The not so enchanting tale of Brownocchio and Honest John the Banker

Once upon there was a puppet who dreamed of becoming a real PM. The problem was that the puppet was a very bad but prolific liar. He lied about everything and thought that he was too clever to be caught. He was also convinced that he was a bit of a guru when it came to economics and he was friends with a crooked banker called Honest John.

This Honest John also told the puppet that he was really good at economics and showed him a good time when the economy was going well.

When the economy collapsed however and the banker was broke, the puppet gave him all his money to help him out of trouble. He made a bit of a mistake though because he didn't even ask the banker to stop all of the bad things he did to make the economy collapse in the first place.

When the banker started to make money again he didn't want to pay back the money and he continued to do all the bad things he was doing before. He wanted to pay all of the money to his real friends who were also pretty crooked. He also decided to ignore the puppet and withdrew his support. He sent the puppet away turned him into an ass. The puppet tried to escape but he was swallowed by a giant whale...

...and we all lived happier ever after...

...well after the blue fairy came to power, banished the crooked banker and redistributed the power and the wealth fairly amongst the people. Ah well, one can but dream.