Image by ianfogg42 via Flickr

Whereas the News Of The World Phone ‘Hacking’ scandal was really about dodgy opportunists working for News International who dialled into other people’s mobile voicemail using default passwords, there is news across the internet today that core network components of the UK Vodafone 3G network have actually been hacked. First spotted on web blog The Hackers Choice and tweeted by @Nissemus, some intrepid souls have taken apart a Vodafone Sure Signal box. This device is known in the industry as a Femtocell; a miniature mobile base station which connects to the Vodafone network via the internet. It is sold by Vodafone as a solution for people who have internet at home but no mobile signal. Now, by making some modifications to the box and with some knowledge of Linux and networking, the box can be used to capture details of other people’s mobile phones and further to use that data to request data from the Vodafone core. An unscrupulous hacker could then make calls or send SMS messages using those details without having access to the actual mobile phone of the user concerned, along with other listed exploits. Worst still, the underlying paranoia of the recent “phone hacking scandal” headlines becomes real – the hacker could listen to and record the phone calls of any mobile subscriber trapped in this way. 3G networks have always been assumed to be the most secure with all traffic highly encrypted using keys; keys that would now be available using the methods described.

So far there has been little comment outside of the anorak networks but given the appetite for mobile-hacking-related panic fodder, this story is likely to grow quickly. Unlike the voicemail problem, this does actually have a basis in technical reality as an actual ‘hacking’ exploit. Vodafone are yet to comment but one would hope that a simple password change at the core and careful monitoring of network requests from Sure Signal boxes would limit the potential for mischief. Still, with the advent of mobile payment solutions, not the time for any doubts about the security of commercial mobile networks !

Related articles

• How phone hacking worked and how to make sure you’re not a victim (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
• News of the World Hacking Scandal: Are the 9/11 Rumors Credible? (swampland.time.com)
• Cartoon: Sweeping Things Under The Carpet (englishblog.com)

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

A number of online services have sprung up which enable users to push data from their PCs (and other devices) onto the ‘net for storage and sharing. These are so-called ‘Cloud’ services – not file-sharing solutions such as Limewire which share a section of your PC’s hard drive with other users across the ‘net – but a remote hard disk to which you can save files as if it were a part of your PC’s own storage. What started as a backup solution enabling copies of important data to be held ‘in the cloud’ – on servers sitting on the internet to you and me – has grown into a means of publication of information, and has spawned a whole, hyped industry busily suggesting that everything can be moved into the cloud. The ultimate ‘thin client’ then – your PC (or slate or moby) becomes a dumb ‘client’ device, accessing its apps and data within the internet, not downloading them to you but accessing, manipulating and saving them within the cloud.

The services frequently come in a free version, providing a minimal amount of online storage which can be grown by spending dosh with the providers. This type of storage can be extremely useful but the services out there are not without their risks and hidden pitfalls.

DropBox

Arguably one of the pioneers of the product, DropBox has attracted a great deal of criticism of late. The service is simple and – for 2GB of storage – absolutely free. The client software seamlessly works with Windows XP and Mac OS X to provide what is seen as another disk drive. Multiple machines will synchronise neatly with the cloud-based files. Users can link/unlink their various machines with their DropBox data store. As a recent user, I found it to be slick, non-technical and especially useful in working with the iPad. It is not encrypted in any way – either in its transport of data between your machine and the cloud, or in its actual storage of data within its own servers so is arguably far from secure or private. This is not always clear to users and attracted a tumult of stroppy comment in recent months. This, coupled with a recent security cock-up has lost them friends. However, what prompted me to leave the service are the changes to Ts&Cs. DropBox are telling me that I give up all rights to my data – including copyright – when I store it within their cloud. In effect, I give them complete rights to re-use my data. Now, I understand the underlying reasons for these new clauses – so that they can permit access via hyperlinks etc. to my data if I so elect and also in providing a basic storage service, they are asking for ‘access’ to the data itself. Sure. Within the limits of providing the service, I do understand their arguments. However, the way they have elected to draft these clauses leaves a fair amount open to interpretation and would require a challenge to be made in court in order to establish whether any action they took was within the need to provide the service. No thanks. Too late when they have nicked my latest manuscript and flogged it to the tabloids (some chance !). Still, if you simply don’t care who may see your data or are tech-savvy enough to encrypt what you store there, DropBox remains worth a look.

