Labour Urges Laws To Prosecute Bankers

The Labour Party has called for a change in the law so that "incompetent bankers" can be prosecuted, after a report published on Monday blamed poor decision making for the near failure of RBS. Speaking in response to the FSA’s report into the failure of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Labour’s Shadow Treasury Minister Chris Leslie said it was astonishing that "deeply irresponsible" decisions by bankers could have forced a £45bn bailout necessary to save depositors, and yet no enforcement action is being brought, and nobody is punished. “We need a change in the law to ensure that incompetent bankers can be held properly accountable for the harm they can cause – and if George Osborne does not amend the Financial Regulation Bill to introduce the concept of 'strict liability' for bank directors then we will do so." Mr Leslie said governments and regulators around the world, including here in Britain, should have been tougher on the banks before the crash. "We've apologised for not being tough enough, but when will David Cameron and George Osborne say sorry for calling for less regulation and complaining that Labour was too tough?"

Lorry Driven At House And Set Alight

A lorry was reversed into a house repeatedly while four people cowered inside during an attack outside Middlesbrough before the vehicle was set on fire over the weekend. A girl, four, a 15 year-old-boy and two adults were inside Park House in Dunsdale, near Guisborough, Cleveland Police said. No-one was injured in the incident, at about 11.45am on Saturday. Another vehicle at the house also caught fire. The force said there was serious structural damage to the house. Police want to hear from anyone who saw the white flatback lorry which had "City Scaffolding" written on it with the registration FJ05 WGG written on it in the village.

Little Mix Win Less Popular X-Factor

Girl band foursome Little Mix have won the 2011 series of X-Factor despite the show losing 20% of it's audience. The girl group, which was put together by N-Dubz singer and girl category mentor, Tulisa Contostavlos took 48.3% of the public vote to beat male solo singer Marcus Collins. Jade Thirlwall, 18, Perrie Edwards, also 18, Jesy Nelson, 20, and Leigh-Anne Pinnock, 19, were apparently shocked by the win during Sunday night's two hour show, becoming the first girl band to win the singing contest. However, their future seems unclear, with this year's show attracting 15.5 million viewers compared to last year's peak of 19.4 million. The grand finale, held at Wembley Arena, had an average audience of 13.1m over its two-hour run.

(DW)