Called to account

We love anniversaries in this country, yet don’t need reminding of the Credit Crunch a decade ago as taxpayers are still paying. The Royal Bank of Scotland alone was bailed out with £45 billion and has subsequently cost taxpayers more in paying for the mis-selling of PPI, which earned the bankers bonuses but facing unknown costs from threats by US authorities over its role in the mortgage securities scandal – even taxpayers who used other banks have been paying.

On reading Gordon Brown’s My Life, Our Times, which calls for the bankers at Northern Rock to be the first to be brought to account, I wondered: Why tell us now, when things ought to have been done at the time, by the Treasury or the toothless regulator the Financial Services Authority set up after the Bank of England became independent. The FSA never barked, never mind bit those responsible! The former chancellor’s criticism of Fred Goodwin’s takeover bid for the Dutch firm ABN Amro reminds us that then First Minister Alex Salmond wrote at the time encouraging the bid.

JIM CRAIGEN

Downie Grove, Edinburgh