MobileMe (soon to be iCloud)

Apple’s offering is about to change with the advent of their iCloud service. MobileMe goes beyond the simple drag-and-drop of DropBox and includes synchronisation of calendar, contacts, bookmarks and even a full IMAP-based Email service. The synchronisation includes a Windows-based client which will sync contacts up with Outlook and any Exchange back-end. The client software under Windows XP is flaky, however, and frequently sends the Windows Debugger into fits. For an annual subscription of £60-ish, you get 10GB of storage plus Email and the other trimmings. This is all about to end, though, as Apple flog its new iCloud service which includes the ability to store all your iTunes data – movies, music et al – in their cloud, or elements of it. It is a neat idea which means that you can start moving significant amounts of data into the cloud, as well as keeping some or all of your precious media library accessible from ‘anywhere’. The demise of MobileMe is not without its attendant casualties and moving to iCloud will mean you lose iDisk – the cloud-based storage component of MobileMe – which seems bonkers. Apple have not been entirely clear on which of the other features will survive so worth watching closely to see what the full service description is when iCloud is released in Q4 of 2011.

Amazon

For my money, Amazon are the real inventors of the ‘cloud’ with their Elastic Compute model for providing online/hosted servers and related services such as storage on a pay-for-what-you-eat basis. Its a great model and, whilst their EC2 (processor) and S3 (storage) charges seem to be a tad on the expensive side, they really have packaged up the whole offering in a coherent manner. They lead the way in providing APIs and related infrastructure to enable the quick and efficient scaling of services – including self-service – by their customers. Neat but not really intended for the end- / home-user.

It gets murkier and more complex as you look into other providers and players. Offering storage in this way is a great introduction to other services-in-the-cloud so is seen by a wallet-opener by the providers. Amazon is targetting serious developers and service providers with its flexible but costly offering; Dropbox and its followers are for the home user and are limited to cloud storage for the moment. Microsoft as ever are slow to catch up but are in the game yet suffering from their usual schizophrenia with their Azure service (akin to Amazon) and SkyDrive (their Dropbox clone).  In any guise it is a land-grab such as we knew from internet providers of old, but investors need to beware. The services are not as sticky as, say, Facebook or eBay. Customers can move. There is real and innovative competition in cloud services so consumers will start to see choice – with attendant diversity in the services themselves. Yes, these services – unlike their social counterparts – will need to be paid for directly but the benefits should be real. Better features such as in-line encryption, multi-device synchronisation, public picture galleries, free website and email domains etc. will be just the start of the differentiators on offer. A space to be watched.

Related articles

• Essential Features of an Online Storage Service (onlinestorage.org)
• Amazon Cloud Drive, Cloud Player Now With Unlimited Music Storage (slashgear.com)
• LaCie offers hybrid cloud storage service (infoworld.com)
• Amazon Cloud Player Adds Unlimited Music Storage (myassgeek.wordpress.com)

Image via Wikipedia

It took a while but the USA is waking up to the fact that the News International hacking scandal afflicting its UK estate may also be present in its American titles. The backlash against the Murdoch empire is gathering pace as US senator Jay Rockefeller weighs in. The BBC reported today that the chairman of the US Senate Commerce Committee has called on the “appropriate authorities” to investigate whether any American citizens have had their privacy violated.

“The reported hacking by News Corporation newspapers against a range of individuals – including children – is offensive and a serious breach of journalistic ethics. This raises serious questions about whether the company has broken US law,” he said.

