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From the current Private Eye:
How vulnerable are British banks and other lenders in these turbulent, credit crunching times?
Alistair Darling who himself has a Northern Wreck mortgage, offered the commons this reasurance last month: ''Britiain has less direct exposure to sub-prime assets and our sub-prime market share - 5 per cent - is much lower than that of the US.''
So that's alright then. But just where did his 5 per cent figure come from? As the FT points out ''Some city analysts have estimated that levels of sub-prime lending in Britain could be 12 per cent or more''- and since even that excludes some lending practices that are clasified as sub-prime in the US, the true comparative figure could be higher still.
After badgering by Liberal Democrat peers, the Treasury has at last come clean. It admitted this week that although the phrase ''sub-prime'' has a consistant and well understood definition in the United States, ''there is no such clear definition for the phrase in the UK...sub-prime has no distinct meaning in the UK''. In short, Darling's statement was meaningless - and misleading.
Time was when ministers who misled the House were expected to apologies. Will this quaint old tradition be revived to mark Gordon Brown's commitment to candour and openness?
How vulnerable are British banks and other lenders in these turbulent, credit crunching times?
Alistair Darling who himself has a Northern Wreck mortgage, offered the commons this reasurance last month: ''Britiain has less direct exposure to sub-prime assets and our sub-prime market share - 5 per cent - is much lower than that of the US.''
So that's alright then. But just where did his 5 per cent figure come from? As the FT points out ''Some city analysts have estimated that levels of sub-prime lending in Britain could be 12 per cent or more''- and since even that excludes some lending practices that are clasified as sub-prime in the US, the true comparative figure could be higher still.
After badgering by Liberal Democrat peers, the Treasury has at last come clean. It admitted this week that although the phrase ''sub-prime'' has a consistant and well understood definition in the United States, ''there is no such clear definition for the phrase in the UK...sub-prime has no distinct meaning in the UK''. In short, Darling's statement was meaningless - and misleading.
Time was when ministers who misled the House were expected to apologies. Will this quaint old tradition be revived to mark Gordon Brown's commitment to candour and openness?
