CR£DIT LETTER TO THE TIMES

The following letter, signed by twenty prominent figures from different walks of life, was published in The Times newspaper on Thursday 8th July 2010. The full list of signatories is listed in section 10 below.

Call for a royal commission into financial system

Sir,

The turmoil in the City and in world financial markets continues and we have yet to understand its full cost. This is already recognised as the profoundest crisis at least since 1929; but how did we get to this point?

At the time of the 1929 crisis, the government set up the Macmillan committee to investigate the relationship between finance and industry. In 1957 — prompted by letters to The Times — the Radcliffe committee was set up to look at the postwar monetary system. And in 1977, after the secondary banking crisis, the Wilson committee was asked to investigate the functioning of financial institutions. These committees had wide remits that looked across the entire UK financial system.

Since the Wilson committee there have been fundamental changes to that system, from deregulation and the independence of the Bank of England to global speculation of dizzying scale and complexity.

The Wilson committee observed that there seems to be an inquiry into the financial system "about every quarter century". A new inquiry into the fundamentals of the entire system is long overdue and urgently needed, if we are to order our financial affairs sustainably for the long term.

This inquiry needs to be much broader and deeper than recent Treasury Committee inquiries and the forthcoming Independent Commission on Banking. It would best assure public confidence if a royal commission, of wide remit and prestigious membership, were to be charged with this task. We therefore call upon the Government to set up a royal commission of inquiry into the workings of the entire economic system.

LIST OF SIGNATORIES

Andrew Phillips (Lord Phillips of Sudbury)
Professor Lord Harries of Pentregarth, House of Lords
Jonathon Porritt, Author and Broadcaster
Colin Dexter, OBE, Author and Educationalist
John Christensen, Director, Tax Justice Network
Rt Revd Dr Peter Selby
Dr Manazir Ahsan, Director General, Islamic Foundation
Anil Bhanot, Hindu Council UK
Rabbi Jeffrey Newman, Director, Earth Charter UK
Bert Schouwenburg, International Officer, GMB Trade Union
Carlos Ruiz, Emeritus Professor of Engineering Science, University of Oxford
Professor Timothy Gorringe
Chris Brown, FNAEA (Honoured) FNAVA, Former President, National Association of Estate Agents
David M Triggs, Executive Chairman, the Henry George Foundation of Great Britain
Miles Litvinoff, Co-ordinator, The Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility
Rev Paul Nicolson, Chair, Zacchaeus 2000 Trust
Revd Canon Lucy Winkett, St Paul's Cathedral
Canon Giles Fraser, St Paul's Cathedral
Sacha Adams Stone, Chairman - Humanitad Foundation
Diana Basterfield, Co-Founder, ministry for peace

See the Credit Information pack, at www.credituk.org.uk/home.asp