Hopefully Ed Balls is screwed - Diamond vs Select cttee

grizzly1911

Seemingly pointless exercise and akin to horses and stable doors.

Incredibly boring too.

1echidna

The_J wrote: »

No, it's that kind of garbage line of questioning that gets these stupid "select committees" nowhere.

What is clear in these meetings is that our politicians are literally the dumbest of the dumb, they make the !!!!!! posters of this forum look knowledgeable. It's like a child interviewing Stephen Hawking.

Bob Diamond is worth hundreds of millions. I don't care what anyone says about bankers being shysters let me tell you you have to be unbe-!!!!ing-lievably smart, clinical, conniving, tactical and successful to get to his position with his wealth. Do you know how many equally smart, clinical, tactical people are jockeying for position in this industry? The cream rises to the top, that cream may be the devil incarnate in your opinion but if you ever, even for a second, think these people are just "lucky" and landed in this role with everything given to them you are so far removed from reality next you'll be questioning if Barney is your birth father.

I agree entirely and agree also that a select committee had no chance of pinning anything on this man. He has analytical ability, nerve and shrewdness tempered in a cauldron that the politicians could barely dream about, let alone critical journalists on the sideline thinking they could do better. Oddly enough I don't think that necessarily means he was lying. The hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil mindset of senior management means that lack of perception may be very common.

Graham_Devon

Well the highlights on the BBC news seem to suggest all this today was a complete and utter waste of time.

This is a bloke who is obviously so intelligent, he can easily pretend he hasn't a clue and pull it off with style.

ash28

Wookster wrote: »

Tough call between tennis and Bob diamond!

Hope you watched the tennis!

purch

wotsthat wrote: »

The elephant in the room is that LIBOR has always been a fiddle and everyone knows it.

Errrr..............NO IT HASN'T !!!!!

bankhater_1965

ed balls , bob diamond , gorden brown , david cameroon and on and on are all tyed to the same brush and not one or 2 people should be singled out like this thread has done

thistledome

The_J wrote: »

Bob Diamond is worth hundreds of millions. I don't care what anyone says about bankers being shysters let me tell you you have to be unbe-!!!!ing-lievably smart, clinical, conniving, tactical and successful to get to his position with his wealth.

All of the above plus ruthless, greedy and dishonest.

GeorgeHowell

Phlogiston wrote: »

Anecdotal I know, but a friend of mine worked in Whitehall for some time and apparently Ed Balls is really, really loathed by the civil service.

Of course that might be a point in his favour depending on your point of view ...

The impression gained from the media is that he is deeply loathed by almost everybody, except possibly Gordon Brown (& Yvette Cooper .. presumably). The Labour party perhaps grudgingly puts up with him because they think he is a good attack dog who goads Cameron.

BobQ

PaulF81 wrote: »

Turns out that there may have been complicity with the BOE and Barclays into the rigging of LIBOR. The telegraph has described "Senior Treasury Officials" Being involved.

Ed Balls was playing the typical holier than thou in the commons the other day, which is typical of snake-like ministers with blood on their hands.

I just hope that this takes him down. How anyone could vote for a man that is pretty much a snake with 2 arms and legs is beyond me. He sweats pure careerist, Machiavellian evil and deserves his comeuppance if they prove a link between him and rigged LIBOR :beer:

The bile that you are peddling against Ed Balls seems to ignore the fact that he was Childrens Minister from 2007 so would not have even need to speak to the BOE.

The idea that a note written in 2008 by someone documenting his recollections of a telephone call which he makes clear did not include any instructions about Libor, with someone in the BOE in anyway implicates the Childrens Minister is fanciful.

The idea that then Childrens Minister can be expected to have known anything about the behaviour of traders in Barclays in matters that the CEO of Barclays (your "source") did not know about until a few weeks ago is absurd.

While I agree that politicians and bankers are a thoroughly discredited profession, and I am sure Balls has done some things it is legitimate to criticise, I think you are grasping at straws on this one.

BobQ

Wookster wrote: »

Question of the day

"Mr Diamond you seem to be inhabiting a parallel universe"

Yes this was a great statement! Politicians are so good at these kind of soundbites.

The select committee today was fun to watch, but no substitute for a credible and forensic investigation by the impartial.

The entrenched positions of Cameron and Milliband make it difficult to see how the matter can be properly investigated. A partiamentary inquiry cannot be trusted to do a proper job (as today shows) and is by its nature bound to be partizan. Cameron appears to have boxed himself into this approach and without carrying other parties with him. Milliband cannot win the vote but could make the parliamentary inquiry appear like a whitewash.

Wonder how it will be resolved?