Action to stop the short-sell share scam? Don't bank on it.

Every time the de-stabilised financial markets twitch speculators somewhere make a fortune.

Figures just revealed show that at the height of fears over the future of HBOS dealers made £26 million in two minutes.

It happened on the morning that the BBC's business editor, Robert Peston, broke the news that the bank was to be rescued by Lloyds TSB.

In the two minutes before his broadcast at 9.00am buyers bought 22 million HBOS shares for just 96p each.
As soon as the story aired, the price of those shares rocketed to 215p each.

In all, 160 million shares were traded that morning, making an overall profit of £190 million.

One trader contacted the BBC's Woman's Hour programme to say that she had, personally, earned a £34,000 bonus for two hours work at the height of the crisis.

Given that it is officially estimated that one in four takeovers involve insider dealing, it is most likely that much of this profit was not a result of smart business dealing but of simple chicanery.

Yet still no action is taken against the shysters who are making a fortune out of other people's misery.

Our Prime Minister declares that he wants to see an end to the short-selling scandals that allow rogues to making millions by simply spreading rumours.

And he also wants bank directors to take more responsibility for the dealings done in their names. In fact, he wants more transparency all round.

It is obvious to everyone that our system of financial controls - which involves the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority, and which was put in place by the Scotsman himself - is useless.

So is he getting stuck in to create a new rule book?

Not at all. He and his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alastair Darling, have instead flown off to Washington to discuss a "global" approach to controlling the sickening excesses of the financial markets.

This makes no sense at all since all banking centres will be looking to maintain an advantage over all the others in order to attract business.

What Mr. Brown is looking for in the US is not a solution to the chicanery and criminality at the heart of our financial institutions. He's looking for an excuse to do nothing.

This is, after, all the man who has constantly talked of taking a "light touch" to controlling what goes on in the City.

What our Prime Minister is seeking is a touch so light that the light-fingered who are raking in the millions will not notice it at all.