Telling it like it is

'The importance that the city attaches to integrity and the highest standards in the provision of financial services is the enduring means by which London's reputation as one of the world's leading financial centres is secured, and indeed enhanced...What you, as the City of London, have achieved for financial services we, as a government, now aspire to achieve for the whole economy.'
Gordon Brown, Mansion House speech to City bankers, 2002.

'I understand and share people's anger towards the behaviour of some banks...Banks must act in the long-term interests of their shareholders and therefore of the economy as a whole, not in the short-term interests of bankers...We want to ensure that the new banking system...becomes the servant of our economy and society, never its master...We will put people first, not bankers'
Gordon Brown, 2009.