UK Spending Review hits after poorly regulated banker's failures rip public services, jobs, armed forces & consumer protection apart

HMS Ark Royal, scrapped along with the rest of us to pay off banker’s debts. ON the day it has been announced nearly 500,000 public sector jobs are to go, as well as £7 billion slashed from the welfare budget, Police funding cut by 4% a year & the retirement age to rise from 65 to 66 by 2020 – to name but a few of Chancellor George Osborne’s decisions in the spending review, and reflecting on developments earlier in the week where we were told our armed services are to be cut to the bone, and then some, perhaps we should take a minute out to remember exactly why this is happening, and exactly who is responsible.

Sir Fred Goodwin who ruined the Royal Bank of Scotland, dubbed “The World’s Worst Banker” by the media. Exactly why these cuts are happening and exactly who is responsible are not difficult questions to answer. The reckless actions of our bankers through the lack of regulation in the banking sector caused it, by bringing down many of the UK’s ‘premier’ financial institutions to the point the former Labour Government had to use massive amounts of public money to prop up the likes of the Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS & others.

Lack of regulation is nothing new however, as thousands of consumers of legal services in Scotland discover every year, as well as tens of thousands of consumers a year in England & Wales. Since before I can remember, the Scots legal profession have ripped-off the public on an almost unregulated basis. Complaints, scandals, financial turmoil, client losses, you-name-it, was all guaranteed to be covered up by one self regulator in Scotland, the Law Society of Scotland, and one self regulator in England & Wales, the Law Society of England & Wales.

Now in 2010, with regard to legal services, the rest of the UK has moved on, with Law Society of England & Wales no longer controlling regulation of the UK’s legal services marketplace or, crucially the vast amounts of money which flow within it. However in Scotland, the exact opposite is true, with Law Society of Scotland still ruling the roost on every issue imaginable such as regulation, complaints, deciding who can provide legal services to the public, how much can be charged by way of fees, and inevitably also controlling exactly who among us can actually have access to justice and who cannot.

The Law Society of Scotland even controls financial claims made against [equally-as-reckless-&-corrupt-as-the-bankers] Scots law firms who will still continue to dominate Scotland’s legal services market, dressed up by the Law Society as providing access to justice, however in reality they operate little more than the same multi billion pound business full of scandals, financial crashes & fraud run by many of our less than glorious bankers who have, fortunately for them, found new highly paid jobs to keep their billionaire lifestyles going, while the remainder of the UK ends up on the scrap heap, along with the Ark Royal.

Without doubt, lack of regulation in the banking sector has ripped our country’s public services, armed services, and economy clean apart. Politicians have since claimed they have done everything to prevent this happening again, and will ensure the bankers pay it all back. Personally, I doubt many believe this. The bankers will not pay it back. They couldn’t really care less about the rest of the country, as we found out in a BBC Scotland report “Trust me, I’m a banker” although the programme must have been so good, its no longer available on the BBC’s iplayer to watch again.

So, tough new regulation for bankers so we never have another banking crisis again, ever, in the history of the planet. I don't think so. However, no tough new regulation for the billions of pounds of consumer’s money swishing around law firms in Scotland’s legal services market. No, that would be just too much regulation and too much consumer protection for Scots, and anyone who argues we should have increased and fully independent regulation of legal services in Scotland and all those billions sloshing around in it under the control of one, very closed shop unaccountable self regulator, is just plain wrong, right ?

A reminder of exactly what happened at the Royal Bank of Scotland, which cost us billions to bail out, sacrificing thousands of jobs, livelihoods & even the prestige of the country to do so, while also reminding us of who defended the actions of those who caused it :

Ex-Law Society Chief Exec, now University of Glasgow Legal Practice Director Douglas Mill said Sir Fred Goodwin’s failure was down to lack of regulation ! (click image to watch video)

Justice ? or just us who would allow it ? Ex-Bank boss Goodwin who ruined the bank (and the country) gets huge pension, keeps knighthood while bringing UK's Treasury, public services & armed forces to their knees. (click image to watch video)

A nice little earner for Sir Fred Goodwin, and he mostly got away with it … (click image to watch video)