With the UK parliament now likely to debate a non-partisan resolution called on News International to withdraw from its bid for British Sky Broadcasting, the scandal is far from disappearing – in fact, it is escalating. Former spin-doctor for UK prime minister Blair – Alistair Campbell – has remarked publicly and loudly about how Murdoch has mis-read the situation and that his usual tactic of “flying in” to resolve an issue in a flurry of publicity is actually making matters worse. With determined Murdoch lackies like incumbent PM David Cameron now going decidedly off-message, it is looking increasingly dodgy for the Dirty Digger.

Laugh ? I nearly bought my own beer !

Related articles

• Phone-hacking scandal reaches US (guardian.co.uk)
• VIDEO: Political parties united over Murdoch (bbc.co.uk)
• Tories join call over BSkyB bid – BBC News (news.google.com)
• Cameron weakened by UK phone hacking scandal (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Brown Allegedly Hacked – Wall Street Journal (news.google.com)
• Clouds gather over Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (rt.com)
• Phone-hacking scandal: live coverage (guardian.co.uk)

The Last Ever Edition of the News of the World

The front page of the last ever edition of the News of the World is all over the internet, accompanied by quotes from staff bleating about the injustice of the paper’s closure by Murdoch management on the back foot. I did feel a touch of regret that a supposedly crusading paper fell victim to the actions of a dodgy few.

Not for long. Remembering the culture at News International which encouraged the cynical and illegal access to voicemails of murdered teenagers whilst their poor parents knew nothing of the fate of their children makes me ashamed of the British press as an institution (and not for the first time).

However cynical an attempt this is to preserve the other NI titles, good riddance. I hope people will continue to boycott the predicted “Sunday Sun” when it materialises.

Related articles

• Murdoch flies to London amid phone-hacking crisis (msnbc.msn.com)
• 3 arrests in UK phone hacking scandal (msnbc.msn.com)
• UK’s News of the World bids farewell to readers (boston.com)
• Former News of the World editor arrested (salon.com)
• The Intrusive British Press (thedailybeast.com)
• Phone hacking scandal: Murdoch’s BSkyB bid – the News of the World’s latest victim (telegraph.co.uk)
• The News Of The World’s Greatest Hits (thenewspundit.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Not a noticeably doggish performance then as Red Bull lock out the front row for this weekend’s 2011 British Grand Prix despite challenges from Ferrari and the rule book. So much for the changes which should have held them back by banning the use of exhaust gases in managing aerodynamics. For the cognoscenti, this was a restriction permitting only 10% of off-throttle exhaust gases to be run through the diffuser. The performance was almost routine until you dig into the detail, with Mark Webber eclipsing his normally dominant teammate Vettel by 3 hundredths of a second, to snaffle pole position for today’s race. Ferrari’s Alonso was so close – third by only a tenth of a second, confirming that the Spaniard and the Prancing Horse are well within sight of the usual lockout by Red Bull.

“We are quite happy. Tomorrow, anything can happen. I think this circuit is quite tough on tyres, so we see what we get tomorrow.” – Sebastian Vettel

This leading group is over half a second in front of Ferrari also-ran Massa, and the McLaren of Jenson Button, back on home turf (Hamilton’s woes continuing as he managed to scrape onto the grid in 10th – clearly off his game). Bodes poorly for a home win at Silverstone. Revealing my McLaren bias, perhaps the British weather will throw a well-aimed spanner into the Renault engine – but it is hard to take anything away from either a brilliant Red Bull team, or the charging Alonso in a resurgent Ferrari.

Qualifying results (courtesy of the FIA) :

Related articles

• Massa masters the wet as McLaren and Red Bull row over diffuser ban (independent.co.uk)
• You: Mark Webber takes Pole in a great Silverstone 2011 qualifying session (bleacherreport.com)
• Exhaust saga continues to blow at Silverstone (inautonews.com)
• Red Bull want Jenson Button to partner Sebastian Vettel (mirror.co.uk)

Rosberg continued his climb up the batting order as the Mercedes improves; young Nico ahead of team grand master Schumacher and even looking like a race winner during the third quarter. His pass on Massa at lap 29 was a thing of beauty – and against an almost-World Champion who is back at the top of his game, despite the lacklustre Ferrari.

