How do you tell the difference between a dead cat on the motorway and a dead banker on the motorway? The cat has got skid marks around it….”
It’s not the way that you normally expect Paxman to open an interview. However, as part of Newsnight‘s Rich Night this week, Bozza was asked about Vince Cable’s banker jokes and the role of bankers in the British economy as a whole.
It’s easy to be harsh on the banking community and, as Bozza says, there is “a strong public desire for retribution”. The public “see these masters of the universe, apparently completely unpunished.”
But, yet again, Boris seems to be the only person who has a balanced and sensible view about the banking system. “When you’re facing that kind of visceral public feeling you have to be very very careful that you don’t take steps that could do damage to the long term future of the UK economy.
“There’s no evidence that I’ve seen about getting these guys to vamoose off to Zurich or to deliquesce – liquidate themselves – that it will improve manufacturing in this country. What I’m saying is by shrinking financial services or attacking bankers I don’t think that you’re necessarily going to boost other parts of the UK economy.”
(Incidentally, when referring to ‘masters of the universe’, is Bozza reminding us that the character of He-Man appears to have been modelled on himself in his younger years….?)