NATIONALISATION OF BANKS AND ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL PROVISION

That this House believes that the Government should implement in full the 1983 manifesto policy put forward by the then Leader of the Labour Party, the right hon. Member for Ebbw Vale, now Blaenau Gwent constituency, that the banks should be nationalised; further believes that the future of banking in Britain should include more mutual societies, mortgage providers and financial institutions that give a priority to ethical aims in their management and investment activities; and calls for greater use to be made of the facility available in the national Post Office network and credit unions to provide more flexible and sustainable financing arrangements at this time of widespread loss of confidence in the main, large, existing financial institutions due to their incompetent and reckless past financial mismanagement.