Last week at Prime Minister's Questions the PM was asked when the Government would respond to the Ombudsman's highly critical report on the losses suffered by Equitable Life policy holders, and he said it would be 'before Christmas'. So what is he likely to say?
There is one reason to be optimistic and two reasons to be pessimistic.
The reason to be hopeful is - bizarrely - Peter Mandelson. Since Lord Mandelson returned to these shores, the Government seem to have stopped shooting themselves in the foot quite so often. The clearest example of this was the U-turn on scrapping the post office card account which would otherwise have been a hugely unpopular decision. Upsetting a million Equitable Life policy holders just before Christmas might not be the best springboard for a Spring 2009 Election.
The first reason to be pessimistic is that as soon as the Ombudsman's report was published the Treasury put a note round to MPs saying that they needed time to think but reminding us how contentious the issues were and that the Ombudsman's view was not the only one! That felt at the time like preparing us for a disagreement.
The second reason to be pessimistic is the timing of the announcement. In general, bad news is buried around the last day of a Parliamentary session when MPs are not around to cause trouble. What price a disappointing announcement next Thursday, the last sitting day before Christmas?
My view is clear - the Government simply cannot set itself up as judge and jury over the Parliamentary Ombudsman. It's like the guilty man saying to the judge - "sorry, I disagree with your verdict, I'm off". The Government needs to recognise the complete failure of the regulatory regime for which it is responsible and should ensure that policy holders are compensated.
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3 comments:
It's worth remembering that Equitable Life's problems and the asociated regulatory failures started long before nulabour came to power. e.g. quoting from the Ombusdman's report:-
"My first finding of fact is that, in June 1991, the prudential regulators approved, when they should not have done, the appointment of a new Chief Executive without insisting that he should demit office as the Society’s Appointed Actuary and without applying subsequently a closer degree of scrutiny of the Society’s affairs."
and
"My second finding of fact is that, with regard to the scrutiny of the Society’s annual regulatory returns for the year ends for 1990 to 1993, GAD (Government Actuary’s Department), in providing advice to the prudential regulators, failed to satisfy themselves that the way in which the Society had determined its liabilities and had sought to demonstrate that it had sufficient assets to cover those liabilities accorded with the requirements of the applicable Regulations."
I'm sure nulabour will be only too keen to push as much blame on to the previous tory governments as possible, but the tories should not be let off the hook.
The messages which should be firmly implanted in the brains of everyone with any money to invest are:-
"There's no such thing as a free lunch"
"If a deal looks too good to be true it almost certainly is too good to be true"
"NEVER NEVER NEVER put all your eggs in one basket"
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