Even after the crash, voters still don’t want safe lending | Phillip Inman

A Swiss referendum on responsible banking looks likely to be defeated. And if it fails there, it would have no chance in Britain

Ten years after the financial crash, most Britons remain suspicious of calls to be adventurous with public money. Aware that the pre-2008 economy was akin to a high-wire act, they believe lapsing back into the old borrow-to-spend routine will only herald another disaster.

That's why the chancellor, Philip Hammond, feels secure when he bats away calls to throw off his self-imposed straitjacket and lift austerity. And it's the reason Bank of England governor Mark Carney tells us in his speeches that he's tied the hands of bank bosses and that their institutions are safer than at any time in a generation.

In Britain, like it or not, the economy is driven by consumer spending and fuelled by debt

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