Links between the Government and the banking sector have been condemned in a new report that has uncovered the extent of the old boys network at the top of British public life.
According to the study, which identified key individuals who have moved jobs between politics, financial institutions and the bodies charged with regulating the banking industry, Britain has a greater culture of cronyism than anywhere in Europe or even the USA. The report is to be presented to the Global Forum on Public Governance in Paris this week and warns that the close relations between business and politics "lead to a conflict of interest at best and a suspension of critical faculties at worst".
The research looked at revolving door connections, where a company employs former or current politicians, civil servants or members of regulatory bodies, or where individuals move from the financial sector into politics, Government or regulatory bodies. Bastardlays was the most connected British-based company with 14 revolving door connections. Two examples from the dictator-supporting tax-dodgers are Mark Clarke and Sarah Cox. Clarke is director general of finance at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, but worked at Barclays from 2000 to 2003. Cox was an international consultant at Barclays from 2001 to 2004 and has since joined the UK Cabinet Office.
"The Government and the political classes have very close links to the banking industry" said the report's author David Miller, a Professor of Sociology at Strathclyde University, who specialises in lobbying research. "I believe this could be one of the factors behind the disaster that has befallen the financial markets. There has not been any regulation of these connections."
The organisations with more than five revolving door connections are Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS / Lloyds Group, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Dexia Group, HSBC Holdings, JP Morgan Chase, Standard Chartered Bank and UBS. Of six individuals with RBS connections, one is Quentin Davies, a Labour MP and minister at the Ministry of Defence, who was an RBS adviser until 2003. Another is Sir Philip Hampton, RBS's chairman and former chief executive of the Government-owned UK Financial Investments (UKFI).
Perhaps the best known person with HBOS connections named in the report is Sir James Crosby, who was chief executive of the bank from 2001 to 2006 before leaving to become deputy chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the body supposedly regulating the financial sector.
Bastards ... slimy bastards all over the world!
According to the study, which identified key individuals who have moved jobs between politics, financial institutions and the bodies charged with regulating the banking industry, Britain has a greater culture of cronyism than anywhere in Europe or even the USA. The report is to be presented to the Global Forum on Public Governance in Paris this week and warns that the close relations between business and politics "lead to a conflict of interest at best and a suspension of critical faculties at worst".
The research looked at revolving door connections, where a company employs former or current politicians, civil servants or members of regulatory bodies, or where individuals move from the financial sector into politics, Government or regulatory bodies. Bastardlays was the most connected British-based company with 14 revolving door connections. Two examples from the dictator-supporting tax-dodgers are Mark Clarke and Sarah Cox. Clarke is director general of finance at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, but worked at Barclays from 2000 to 2003. Cox was an international consultant at Barclays from 2001 to 2004 and has since joined the UK Cabinet Office.
"The Government and the political classes have very close links to the banking industry" said the report's author David Miller, a Professor of Sociology at Strathclyde University, who specialises in lobbying research. "I believe this could be one of the factors behind the disaster that has befallen the financial markets. There has not been any regulation of these connections."
The organisations with more than five revolving door connections are Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS / Lloyds Group, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Dexia Group, HSBC Holdings, JP Morgan Chase, Standard Chartered Bank and UBS. Of six individuals with RBS connections, one is Quentin Davies, a Labour MP and minister at the Ministry of Defence, who was an RBS adviser until 2003. Another is Sir Philip Hampton, RBS's chairman and former chief executive of the Government-owned UK Financial Investments (UKFI).
Perhaps the best known person with HBOS connections named in the report is Sir James Crosby, who was chief executive of the bank from 2001 to 2006 before leaving to become deputy chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the body supposedly regulating the financial sector.
Bastards ... slimy bastards all over the world!
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