PRESS DIGEST - Financial Times - Oct 14

The Financial Times

TORIES PUNCTURE 'TRIUMPHALISM'

The Tory party has attacked Gordon Brown for engaging in "triumphalism" at a moment of economic emergency after the Prime Minister and Alistair Darling, the chancellor, pointed to the fact that the British bank rescue plan was setting the agenda for other European countries. Writing in the Evening Standard, shadow chancellor George Osborne said: "This is no triumph. It is a necessary but desperate last-ditch attempt to avert catastrophe."

CITY WILL COME OUT STRONGER, SAYS BROWN

Gordon Brown gave a speech on Monday to bankers in Canary Wharf and pledged that the City will emerge from the banking crisis in a stronger position. "London in my view is the great financial centre, working with New York . I don't see that changing," he said. "London can ensure its position by making the changes I'm suggesting and emerge stronger in the long run."

BUSINESS INSISTS HELP IS WELCOME BUT TEMPORARY

The UK's business and financial groups warned on Monday against permanent state support of Britain's banks while welcoming the government's 37 billion pound bail-out of three of the country's largest banks as a necessary step to provide stability to the banking system. Angela Knight, chief executive of the British Bankers' Association, said: "For stability, it was essential that reaction was taken [but] Government support should be temporary, not permanent."