Dunfermline Building Society

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Defence – in the House of Commons at 3:31 pm on 30 March 2009.

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Photo of Alistair Darling Alistair Darling The Chancellor of the Exchequer 3:31, 30 March 2009

I assure the hon. Gentleman that this is not the last occasion that I will come to the House. I proposed to come to the House tomorrow afternoon to take part in the economic debate, which, I am sure, we are absolutely looking forward to.

On the hon. Gentleman's wider point, this is not the occasion to dwell on the future of capitalism, but the one thing that I would say is that he cannot leave out the conduct of the boards of management of some of those institutions, where there is no doubt that huge mistakes were made. Yes, there are lessons for the regulators, for Government and for everyone else, but we also need to ask ourselves, as should the people who are charged with running those financial institutions, whether they did the right thing. I am afraid that the answer in too many cases is no they did not.