Payback time

George Osborne will signal an end to “banker bashing” next week, amid a clamour from the City for him to ease off on regulation and cut the controversial* bank levy. 

FT (behind the paywall)
Now where was the NYT piece I quoted just before the election? Oh, yes:

No political party in Europe has done more for hedge funds and bankers in recent years than the British Conservatives.

And the party has been well rewarded for it.

Hedge fund managers have been writing eye-popping checks to the Conservative Party before the British election on Thursday. And with no campaign finance limits for party donations, there is little to hold them back.

More than $2.3 million has come since last year from Michael Hintze, an Australian billionaire who lives in London, where he founded the hedge fund CQS. Michael Farmer, another hedge fund manager, has donated roughly $2.2 million over the same reporting period, and far more in the last decade. Stanley Fink, who once ran the Man Group and has been party treasurer, has donated $1.3 million since the 2010 election, records show. 

The best politicians money can buy, brought to you by a party which has learnt nothing from the global financial crisis (except  how to line its own pockets by sucking up to the people who nearly destroyed the economy in the first place).

George Osborne, please step up to the podium to accept the Sepp Blatter lifetime achievement award. This handsome 24 carat gold pig, complete with solid gold trough and expertly crafted brass neck inlay is the City's special way to thank you for the willing sacrifice of your soul.

If you want a picture of Britain's future, imagine a stupidly expensive Gucci loafer stamping on a human face – forever.

*Weasel word alert - 'controversial' with whom, exactly?