Hero
The Financial Services and Markets Tribunal (FSMT) is the somewhat surprising nomination for this edition’s hero. It responded with courage to a situation that bore a certain similarity to the pickle the government got itself into with regards to the ‘sexing up’ of the intelligence dossier prior to going to war with Iraq. This time it was the FMST calling into account the regulator’s storm troopers the Regulatory Decisions Committee (RDC) for “reaching conclusions not justified by the material before it”. This related to the decision to go after Legal & General over the alleged mis-selling of endowment mortgages. The FMST accuses the FSA’s enforcement investigators of hardening up a consultant’s conclusion that there “may” have been mis-selling of these policies, to there “was” mis-selling. The fall-out from the L&G debacle has prompted the regulator to look again at its procedures. The role and independence of its enforcement arm should be first item on the agenda.
Zero
Just when the Conservative Party seemed to be getting its act together with popular policy initiatives someone takes flight of their senses. Howard Flight to be precise. Flight was sacked last week as Conservative deputy chairman and special envoy to the City after hinting that the Tories' planned cuts in public spending were only the beginning. He left leader Michael Howard with no choice but to deal with him severely. Flight has been deselected by the Tory leadership from standing again for his Arundel constituency but is fighting the decision. This puts personality before policy and is an egotistical stance that only succeeds in deflecting from the crucial issue of winning over the electorate. Flight may have been an outspoken critic of the FSA in the past but he has often shown a tendency to engage his mouth before his brain.
