Britain's Conservative Party sets out its stall

We have long lamented the fact that Britain's Labour Party has been captured by interests in Britain's financial and offshore sectors, and that they have failed to crack down where it is needed. Britain's Conservative party, however, are more vociferous and constant supporters of the offshore system. Anecdotally, as a Cayman Islands politicians remarked recently to TJN:

"Whenever the Cayman Islands developed (its financial services industry) the most, that's when you'd probably find the Conservative Party in power in Britain."

The Conservative Party may well be back in power within a year: next June is the last possible date for election, and Gordon Brown's Labour party is currently in huge disarray.
George Osborne, the Conservatives' pick for shadow chancellor (opposition pick for finance minister), has rightly said we need to increase transparency - both about the relatively current "stress tests" for the banks, and in terms of giving us more information to taxpayers on what assets they are insuring. Both are welcome suggestions. But in terms of transparency in the bigger picture, Osborne takes entirely the other tack. In the Financial Times he has been having a go at European efforts to regulate hedge funds and their like.

"This directive will do unnecessary damage to key industries. Given the continuing importance of financial services to London and the rest of the UK, I would expect the British government to be fighting for a more sensible approach. Yet Treasury ministers are absent from the debate. That will change with a Conservative Treasury. We will not walk away from Europe. Instead we will engage in making sure that EU regulation is appropriate for London and the wider British economy."

That means - we want to strengthen and deregulate this financial sector, this cuckoo in Britain's nest which has caused, and continues to cause, havoc around the world, not least as a result of the City of London's tax haven characteristics. And yet the Conservatives never seem to mention the offshore aspect. It's always a subtext, buried deep.

Would this be the same Conservative Party that brought us this:

"The last ten years in particular have been good years for the world economy as a whole. They have been characterised by two massively favourable trends. The first is an era of easy money. The main central banks worldwide have opted for low interest rates, the ready creation of credit, and tolerance of innovatory means of financing public and private sector activity through big increases in debt. It has been the era of public/private partnerships, specialised credit-based funds and funds of funds, collateralized debt obligations, collateralized loan obligations, credit default swaps, special purpose vehicles and many other similar ways of raising borrowing throughout the financial system."

That was published in 2007, at the start of economic turmoil triggered by collateralized debt obligations, collateralized loan obligations, credit default swaps, special purpose vehicles and many other similar ways of raising borrowing throughout the financial system.