[Osem]

I'm not questioning what you wrote which I agree with. The City was helping to prop up Brown's spending and he was far too busy doing all of that to want to listen to the warnings being given by insiders as to what was going on inside the likes of Northern Crock, B&B, HBOS etc.

Borrowing clearly didn't rise simply because of the banking crisis, before any of that came to a head it rose because Labour have always had a tendency to spend money they don't have. The whole PFI thing was a device by which to hide massive additional borrowing. They were desperate to cling onto power and the last thing they wanted to do was to have to cut spending, welfare etc. just before an election and that's why Brown didn't want to intervene in the brewing banking crisis earlier than he was eventually forced to.