The Government has pumped billions of pounds of our money into the Banking system in an attempt to sure up the failing banks, we were ensured that this partial nationalisation of the banks would bring about real reform in the banking system, yet I still read stories about banks who have accepted the money and are continuing to pay huge bonuses.

When the banking system went to the wall we had an opportunity to really make a difference in the way banks effected our economy and we failed; now we have the worst of both worlds, we have a banking system that is driven by greed and we all own enough of it to be complicit without really having any say.

What this country needs is banks offering mortgages to encourage house sales, this will allow developers to build new houses, which will create more jobs, increase wealth and pull our economy out of recession, instead we have banks that are offering 70% mortgages at 6% when the base rate is 0.5%, this is stagnating our economy and pushing us further into recession.

What was required back in October last year was a full nationalisation of any bank that was unable to carry out it’s own affairs, rather than allowing the banks to go bust we could have taken 100% of the shares and replaced the people who have caused this problem. The Bank of England could have provided funds to the newly nationalised banks at a low rate and the banks would have been in a position to offer us all mortgages at about 2%, this would have returned confidence to the market, fuelled housebuilding and created real jobs.

Some would argue that such a policy would have fuelled inflation and increased house prices to a level that was unaffordable, however with common sense lending practices, allowing only 95% mortgages and sensible income multiples, house prices (that were already massively inflated) would have naturally dropped, just as they have done over the last few months,  the extra money put into peoples pockets would have fuelled inflation but only to a limited extent, when we are looking at a global financial meltdown I would always favour a small increase in inflation over mass unemployment.

The solutions to this crisis have always been available, what we have needed is a Government who are prepared to make hard decisions for the good of the country, recently all we have seen is the Government throwing money at bankers, which benefits no one but the bankers.

Over the next 18 months it will become apparent that during this financial crisis the average citizen of this country paid the price for the mismanagement of the banks, and the banks will post massive profits and therefore pay massive bonuses, because lending at 6% when the base rate is 0.5% is an easy way to make money.