Having missed the qualifying, I had written off Mark Webber, starting in 18th, but it is so easy to forget the drive that the Aussie battler brings to the Red Bull, despite unreliable KERS and a dwindling advantage in sheer top-end speed over the McLarens and Mercedes. A cracking scrap through the field and then a wonderful little to and fro with Rosberg on lap 52 brought Webber to 4th with 2 laps to go and challenging Button. With fresher tyres and the scariest pit radio message ever to Jensen that Mark was behind him and faster, the inevitable happened. The storming Red Bull driver took Button just before the entrance to the final lap, assisted by the complex activation rules of the DRS system. Possibly one of the formula one performances of recent years, Webber deservedly joined his teammate on the podium, behind Hamilton.

McLaren can be quite pleased despite a pit gaff from Button which saw him lose the lead, having had a dream start with both cars leapfrogging Red Bull in decisive style. Lewis had to race his teammate and we were treated to a passing manoeuvre which was fairly chaste (presumably under team orders not to take each other out) but exciting nonetheless.

So despite looking a little ragged, Red Bull still managed to get both cars on the podium after a herculean drive by Mark Webber. Lewis Hamilton worked extremely hard to come back at the better form of his teammate, and with his race start in doubt from a flooded engine, his mental game is showing a real maturity not always evident in earlier seasons.

The challenge came to the TV coverage too with the BBC conceding defeat early on in the battle for keeping tabs on where the race was going. This takes nothing away from the BBC’s performance which is refreshed this season by dropping the lame Legard in favour of Coulthard working with old lag Brundle in the commentary box. Great stuff and hard to fault the work done by Auntie or even the local TV coordinators in trying to keep the coverage pointed at the key points of interest – there were so many.

Keep an eye out for newcomer Brit Paul Di Resta who is showing great promise with Force India and showing the incumbent Adrian Sutil how its done.

Wonderful. What a season to look forwards to.

Image via Wikipedia

James Cameron has much to answer for – and I am not referring to Titanic. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed the marvellous Avatar, the 3D presentation did not especially bring the film to life for me, and heralded a mad rush to promote the inclusion / adoption of the technology. With the glut of depth-mastered films came a push by UK trailblazer Sky Broadcasting to get it’s transmission of a new channel lined up with the release of 3D TV devices by the main manufacturers.

Fast forward a year and consumer electronics is heralding the arrival of sooper-dooper hand-held gaming devices which now also sport the Emperor’s new clothes. But is anyone really forking out on the new reality ? It really is getting silly when it seems any device simply has to have a “3D” moniker to get sold.

So it started with movies: apart from being able to scratch out a few quid to rent a pair of Michael Caine’s to the great unwashed, film producers loved the fact that 3D presentations are more difficult to pirate. Marketing machine into overdrive, then, as the studios decide to pump megabucks into a parade of perspective-warping wonders. Problem is that, whilst the effect is interesting for the first 15 minutes of a film, it rapidly dwindles away as your eyes adjust.  I discovered the added delight of eye strain and the warning signs of a major headache. Couple this with (I am told) washed out colour depth and parallax errors (image ‘faults’ caused by your position in the cinema relative to the screen) and it becomes tiresome. Pointless, then, verging on the painful.

Hardware manufacturers took the studio hype and spun it into Blue Ray players and TVs with 3D capability. Again, the ever-present speccie accompaniments remain obligatory for what becomes an even quicker case of ‘so what’ than the big screen. Not helped, I  suspect, by a huge chorus of everyone but the ultimate tech-heads not running to the shops to snaffle grand-plus-price-tagged gear.

