BACKING LABOUR

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Today's The World at One discussed the Danish environment minister's concession that a binding treaty is very unlikely to come out of the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change with ... John Prescott. The interview with Edward Stourton resulted in an I.C. of 0 (i.e. no interruptions).
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Attention then turned to the financial matters and the issues of (a) the Tobin Tax, which seems likely to appear in Labour's Queen's speech, and (b) the new Financial Services Act that Labour is also about to announce, permitting the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to intervene in business contracts and tear them up if they feel that people are being rewarded for taking excessive risks. First to speak was Terry Smith of money brokers Tullett Prebon. He was in favour of both the Tobin Tax and Labour's financial services act. We then had Nick Clegg (I.C. of 0.3) whose process-based quibble with Labour's Financial Services Act was that it was unnecessary, as the FSA already had the powers to do what Brown proposes and should be doing it now. So that's two in favour of invasive government intervention in the nation's boardrooms. How about an opposing voice? No, not here. Instead we had Labour's Sally Keeble speaking out (like Mr Smith) in favour of both the Tobin Tax and the government's Financial Services Act (I.C of 0.6). What a range of opinion!! None of Mr Stourton's questions to Sally Keeble played the opposing devil's advocate to any of these issues. Any Labour Party official listening would surely have felt a glow of satisfaction at all this.
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