Much ado about Mandy
Charles Moore writing in the telegraph.co.uk sums up many of our feelings about Peter Mandelson.
He asked: “Has he driven forward the necessary task of modernising and moderating a party that desperately needed to be able once again to run the country?
Or, we wonder, has he driven the country to the brink of a hung Parliament, a truly nightmare scenario where no one has a mandate to lead and uncertainty the order of the day. No one in finance wants that scenario.
Mandelson was out and about this week banging the drum for the digital, knowledge based economy and critical to keeping us in the global game, a matter close to the heart of many a banker not keen to see London lose its financial eminence
“Whenever I read the savage attacks on Peter Mandelson which come from both Old Labour and the Right-wing press, I find myself feeling a twinge of sympathy for him. The man is not a hypocrite. He is an effective minister,” said Moore.
The Bottom Line:If Mr Cable has his way...
"If Mr Cable had his way, all the big banks would be broken up and bonuses would be virtually eliminated - a sure-fire way in my view of guaranteeing an end to the UK’s ability to compete as an international financial centre. Let’s not forget that this is a man who is on record as saying that everyone who works in a bank has an ‘aristocratic lifestyle’ clearly demonstrating his lack of understanding of the sector." A tough line on bankers’ bonuses could make a brain drain of financial talent a distinct possibility, warns Paul Marsden. Read more