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  Mark - as usual for Labour apologists you are getting it around the wrong way.
  
  We had a cyclical downturn, these are as inevitable as a tide turning. Brown thought he had 'banned boom and bust' and as a result ran the economy accordingly. The outcome is that when the downturn started we were in an appalling position to weather it.
  
  As far as the banks are concerned, yes there was some irresponsible lending as much to governments as individuals, but there were far more fundamental problems than that. The ill-considered inflation brief Brown gave the Bank of England meant that debt in the economy was ignored so interest rates were held too low for too long. Saving was discouraged and borrowing encouraged by that and by his reduction in the tax benefits from investing. It was the monetary policy brief of his that was largely responsible for the property bubble and levels of private debt. Government borrowing policy also set an appalling example or irresponsibility and like many individuals the government was vulnerable to the downturn.
  
  Of course Brown made many other silly errors, his regulation changes reduced oversight and that allowed the banks to enter into adventures in the USA and his personal encouragement of that in the Mansion House speech.
  
  You left wingers may love your demonising of the banks and to distort what actually happened, but the facts of history and economics speak for themselves. We had a government that lost all sense of responsibility towards public finances and we are paying for that.

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