Brown: Government must be rock in UK

Oct. 13 – Prime Minister Gordon Brown says the government must be a rock of stability for British families during the credit crisis.

Britain waded in with 37 billion pounds (64 billion US dollars) of taxpayers’ cash to bail out three major banks on Monday, in a move that could leave it as the main shareholder in at least two of them.

In return for the British government’s money, the banks will be forced to curtail the bonuses that many believe encouraged a risk-taking culture that precipitated the global financial crisis. They will also have to scrap dividends.

Under the UK plan, the Royal Bank of Scotland will boost its capital by 20 billion pounds, issuing 15 billion pounds’ worth of shares underwritten by the state, and 5 billion pounds in preference shares directly taken by the government.


Brown: Government must be rock in UK

questions

  1. What is the action the government is taking?
  2. What is ceasing to work?
  3. What will happen to people if the government leaves them ‘on their own’?
  4. Who will the government be the ‘rock of stability’ for?
  5. How does he describe the world?
  6. Who has agreed to take action on liquidity, capital and funding guarantees?
  7. Who will he meet later this week?
  8. Who must work together?
  9. When did he speak to President Bush?
  10. What did they agree?

check your answers

go to news archive

Home