Who’d you trust: Politicians, the papers or banks? Poll Discussion

graham06

I voted for the banks. Not because I trust them, but because I distrust them less than the others. At least if you do not have debt, with Martin's help you can use the banks to your advantage. With the papers the monopoly of the few owners mean the papers only give you limited independent reporting. As for Politicians a commonly heard truism reads, "How do you know a politician is lying? His lips are moving."

XRAT

Well the politicians are in a justly deserved position. It's a shame Estate Agents weren't included, I'd have liked to see if the politicians would have managed to beat them.

When was the last time our duly elected representatives asked what we wanted them to do, rather than telling us what they were (If you believe them) going to do??

For any politicians out there.., there's a huge silent majority out here waiting for a white knight to vote for! But stand up now, before we've all gone abroad!

topgranny

You're going to get a very skewed vote for this one. Very few people will trust any of those listed - just like me. :mad: :mad:

DolphinGirl_2

Not none of 'em!!! lol

Must just say; Martin, thanx sooo much for this BRILLIANT site! Your'e a wealth of helpful knowledge. Great site, great idea, thanx!

oldagetraveller

As with political electoral voting you have missed out the most important option - "Non of the above" - which gets my vote!

michaeliholt

What a dilema. I had to think for a few minutes and reluctantly went for the bank. Just shows how much politians and papers have sunk in the publics' respect. Glad I only have a few years left. I would not want to be around in twenty years. :A

darktrader

I don't "completely" trust any of them so didn't vote.
In order, I trust Newspapers and the media in general slightly more than most Politicians. (Why do we have to lump all Politicians together? I trust Frank Field, for example, more than I would trust...the list is too long.) Then again, I trust the BBC more than the "Sun." "The Independent" more than the "Sun", but less than the BBC.
Banks, in general, I trust more than the other two, but I trust a Building Society more. I wouldn't trust Northern Rock now I now how they operate. And I don't trust Barclays, but that's a personal thing due to the treatment they meted out to my late Father.
So, from my point of view, a fairly useless Poll as it is too general.

CopperPlate_2

Have to say that I trust, generally, banks more than newspapers or politicians. The, and I'll stop short of calling them lies, that they tell sometimes is shocking. Lies that damage whole swathes of society, or completely tarnish or destroy reputations. Banks are certainly not as pure as the driven snow, but at least there is some recourse against a bank that is potentially win-able for the man on the street. Try taking on a newspaper in court or a politician who can't be sued (sometimes) as they claim Crown Immunity.:cool:

tom5

I voted for the press because the others have vested interests to convince us of only one point of view, theirs; the press can at least present a range of views and vested interests which you can at least take into account and consider along with your experience of the source. So it has to be the press, fellas like our very own ML.

pennywiser_2

None of them, I'm afraid.

The two other parties that were missed and may have provided interesting poll results were the Bank of England and the FSA. A ranking would also be useful.

Personally, I certainly would place credance in Mervyn King as he is an old-fashioned, common-sense, pragmatic banking stalwart to whom this country and successive labour governments in particular owe a great deal during the last 15 years. Out of this whole debacle, he is only one coming out with a hint of genuine integrity and good intentions. I do however think that: savers in NR should have been protected with a 100% guarantee earlier, and that the FSA should have filed against the likes of Mr Applegarth at NR and elsewhere whose banking strategy was monumentally flawed - you don't build houses on sand and you don't fund long-term assets with volatile short-term debt - stupid stupid stupid. As a saver or investor in NR, I would be trying to get them all kicked out as soon as possible.

Mr King suffered an outrage today, a disgraceful public witch-hunt at the hands of politicians - the group who actually were ultimately responsible themselves for the current weaknesses in our banking structures and regulations. Gordon Brown may support him publicly but it is clear that it is he who set the dogs on Mr King today. The BoE were not the architect of NR's problems. That was down to: poor planning and control by sub-prime politicians (whose first act in power was to relinquish the monetary policy "hot potato", but take the later glory and then deny the recent responsibility), but also down to the sub-prime regulatory performance of the FSA letting banks off-the-hook too often, and to the banks' bonus-greedy, short-sighted, sub-prime management evidently fully expecting to be let off-the-hook again and feeling aggrieved at the BoE for penalising them for their own certain stupidity, and lastly down to the public panic whipped up courtesy of the press which guarantees us a situation in which the politicians require a scapegoat.