Tories: We want more financial regulation.
Normally this would be run of the mill news, that the Tories want to give the Bank of England regulatory powers over financial markets.
Wait a second here.
Labour oppose this kind of regulation and have denied the Bank’s governor, Mervyn King, the powers he requested. The Conservatives are proposing regulation which Labour are opposing! This is the Conservatives soundly in a position to the left of Labour, just as this blog told you a few weeks ago.
One of the first things Labour did when they came into power (under the leadership of Blair) back in 1997 was remove power from the Bank of England and share it among the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority. It made sense at the time, or so they thought, but what it actually ended up with was a response being recognised by the Bank, acted on by the Treasury and regulated by the FSA, where before the Bank would do all three. A certain loss of agility and coordination was the result.