Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
THE 10-year anniversary of the financial crash led to retrospective talk among pundits and politicians about whether the banks got away with it.
But for the banks, it was business as usual, offering money and support to politicians. Labour MP Wes Streeting, an influential backbencher with a seat on the Treasury select committee, listed a £5,000 payment from JP Morgan for speaking on a panel at its London High Yield Conference this September.
Streeting says the work took six hours, so that’s an £833-an-hour rate from the bank. JP Morgan was one of the bigger sinners of the crash: it was fined a record $13 billion in 2013 for misrepresenting the bundles of “toxic” mortgages it sold to investors as good investments.
As the dollar falters and US power turns predatory, Britain and Europe must abandon transatlantic illusions and build a collectivist alternative before the system implodes, writes ALAN SIMPSON
SOLOMON HUGHES asks whether Labour ‘engaging with decision-makers’ with scandalous records of fleecing the public is really in our interests
Our two-tear Chancellor’s woes at PMQs caused a multimillion-pound sinking feeling on the bond market, writes ANDREW MURRAY


