Shutting Stable Doors

Listen very carefully and you will hear the sound of a stable door being slammed shut by Darling and Mandelson.

Ahead of Alistair Darling's Labour conference speech outlining new rules to curb bankers' bonuses, Lord Mandelson spoke on BBC's Radio 4 programme.

He noted that Gordon Brown, as Chancellor, had introduced new legislation that "sorted out a ragbag of different regulatory processes" in financial services to make them "much leaner, meaner and more efficient".

Aside from the obvious point that the Tripartite system was hardly "leaner, meaner and more efficient", it is clear that if Darling is now having to introduce further regulations, it is clear that Brown's regulations weren't up to the job.

Mandelson will say later today that we rely too much on the financial services industry.

Fair comment, except this has been known for many years.

What exactly will he replace it with?

Later today Darling will outline plans to:

-End automatic bank bonuses year after year.
-End immediate payouts for top management.
-Defer any bonuses over time so they can be clawed back if they are not warranted by long term performance.

All very well.

However, as can be seen with the change of HQ for the CEO of HSBC, bankers will simply up sticks and leave.

The stable door may now be slammed, regrettably the horses have long since bolted!