Mervyn King to face hostile TUC amid determination to ‘protect public from banks’
Posted on September 16th, 2010
The Bank of England governor’s speech this morning is likely to argue that cuts are necessary for the long-term health of the economy.
In an interview in the Congress Guide ahead of his speech this morning, Mr King said part of the Bank’s role now was “to protect the public from the banks”.
“The role of the Bank of England changed with independence. It was an apologist for the City. I now see it serving the nation as a whole,” he said.
Mr King said he understood why people were “puzzled” by the recession. “The origins of previous recessions could be traced to the need to combat inflation. This involved high interest rates, which inevitably affected businesses and jobs. But we have had the restructuring of industry, labour markets are more flexible and inflation is not the problem it was. People have a right to be puzzled.”
He appeared to sympathise with the unions’ cause, saying: “The unions have made concessions during previous recessions, so why should they suffer now?”
However Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport union said Mr King would not be welcome at the conference because he was “on the side of the bosses”.
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