Vicky Ford, featured in the post below, like me, used to be an investment banker, and like me she felt obliged on Thursday to express some light hearted concern about admitting it.
When I read the attack on bankers made by government minister Paul Myners last week, I felt that the current enthusiasm for blaming bankers for all our current woes has really gone too far. A failure of regulation, and yes, perhaps the ‘imprudence’ of the Government, might be seen as in part to blame too. Myners incidentally made millions himself out of the financial services industry so the ferocity of his criticism now seems a bit rich.
The vast majority of people working in the City of London are extremely hard working, not particularly overpaid for the hours that they put in, have little long term job security and are generally decent people who don’t get up in the morning intending to fleece others. They regularly raise money for charity in their spare time or generously sponsor those who do. They also support a huge raft of service industries such as sandwich bars, dry cleaners etc., providing a lot of jobs to a lot of people.
When they leave the City they often feel that they should do their bit for society. Like Vicky, some go into local government . (Vicky is currently a District Councillor in South Cambridgeshire). Others work for charities, or even in some cases go into the Church (my friend Sonia, once a Paper Analyst at UBS, now looks after several parishes near Cambridge.)
