RBS hearing on FSA report: Deceit, misdirection, fallacy

A very slippery pair are Bill Knight and Sir David Walker, who today, gave evidence to the HoC Treasury Committee* - in particular, on the failure of the RBS report to grapple with the culpability of RBS executives or its regulators in the run-up to the "financial crisis".




According to this pair, there was no wrong-doing by the FSA or RBS. At all.  "Mistakes" were made, they say with straight faces.

While it was good to see the two getting a grilling from skeptical MPs, I hope the latter weren't taken in. Misdirections, evasions, straw men, fallacies,  circular arguments were effortlessly and expertly woven into their narratives. Such are the tactics used by those who seek to deceive.

MPs' questions were littered with innuendo, barely whispered hints that something grave and dark lurked beneath - whether due to fear of reprisals is impossible to say, but not difficult to imagine.  Certainly, the "witnesses" and committee members are protected by Parliamentary Privilege, so the threat of law suits is somewhat diminished.

The calm, imperiousness that the pair seemed keen to convey, sought to hide, I believe, knowledge of criminal activity - or incompetence, at least.Will the Committee winkle out the deceits and take the necessary action, or will those responsible for impoverishing this nation go unpunished? Or will pressure be put upon them to return to "business as usual"?

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* HoC Treasury Ccommittee

Thatcher Room  Meeting started at 10.02am. Ended at 11.54am Financial Services Authority report into RBS Witnesses Bill Knight and Sir David Walker Visit the Committee's homepage.