Typical Tory Cant on EU Financial Rules

Yesterday there was a vote in the European Parliament about the banning of 'short selling'. It is a daft idea, the wrong target and the wrong instrument but three you have it, it is the European Parliament we are talking aboutr remember.

Anyhow read the Tory party press release on the subject. They obviously think it is daft, and Syed Kamall their spokesman (who is a damn fine chap),

"This is a short-sighted ban driven by politics rather than sound economics. By banning uncovered CDS we will only encourage the creation of new, more complex and opaque, financial products.

"These proposals failed to tackle the elephant in the room, which is that those who issue CDS must have the capital to back up their obligations.

"At a time of sensitivity in sovereign debt markets, our fiddling could seriously undermine national governments' abilities to raise money by selling bonds. Investors will simply look to other markets where they still have the ability to fully hedge their investments."

So pretty firm opposition wouldn't you say. The sort of thing that will allow their friends in the City to think that they are well defended by the blue corner.

Well that is fine, until you see how the Tories voted. Only Hannan, Helmer and DCB voted against with UKIP, the rest abstained along with the Lib Dems, Labour of course voted in favour. Here is the abstention list,

ALDE: Bearder, Bowles, Davies, Hall, Ludford, McMillan-Scott, Newton-Dunn, Wallis, Watson

ECR: Ashworth, Atkins, Bradbourn, Callanan, Chichester, Elles, Ford, Fox, Girling, Harbour, Kamall, Karim, Kirkhope, McClarkin, Nicholson, Stevenson, Sturdy, Swinburne, Tannock, Van Orden, Yannakoudakis

How can anybody in the Square Mile trust this shower?