Gieve gives little away

Was he pushed or did he jump?

That was the topic of conversation in the wake of Sir John Gieve's address to the North East Chamber of Commerce Durham and Tees Valley annual dinner in Sedgefield on Thursday night.

It was little surprise that the deputy governor of the Bank of England gave little away about the goings on which prompted his announcement of his intention to quit on Wednesday evening.
He did, however, stray slightly from his script to reveal how taken aback he had been by the furore prompted by his decision which he had himself thought to be rather "uninteresting".
The consensus opinion amongst commentators in the City was that the decision had been very much made for him by the powerbrokers in the Treasury. There was no clue as to whether or not that was the case during his address in Sedgefield, although he seemed in relatively high spirits considering the huge challenges the Bank is facing just now.
He certainly had a more relaxed evening than 24 hours previously when he had been spotted penning a press release regarding his departure on his Blackberry during the Mansion House speech after word reached him that news of his exit had been leaked.
It has been suggested that key officials in the Treasury decided they needed a new man because they disliked the thought of Sir John acquiring more powers as part of a shake up of the Bank's financial stability regime.
He has been on borrowed time, in truth, since the Northern Rock crisis and, in particular, his much-criticised appearance at the Treasury Select Committee.
The fact the Newcastle bank played such a prominent part in his downfall made it something of a surprise that he braved a trip to the North East. And credit to him too, it should be said, for making reference of Northern Rock in his speech.
He was right, of course, to point out that neither he nor any of his colleagues on the MPC were running Northern Rock and could not themselves be blamed for its downfall. But the fact he said he was "sorry" he had not been able to save the Rock without its nationalisation was a pretty brave statement, I thought. He should be applauded for that.

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