The House of Commons Justice Committee has published a report on the Crown Dependencies. It’s a weird and very confused document in a great many ways but then a friend in Jersey sent me an email which summarised the issue better than I could have possibly done, asking: What do you make of this please?
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Forced bank break-up makes sense, says financial stability chief | Business | The Guardian . Breaking up the UK’s banks into smaller and more resilient units was floated by the Bank of England today as one of Threadneedle Street’s top officials warned that tougher regulation might not be a strong enough response to the crisis
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GDP up – thanks to public spending and car scrappage | Business | The Guardian . The Guardian reports: Alistair Darling‘s insistence that the economy would still be stuck in recession without a leg-up from the Treasury was boosted today by news that public spending and the car scrappage scheme had been essential to generating
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I long for a real Labour voice to slam this City-fearing trio | Simon Jenkins | Comment is free | The Guardian . Simon Jenkins has written in today’s Guardian: Same old problem. Just when you need a Labour party there is none in sight – and clearly not one in the coming election. On
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FT.com / Europe – Irish banks face shortfall of €32bn. The FT notes: Ireland’s banks face a capital shortfall of up to €32bn, the country’s regulator and finance ministry said on Tuesday, with the Irish government liable for up to three-quarters of that figure. The black hole, equivalent to about 20 per cent of gross
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Gordon Brown likely to stay as PM in hung parliament | Politics | The Guardian . A hung parliament is increasingly likely. Are votes aying “Anything but Cameron”?

I have just got a transcript of a hearing before the House of Commons Public Administration Committee where Liam Byrne MP, Cabinet Office and HM Treasury was being cross examined by Labour MP Levin Hopkins, who asked: Q159 Kelvin Hopkins: That sits alongside the fact we have a weaker economy than Germany and a massive
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Post Office told to cut Bank of Ireland ties as it expands banking services | Business | The Guardian . The New Economics Foundation has campaigned for some time for a People’s Bank, and I have supported it in doing so. Now it looks like it may be on its way – based in Post
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FT.com / Companies / Banks – SEC launches ‚ÄòRepo 105’ probe . The FT has noted: US regulators on Monday asked more than 20 financial groups whether they engaged in transactions along the lines of “Repo 105” – an accounting device that helped Lehman Brothers conceal its high leverage ratio during the financial crisis. The
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