10th March 2011

IFA letter of the week:

There were more holes in the FSA arguments to the TSC than you get in a Swiss cheese.

COMMENT:

A couple of days ago John Humphries interviewed Valerie Wilson on Radio 4. Mrs Wilson was the wife of Joseph Charles Wilson who was a former United States diplomat best known for his 2002 trip to Niger to investigate allegations that Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase yellowcake uranium.

They didn't find any such link and reported this. Because they told the truth and the truth did not fit the USA agenda they were subsequent "outed" as CIA agents, and nearly lost their lives and certainly their livelihoods.

Valarie Wilson said to John Humphries it is the duty of every citizen of a democratic state to hold their government and politicians to account - this is the essence of democracy!

I believe it is the duty of every IFA to hold the FSA accountable and for the first time on the 09/03/11 we saw the TSC hold the FSA to account!

THE TSC:

George Mudie MP asked Hector Sants if RDR was a done deal. Yes came the reply, unless you can present the FSA with evidence to the contrary! George Mudie then said why is it that an elected MP and a member of the TSC is held accountable to the FSA an unelected quango and is then asked by the FSA to present evidence to the FSA?

Why it is that elected MPs are reviewing RDR when an unelected bureaucrat tells the MPs that RDR is already a done deal?

Mr Mudie further went on to say it is for the FSA to show the TSC evidence and not the other way around!

Sants replied if you don't like it then get Parliament to change FSMA because the FSA has been given these powers!

Mr Mudie has hit the nail on the head. This is even more important than RDR, it is about the rule of law, human rights and democracy. It is about decency and morality and the FSA is amoral and quite happy to destroy individuals who have servied their clients over a lifetime! There is no place in a democracy for an unelected legislator that is not accountable to the judiciary (as Andrew Tyrie pointed out) or accountable to parliament (as George Mudie pointed out).

The TSC asked why is it that the FSA is spending �£1.7billion on RDR when at the same time the EU is reviewing the same areas and may well override elements of RDR. Sants & Nichols say it is because the FSA can't wait for the EU!!! So the UK financial services is to lose 20/30% of advisers, incur coast of �£1.7b because the FSA is impatient!

Ms Nichols seemed to find this whole process amusing so much so she was reprimanded for this during the meeting George Mudie MP said: Ms Nichols do you find that amusing because my constituents don't!

Ms Nichols told the TSC that 70% of consumers don't take advice and the remaining 40% don't trust the advice. Alas, no supporting evidence could be supplied for these facts!

Finally, Sants took the legitimacy for RDR from the support of professional associations such as PFS, AIFA, ABI etc. These bodies do not represent out views and I say shame on those groups for their lack of backbone and their capitulation to an all powerful Leviathan.

NB: It is now illegal to discriminate on the basis of age and yet RDR targets older IFA's. In any employed situation this would be considered "constructive dismissal" and also in breach of age discrimination laws because it targets older IFA's!

But that's OK because the FSA is above the law and not accountable to the courts!

Regards

SIMON MANSELL

Adviser Letter of the Week