Then comes Sky TV with its 3D ambitions. Hot on the heels of the new tellies in the shops, the Murdoch Men shape up to transmit more parallax-pony to the masses. The marketing of Sky 3D – very evident in Banker Central, aka London City – has quietened down of late. Again, I suspect take-up has been tiny. It has gone from “Build it, And They Will Come” to “Never Mind The Quality, Feel The Depth”.

And so to 3D gaming consoles. Now that’s a reasonable idea – immersive gaming sounds a treat but so far only available on, er, hand-held devices such as the Nintendo 3DS. Another shot in the foot for Consumer Electronics. Not to be outdone, HP and others launch the 3D laptop. Possibly the most farcical device ever invented ! Would I really want to venture into my Facebook page ? Could it possibly improve my productivity to see around the edges of my Microsoft Word document  ? Nope. Still, they have managed to create a slick-looking piece of kit which no longer requires the ridiculous bins to view the other dimension. Problem is, do I really want to carry round 3D movies to watch on-the-go. I cannot see the point of a 3D laptop. Worse still to come with the charming 3G phone from LG – unless of course I can talk to a holographic representation of my called party. Hmmm.

3D through whatever medium – and certainly in its current, largely bespectacled form – is novel but is hardly going to revolutionise the visual arts. Given a choice between the available dimensions of any movie, I will probably continue to plump for an old-fashioned number 2.

Related articles

• LG Unveils Phone With 3-D Screen (jsyk.com)
• Nintendo 3DS Coming To A Town Near You! (godisageek.com)
• A Glasses-Less 3D Laptop From Toshiba With Selectable 3D Screen Areas? [3D] (gizmodo.com)

Image via Wikipedia

The British Medical Association has weighed in on the new Prime Minister David Cameron’s health care proposals.

The Allergists voted to scratch it, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.

The Gastroenterologists had a sort of a gut feeling about it, but the neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve.

The Obstetricians felt they were all labouring under a misconception

Ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted.

Pathologists yelled, “Over my dead body!” while the Paediatricians said, “Oh, Grow up!”

The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while the Radiologists could see right through it.

The Surgeons were fed up with the cuts and decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.

The ENT specialists didn’t swallow it, and just wouldnt hear of it.

The Pharmacologists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the Plastic Surgeons said, “This puts a whole new face on the matter….”

The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.

The Anaesthetists thought the whole idea was a gas, but the Cardiologists didn’t have the heart to say no.

In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the arseholes in London

(Thanks to the small, but perfectly-formed Barbara King for this gem)

Related articles

• Proposed cuts to the National Health Service (bexxi.wordpress.com)
• Royal wedding: NHS workers demand extra pay to work on one-off Royal ‘bank holiday’ (dailymail.co.uk)

Image via Wikipedia

Check out Uncle George’s Banking pitch to the Commons this week :

Mr Speaker, I would like to make a statement. The near-collapse of the British banking system more than two years ago still generates today deep feelings of anger and cries for retribution.

I completely understand that.
For the link between risk and reward that underpins our free market was completely broken. Bankers who had made the most catastrophic mistakes walked away with huge payouts and pensions. Those entrusted by us to regulate those bankers and run our economy washed their hands. Meanwhile the rest of the country is left paying every day for their failures. The government has to pick up the pieces. Let me set out how we will do that.

First, we will make sure we learn every lesson that needs to be learnt – so that this never happens again. We are entirely replacing the tripartite system of regulation that was introduced in 1997, and completely failed. Next week we will publish the detailed proposals to give the Bank of England responsibility for prudential regulation, and to create a new Consumer Protection and Markets Authority that will protect the interests of bank customers.

We will then undertake pre-legislative scrutiny, as requested by this House, before introducing the Bill. I hope it will command support from all sides.

