‘Rupert Murdoch’s only the start, the psyche of British politics has changed’ | Politics | The Observer

Under the leadership of Ede Miliband, Britain’s Labor Party is connecting the dots between corrupt moguls in the media, politics, andbanking:

The lesson of the phone-hacking scandal, he insisted, was that when too much power had been held by too few people, ordinary citizens had been left voiceless and trust had broken down. The same argument applied to all pillars of the establishment. Politicians and bankers as well as the media – all had had too much power which they failed to exercise responsibly. “We’ve seen it in politics with the expenses scandal, we’ve seen it in banking. We have got to be willing to speak out because it is damaging the fabric of the country, the ethic of the country. We can’t have the responsible country that I think we need if this is going on among the most powerful people in the country.”

via ‘Rupert Murdoch’s only the start, the psyche of British politics has changed’ | Politics | The Observer.

John Quiggan (author of Zombie Economics) continues on at Crooked Timber:

If Labor could tie the Conservative-Liberal austerity package to the protection of the systemically corrupt banking system, they would have the chance to put Nu Labour behind them (I noticed Blair has already credited Brown with killing the brand). Instead of putting all the burden on the public at large, they could force those who benefited from the bubble to pay for the cleanup. The two main groups are the creditors who lent irresponsibly, counting on a bailout and should now take a long-overdue haircut and high-income earners who benefited, either directly or indirectly, from the huge inflation in financial sector income.