Financial Services Bill

It is clear that a number of debates are going on. In the contribution made by a very distinguished apostle of short selling, we heard that, in all possible worlds, it is an extraordinary activity that benefits market liquidity and that it should therefore be ungoverned. In the specific case that I have cited, the chairman of the pension fund undertook inquiries before he heard about the introduction of my Bill to ban short selling. There was no failure there, although a general failure might have arisen because the House made such a fuss about the role of the custodian, who was the person who put the lock on any use of assets without the knowledge of the pension fund. There is of course an issue surrounding corporate governance, as the hon. Member for Chichester (Mr. Tyrie) suggested, but the problem is wider than that. I approach this matter with the view that short selling—gambling with people's futures—is not necessarily a good activity, even if that activity is draped under the guise of liquidity.