Later this year we will also receive the interim and final reports of the Independent Banking Commission that this Government established, and which I asked Sir John Vickers to chair. Sir John and his fellow Commissioners are asking the difficult questions that need to be asked, about how we protect the British taxpayer from future bank failures so that never again is a bank too big to fail, and we look forward to receiving their recommendations.

I should make it very clear that nothing I will say today about the settlement we have reached with Britain’s banks, including references to a level playing field, in any way pre-judges the outcome of the Commission. That includes both the Commission’s recommendations and the Government’s response. The second task facing this Government is to make sure that we get the maximum sustainable tax revenues from the financial sector.

HM Revenue and Customs confirms that the one-off bank payroll tax introduced in the dying months of the previous government raised £2.3billion net, but as my predecessor as Chancellor has pointed out, it could not be repeated without massive tax avoidance. I agree with him and we will not repeat the bank payroll tax. Instead we have implemented a new and permanent bank levy and that is why yesterday I announced an increase in that levy so it raises £2.5billion this year.

This will bring the total raised by the new bank levy to £10billion over the Parliament. And it means that in each and every year of this Government we will raise more in bank taxes than the previous government raised in any year. We have also required all the major banks operating in the UK comply in spirit and by the letter with the Code of Practice on taxation.

This Code was announced with a fanfare but I discovered that only two banks had signed up to it. Today all the major banks have signed. The third task facing the new Government was to reach a new settlement with the banks so that they contribute to Britain’s economic recovery.

Mr Speaker, some prominent people in this House were predicting just twenty four hours ago that my tax announcement meant that our discussions with the banks on lending were falling apart. The House will be pleased to know this prediction was wrong. This morning the heads of the major British banks – Barclays, RBS, Lloyds and HSBC – reached a new settlement with the British Government. I want to thank John Varley, the former chief executive of Barclays, for the huge amount of time and personal commitment he has given to this project. The essentials of this new settlement are exactly as I set out last month, and I am today publishing an exchange of letters between John Varley and myself.

The banks will:

• lend more money, especially to small business;
• pay more taxes;
• pay less bonuses;
• be more transparent about the bonuses they do pay;
• and make a greater contribution to our regional economy and society.

In return the Government commits to the success of a strong, resilient, stable and globally competitive financial services sector in which UK banks can compete with the best banks in the world on a level playing field – and in which London is a world centre for finance. That is good for jobs and growth in our country.  Let me go through each part in detail.  Starting with pay and bonuses.

Most of us of find the levels of pay in financial services to be completely out of kilter with what the rest of society would regard as fair or reasonable. We are determined to bring responsibility and constraint – and make sure that pay is properly taxed.  Four years ago, at the height of the banking boom, the City paid £11.5 billion in banking bonuses – most of which was in cash, most of which could not be recovered when the banks collapsed, and too much of which went untaxed. The new remuneration code introduced last month and the tax avoidance measures we are taking will change that. Today I can tell the House that the four major British banks have also agreed that total bonuses for their UK-based staff will be lower than last year – and lower than they would have been without today’s settlement. The independent non-executive director that chairs each bank’s Remuneration Committee will have to confirm personally in writing to the FSA that their pay accord conforms with today’s commitments. And for the first time, the banks have agreed to seek explicit approval from their board’s remuneration committee for the pay of the ten highest paid employees in each of their main business units. This did not happen in banks like RBS before the crisis, where the board was ignorant of what was going on.

We have also insisted that the banks be far more transparent about who and how they pay.  From this year onwards, the four major banks have committed to disclose the pay details not just of their executive board members, but also of the top five highest paid executives not on the board. This will mean that the salary details of at least seven executives at each bank will be published this year. That compares with five individuals in the US and Hong Kong, and only board executives in Germany and Japan.  And by disclosing individual pay levels it goes further than the Walker disclosure recommendations, which we are seeking international agreement on. And we will consult on whether to make it a mandatory requirement from 2012 on all large UK banks to publish the pay of both the board plus the eight highest paid senior executive officers.

