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Banking Bill

I put my name to the amendment, although I referred to it in speaking to the paving amendment on the previous occasion. My noble friend Lord Wedderburn drafted the amendment and was anxious to be able to speak to it. These are not ordinary times; we are facing possible disaster. I speak as an ordinary depositor and, as such, I really am afraid. The media stories scare me; I want the protection of the Government. For that reason, I support the Bill. Many people feel as I do; one has only to read the correspondence in newspapers to see the sort of comments that people are making: ““What should I do? Should I take out all my money? Should I leave it under the mattress?””, and so on. It is essential that confidence be restored, and I support what the Government are doing, but public money should mean public accountability, as I said on a previous occasion. The amendment, which is a reasonable one and which is very modest, as my noble friend said, endeavours to meet the criticisms that have been made from time to time about the very large sums that have been paid to senior executives, sometimes in situations where they are responsible for the decisions that have landed us in the problems that we now face. A number of people are going to be hurt by this crisis, including the depositors whose interests will be diminished, down to zero possibly. They will lose money that they had been saving for their retirement and they will not be able to replace it. Then there are employees who will become unemployed. In those circumstances, it is not reasonable for people to be seen to be walking away with very large sums of money. The amendment is modest, and I hope that the Government will be prepared to consider it, in view of the explanation that has been given by my noble friend in support of it.