OK, I told you so about HSBC

Posted on July 17 2012

It was in March 2008 that I called The Rev Stephen Green (as he then was) the biggest supplier of corruption services in the UK.

I took a risk at the time. I, of course, described him as such in his role as first CEO and then chair of HSBC.

I think I can now quite safely say in the light of today's revelations about his bank that I was right to describe him as such, in that role.

His bank is nw likely to be fined US$1 billion for misdemeanours during his management for which he must have ultimate responsibility.

So now, the reasoneable questions that logically follow.

1) How long can he remain a minister?

2) How long before he is removed from the House of Lords?

3) How long before he is questioned about HSBC's assistance for money launderers?

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3 Responses

Ivan Horrocks says:

July 18 2012 at 9:21 am

Two or three Saturdays ago (before the G4S scandal emerged) Deborah Orr headed her column in The Guardian ‘Power without Responsibility’. In a nutshell it was an excellent dissection of the fact that what we have in the UK now is a private sector that wants all the power but accepts no responsibility when it fails to deliver due to incompetence or unethical, irresponsible or illegal behaviour. As Orr pointed out, this particularly applies to public services that have been privatised or otherwise outsourced to the private sector.

As far as I’m aware – and despite his dire performance before a slect committee yesterday – Nick ‘wide boy’ Buckles still holds on to his job at G4S and nobody has been disciplined either. To add to this, when Jeremy Hunt was interviewed on Ch4 News on Tuesday, he visibly smirked when Jon Snow asked him if any action would be taken against G4S, giving away the fact that there are a generation of politicians and public servants who believe – and indeed actively promote – the state being ripped-off by the private sector (no doubt with an eye on their future employment prospects, as it’s appears we are now seeing with our recently departed ex head of the civil service).

So, my answers to your questions, Richard, are:

1) As long as the government wants him to, as in the eyes of many in government he’s done nothing wrong even if he knew of these events and certainly not otherwise (i.e. power without responsibility as per Nick Buckles, Bob Diamond, Rupert Murdoch, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc).

2) Never.

3) In the UK, never. In the US maybe soonish, but don’t hold your breath.

Sorry to be my old cynical self again, but I’m afraid this is how it is.
- Richard Murphy says:
  
  July 18 2012 at 9:24 am
  
  I fear you are right
- Stuart Jones says:
  
  July 18 2012 at 9:36 am
  
  I don’t think you’re being cynical at all. That’s the way it is nowadays.