David Kirwan

A day hardly passes without news of more Bank profits and staff bonuses.

Meanwhile, four fifths of small traders report that they have been unable to obtain credit from their Banks and many owners are now resorting to credit card borrowing in order to finance their businesses.

Sensing no doubt an opportunity the credit card companies, like sharks circling a victim, have now increased their interest rates by eye watering amounts unequalled since Labour assumed power in 1997. It is hard to explain these increases against the backdrop of a current 0.5% Bank Rate. Corporate liquidations have increased fourfold and most city centres now have the highest proportion of empty shops and stores since 1991 and the rate peaked at 15% under the Tories. The Government has bailed out the Banks with two massive cash injections of trillions producing the greatest deficit in living memory. No surprise that recent economic figures indicate a last quarter’s growth of a meagre 0.2%.

The World economy relies on the availability of credit. It is the life blood of commerce. Yet the Government appears powerless to break the Banks self imposed log jam. The idle boasts of Gordon Brown and his Chancellor, Alistair Darling are exposed as a meaningless sham. The Conservative Party with its Cameronite Notting Hill core is ambivalent in its policy towards the financial institutions and voters will be disappointed if they believe that a future Tory Government will break ranks with its traditional City supporters in the Golden Mile. We need a popularly elected Parliament to break down those barriers which the mainstream parties are unable or unwilling to tackle. Only then will the economy be restored. The alternative is the boom & bust scenario that we have experienced as the Tories and Labour have swapped places since the 1960s. It is time that the annual farce of the Budget is confined to the bin of history and plain homespun economics prevail

David Kirwan