Evidently Ringer dashed off that response to mandotim's post without actually reading it with any attention.

The primary responsibility for financial crisis was that of the banks, both in the UK and in other countries, particularly the USA. The policy of regulation, backed by the Tory opposition, was a contributory mistake. Neither Labour nor the Conservatives have anything to be proud of in this respect, because both were united in favouring that policy (except that the Conservatives criticised Labour form not carrying it even further).

However even without it there would still have been a major global financial crisis, and it would still have been necessary to incur enormous costs in order to reduce the damage caused to this country.

The question of how we got here, and who is to blame is important enough, but it is not immediately relevant in deciding what are the right things to do now.

Imagine a shipwreck in which a group of survivors decide that the only answer to the problem of survival is to start eating other members of the crew - and when others object, they dismiss those objections, on the grounds that the people objecting had been responsible for steering the ship on the rocks.

I think that the priority should be protecting the interests of those who are liable to be eaten.