Why doesn’t Labour support breaking up the banks?  

So the LibDems are once again taking a more radical lead within the Coalition by demanding that ‘casino’ investment banks are split off from traditional High Street banking to protect the taxpayer against another ruinous bail-out.   Where is Labour?   There is no question whatever that this is a necessary reform not only to end the curse of ‘banks too big to fail’, but also to lay the foundations of a sustainable revival of Britain’s manufacturing industry.   Why isn’t Labour leading the charge on this?   Why are we following behind a LibDem rebellion (if indeed we are) rather than ourselves advancing a vitally needed reform?   Ed Balls of course was City Minister when the big banks so terribly abused their position by hitching themselves so recklessly to the sub-prime market derivatives fiasco and the Brown Administration failed...