Chuka Umunna is an idiot
Posted by Christie Malry on February 7, 2011 at 9:15 am
Thanks to a link from Ian Fraser, I'm informed that Streatham's very own Chuka Umunna is seeking to get Lord Green chucked off a cabinet committee that will take decisions on the format of future banking regulation.
Green was chairman of HSBC, Britain's biggest bank, until December, which has made Umunna concerned that the new trade minister is facing a conflict of interest. Umunna raised the subject at the Treasury select committee last week and has this weekend written to cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell to demand clarity.
In the letter, Umunna said: "It is important that government makes decisions relating to the future of our banking system in the national interest and not in the interests of any particular interest group."
He continued: "I would respectfully suggest that to avoid any perceived or actual conflict of interest between his ministerial office and long association with HSBC, the proper course would be for Lord Green to remove himself from playing any part in the decision-making processes relating to the government's response to the [commission]."
Lord Green's association with the particular institution HSBC is by the by. It's his expertise in banking that's needed for the committee. Although one can argue about whether HSBC benefited from the overall government guarantee that no major UK-based bank would fail and although it took massive writedowns, HSBC didn't need bailout money from the government. The man clearly knows a thing or two about running a massive bank for the long term. And it's not as if his chairmanship of HSBC is some kind of secret. Just imagine:
Committee member 1: So, chaps, what shall we do about these banks, eh?
Committee member 2: Er, shall we break them up? What do you all think?
Committee member 3: I don't really know... er...
Lord Green: I think we should leave them all be.
All committee members: Good idea, Stephen! Righty ho, triples all round!!
It's naive to presuppose that a single man, with very well disclosed interests in HSBC, could hope to throw the committee's judgement in his own favour, even if he were so inclined.
Anyway, while we're on the subject of inappropriate memberships of committees, on what basis is Chuka Umunna qualified to be on Treasury Committee? Sure he's done a bit of law, but what does he know about finance, banking or corporate governance? Judging by his facile intervention over Lord Green - nothing.
[...] don't really understand this. We know that Chuka Umunna is desperately out of his depth when it comes to accounting, so it's possible that this is one of his ideas. When he asked Bob [...]