George Osborne talks tough on debt – so why not on the banks? | Simon Jenkins

Britain still tolerates economy-threatening monoliths like HSBC. In America they know that small works

Shock horror. A chancellor of the exchequer thinks we should not spend beyond our means. The habit must end. The Micawberish cliche, respun by George Osborne’s aides before his Mansion House speech tonight, is hardly new. Jim Callaghan shouted it at a rally in 1976, as did Margaret Thatcher at her party ad nauseam. Gordon Brown had his 1997 “golden rule” and America its Gramm-Rudman act. Such...