Do you believe that the Labour government was partly to blame for the financial crash?
The recession was a global problem, not something caused by the Labour Party. But it was aggravated in Britain by the “light touch” regulation championed by Ed Balls when he was at the Treasury. “Light touch” regulation left bankers free to gamble away their assets on derivatives and ignore common-sense in relation to capital adequacy. Weak regulation meant that financial institutions were also free to ignore the long term stability of their institutions in favour of short term profits and the size of their bonus. Now the public has to bail out those same banks. However, once the crisis erupted, Gordon was the best man to take us through the crisis and I think he served us well. Do you still believe that pursuing growth is the ultimate economic goal of government? If so, how would you encourage growth and what structural changes to the economy would you want to see (eg away from financial services)? Sustainable growth must be the aim of government. Recession does not only sacrifice job
