The UK would do well to force Gordon Brown to resign, and for a new government to be created. Who would take his place? Surely no one among the Tories, as they planted the seeds for this debacle and remain unreformed and unrepentant.
In the US, we have done something emulating this already, using our process of regularly scheduled elections and the repudiation of the Republican party principles (or lack thereof).
However, it remains most unsatisfying and discouraging that Obama continues to put pressure on the Congress to 'just move on' and not investigate any of the abuses of the past eight years, and points of Constitutional excess that led us to this point, or engage in meaningful investigation and reform of the monied interests who are such heavy contributors to the Democratic party.
He looks less like the Lincolnesque figure his admirers assume him to be, and more like a small time dealmaker from the Chicago machine.
He can do better than this. And we the voting public deserve better. Obama needs to grow a principled backbone worthy of his words.
UK Independent
Blame Brown: Revenge of the whistleblower
By Margareta Pagano and Jane Merrick
February 15, 2009
A former HBOS executive says he has documents that prove the Prime Minister must take responsibility for the mess in the markets
The HBOS whistleblower whose revelations led to the resignation of one of the Government's top regulators is about to release a tranche of documents which he says point a direct and accusatory finger at Gordon Brown's responsibility for the banking crisis, and has called on the Prime Minister to resign. In a further blow to Labour, an Independent on Sunday poll showed voter support for the party evaporating, leaving it only a few points ahead of the Lib Dems.
Paul Moore, the former head of risk at HBOS, told the IoS that he has more than 30 potentially incendiary documents which he will send to MPs on the Treasury Select Committee. He says they disprove Mr Brown's claim about the reasons for HBOS's catastrophic losses – now estimated to be nearly £11bn – and show that it was the reckless lending culture, easy credit and failed regulation of the Brown years that led directly to the implosion of British banks.
After Mr Moore's explosive testimony at the MPs' banking hearing, the Prime Minister had denied the former executive's central charges and said that HBOS's difficulties were due to its flawed business model. Mr Moore says his documents refute this and prove the cause of the crisis can be laid at Gordon Brown's feet. He believes Mr Brown's failure to intervene over the reckless lending undertaken by all the banks over the past decade means he should go. "The failure goes right to the heart of the system – to the internal supervisory system and right to the top of government."
Mr Moore told the IoS yesterday: "Brown must go. He cannot remain in office. He has presided over the biggest boom in the history of the country as well as one of the biggest busts. But he promised no more boom and bust. He must be held accountable for his failure to oversee the stability of the country.
(Obama's blocking of congressional investigations of the abuses of prior administration is a kind of professional courtesy among politicians that is not warranted nor serving of the public interest, only of the concept of a class of ruling elite. And his appointment of Larry Summers and other appointments that fail the integrity test is a disgrace. - Jesse)
"Brown presided over a policy based on excessive consumer spending based on excessive consumer credit based on massively increasing property prices, which were caused by excessively easy credit which could only ultimately lead to disaster. But no, in Gordon's mind it was all caused by global events beyond his and anyone else's control...."
(Gordon Brown pales by comparison to the enormity of Alan Greenspan's serial malfeasance and advocacy for ruinous policy errors. - Jesse)
He says the papers – which he has kept from his time in his post as head of risk, from 2002 to 2005 – show that HBOS was involved in a huge sales drive to win market share which ultimately led to its collapse. Mr Moore claims that the "driven sales culture" was led by Sir James, and this, plus the "staggering failure" of the Government to manage the economy, had forced him to speak out. "Brown swaggers around holding himself out as the economic saviour of the world with a level of hubris that defies belief. But does he ever acknowledge that it was he, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, who presided functionally over the economic strategy that got us into this mess in the first place?"
As a trained barrister, Mr Moore stressed that his new evidence being sent to the committee will back up his claims. "I have compiled a meticulous record of my time at the bank. This will show that the version of events given by KPMG, which was brought in to carry out an audit of my claims, is inaccurate," he said. "Key witnesses were not included in the original audit and there are many factual errors. I will only be vindicated when all my allegations are proved by the evidence I have....."
