A video of the journalist Paul Mason blasting the banking sector has gone viral, garnering him widespread public support.
Mason was filmed standing in a street in central London. "I am actually just sick of that corner," he begins. "That corner over there where RBS HQ is. I'm just sick of it, after six years, why do we keep having to come and do it?"
The Channel 4 News economics editor was referring to yesterday's revelation that five major banks, including RBS, had been fined a total of £2.6bn for fixing foreign exchange rates, the latest in a string of scandals.
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He called for tougher regulation of the financial sector and harsher punishments, putting an end to what he describes as "cufflink tweaking" in response to major wrongdoing.
"All we ask, all we can ask, is that the regulators do their job proactively. That they actually get on the case, just like the security guards outside here, and the CCTV cameras there, and the City of London police, they get on the case and stop wrong doing – what's so hard about it?," he asks.
Mason later admitted that the video had only been made after he had a chance to calm down.
But the general public appears to agree with him:
@paulmasonnews for prime minister! Screw mealy mouthed disingenuous politicians, vote for Paul!— Marcus Kielly (@sunwukung) November 13, 2014
@paulmasonnews @BillGrimsey Damn right. Good to see such a rare example of journalistic anger and frustration about a huge, ongoing scandal.— Ian Slater (@isslater) November 13, 2014
Imagine @paulmasonnews's rant was something a politician would actually say.http://t.co/DGKuqymacc Nice, isn't it? But we have to wake up.— Alex Ingram (@nuttyxander) November 13, 2014
@paulmasonnews great footage and views. Makes a refreshing change to see passionate journalism like this .— Paddingtonstare (@flowerandcus) November 13, 2014
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