Two Turkeys Don’t Make an Eagle

Anyone but Brown, the opinion polls are saying — and one can understand why. I am starting to feel sorry for the poor man. But frankly, the ineptitude which ‘Incapability’ Brown has shown in trying to lead Britain out of this crisis is breath-taking. Thank goodness Vince ‘The Invincible’ is around to inject some common sense. So too Nellie Croes, the European Commissioner for Competition, who declared the other day that governments need to wind down banks that are submerged with toxic assets and to encourage smaller, leaner banks to emerge. She is due to issue guidelines  this week on how banks’ impaired assets might best be treated. Part of that process will be obliging banks to reveal accurate figures of their holdings. ‘Let’s start again with a clean sheet,’ she says, ‘knowing the full scope of the problem.’ In a delightful turn of phrase, she has also cautioned against opportunistic mergers: ‘two turkeys do not make an eagle’. Instead, it may be that as well as the leaner, meaner smaller banks we shall see the emergence of new Europe-based global financial players — but if so, these should be ones that are not likely to repeat the mistakes of the recent past.