This would mean Britain has the toughest and most transparent pay regime of any major financial centre in the world.
Mr Speaker, let me also provide an update on the situation at RBS and Lloyds.
In 2009 the government signed an agreement with RBS that explicitly said would “enable pay arrangements in line with the market” this year. Despite that constraint we have inherited, UKFI, the arm’s length body which manages the Government’s stake in these two banks, has agreed the following:

• For all staff at RBS and Lloyds, the maximum upfront cash bonuses will be limited to a maximum of £2,000 this year;
• All Executive Directors, including the Chief Executives, have agreed to receive this year’s bonuses entirely in the form of shares;
• Directors will have to wait until 2013 to convert these shares into cash.

As the Prime Minister made clear last month, the bonuses at RBS and Lloyds will in total be smaller than they were last year – and so, crucially, will the compensation ratios. They will be backmarkers in the industry instead of the frontrunners they once were.

Let me turn from pay to the additional support the British banks have committed to provide to the regional economy.
At the end of last year the industry pledged £1.5 billion to a new Business Growth Fund, that will invest in the kinds of expanding small businesses that hold the key to Britain’s more balanced economic future. Today they commit to make an additional £1.2billion contribution to society. The four major banks commit to an additional £1billion for the Fund and an additional £200million to capitalise the Big Society Bank.

The Business Growth Fund contribution will be front-loaded over the next couple of years, so that more help can be given to businesses sooner. This money will be additional to the lending commitments and additional to any funding already allocated from dormant bank accounts. Finally, at the heart of today’s settlement is a commitment from the four major banks, as well as Santander, to make much more money available for lending to small and medium sized business. Last year these banks lent £66billion to such businesses. Today the banks commit to lend £76billion this year. £10 billion more gross new lending to small and medium businesses. That is a massive 15% increase, materially higher than they had been planning to lend this year and materially higher than anyone who followed these discussions would have expected. It comes alongside a very welcome commitment from the banks to improve greatly their customer service to small businesses, with a free mentoring service, published lending principles, transparent appeals and improved access to trade finance.

Overall gross new lending to all businesses, large and small, will increase from £179billion to £190billion – and they make a commitment to lend even more if demand materializes. Absent this accord, the banks were actually expecting lending to fall this year.  In order to ensure that progress against these lending commitments can be monitored, the Bank of England has agreed to collect the relevant data and publish it on a quarterly basis.

To help ensure today’s agreement is honoured, for the first time the pay of the Chief Executives of each bank, as well as the relevant business area leaders, will be linked to performance against the SME lending targets. Of course, if even then the banks fail to live up to their promises – then the Government reserves the right to return to the issue and take further measures. But I sincerely hope that is not necessary

Mr Speaker.  The anger at the terrible mistakes of the banking industry, and the failure of those who regulated it, will long remain – and rightly so.

But let us as a country confront this hard truth. Anger and retribution will not bring one percentage point of economic growth or create one single new job. The anger will remain. And we must never make the same mistakes again. But Britain needs to move from retribution to recovery.

Today we get the banks to commit, with:
More for lending – £10billion more for small businesses; More for our regional economies and society; £10billion more in taxes; And lower bonuses and the most transparent pay regime in the world. In return let us build a banking industry that creates jobs for hundreds of thousands of our citizens and competes in the world.

Above all let us make sure the economic catastrophe that befell this country can never be repeated.
That is how this Government will clean up the mistakes of the past.
And I commend this statement to the House.

Related articles

• George Osborne accused of ‘throwing in the towel’ with bank bonus deal (guardian.co.uk)
• Update 2: UK’s Osborne: Major Banks Agree To Lend More (forexlive.com)
• U.K. Government, Banks Seal Deal on Bonuses, Disclosure, Lending (businessweek.com)
• £2 million for RBS chief (independent.co.uk)
• UK banks finally agree Project Merlin deal on pay and lending (telegraph.co.uk)