You would think that most people thought the UK banking system already stinks enough, but apparently there are some who believe this is not the case.
Branches of Barclays Bank are facing attack on the 14th of July from outraged members of the public, possibly linked to the Occupy Movement, who are organising the “BarcLies Big Stink”. The idea is that members of the public, disgusted with the way that the banking system has destroyed the world’s economy and people’s livelihoods, order stink bombs on line, wander into any branch of Barclays Bank and drop them surreptitiously while pretending to use an ATM or some other pretext.
In recent days, Barclays bank has been rocked by a fine of £290 million for the way it attempted to fix interest rates for lending between banks (LIBOR), which subsequently resulted in so far uncalculated extra interest payments on people’s mortgages and other financial instruments which are directly linked to LIBOR. The costs could be in the trillions of dollars.
The scandal has already seen the resignation of the Company Chairman, Marcus Agius, then the resignation of the Chief Executive, Bob Diamond, and the subsequent reinstatement of Agius so that he can coordinate the search for a replacement Chief Exec.
Nevertheless, life will not be so tough for Diamond. He is taking with him his final £20million bonus and pay cheque with him. British PM, David Cameron called the decision, *“Utterly wrong”*.
Yesterday, under questioning by British legislators in the House of Commons, Diamond could only apologise for not knowing what was taking place in his organisation and denounced the behaviour of his rogue traders as *“reprehensible”*. He told the Commons committee that they will face criminal charges for their actions.
Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister said yesterday of Diamond’s departure, *“You don’t hang around like a bad smell when you’ve outstayed your welcome,”* and it seems that the Occupy Movement are going to do their best to stink out a few more rotten eggs from Barclays.
Taking the olfactory metaphors even further, will the UK government be capable of undertaking the Herculean task of cleaning out the Augean Stables and regulating the Banking sector once more?
Rodney Shakespeare, author of the book “Binary Economics”, a theory of economics that endorses both private property and a free market but proposes significant reforms to the banking system, in an interview with Press TV said, *“We have to start by controlling the banks and that means stopping their ability to create money, stopping their ability to hand out large bonuses. It means, in fact, a gentle rise to 100 per cent banking reserves.”*
It seems hardly likely that this kind of fundamental change will occur any time soon under the current UK government given that many Conservative MPs have a history, post-Westminster, of moving into positions on the management boards of some of the very Banks that are so in need of a clean out, and their current colleagues in Parliament will be very much looking forward to their own stint on the board.
