From the Editor: Excuses, excuses... when will the FSA learn?

The best excuse coming out of last year’s MPs expenses scandal came from the lips of Anthony Steen.

Scott Sinclair
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The best excuse coming out of last year's MPs expenses scandal came from the lips of Anthony Steen.

“I’ve done nothing criminal,” he said. “Do you know what it’s about? Jealousy. I’ve got a very, very large house. Some people say it looks like Balmoral.” The public expected a swift apology from Steen, and they got one, but an apology to taxpayers may be too much to expect from the FSA after it made its own extraordinary excuse for costing them some £20bn (and counting) this week. The regulator has now published its much-awaited report into the near-collapse of Royal Bank of Scotland in 2008. It largely pinned the bank’s struggles on “underlying deficiencies in RBS management, govern...

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