Stop blaming men for the recession

Instead of attacking men for ruining women's economic progress, give them a pat on the back for overseeing that progress thus far
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These are the words of Joseph Conran, a man desperately dated even for his time. They are 110 years and a whole world apart from the current feeling espoused by many journalists that the blame for all of our current woes can be laid firmly at the feet of men. Are both of these theories ridiculous generalisations? Are neither of them?

Gunther Grass claimed that bystanding, or doing nothing, was as bad as committing the act in itself. Admittedly he was talking about the Nazi Holocaust, but my question to Ruth Sunderland et al remains, where the hell have you been? The horse called from Jamaica to let you know that he bolted a few weeks ago, sold the stable and isn't returning until his bonus is paid. Further to this your culpability in buying £5,000 handbags and £100 face cream doesn't exactly promote your aptitude for budgetary or prioritisation responsibilities.

I have always tried to keep clear of mass generalisations, fearing they would lump me into the same pigeonhole as the author of the above quote, but it seems to be the only viable way to counteract the accusations that we wouldn't be in this mess if women were involved. To that end I would like to apologise to the ambitious, cut-throat, risk-taking or, dare I say, bonus-paid women, who will remain anomalies for the purposes of the current debate over who exactly are the crafty criminals in the crippling credit crunch crisis.

Sunderland is quite right to emphasise the role women should be playing in finance, but somehow she manages to quote statistics proving women's resilience to the downturn in one article while claiming them to be the real victims of the credit crunch in another. It seems that women's economic gains over the last few decades relative to men will be harder hit, I guess relegating them back to second-class citizen status. So I suppose that while we're assigning blame to the financiers and politicians for ruining the progress women have made, we should probably give them a pat on the back for overseeing such gender-equalising financial independence and equality at work.

If you want to vilify "men" for the recession/depression/Armageddon, good for you! I expect it to follow your awarding of long-overdue honours for their overwhelming exponential successes up to that point. The legion of jobs and wealth that the city has created outside of its own doors is unparalleled and that quality of life/possessions is something most people are unwilling to relinquish. If, on the other hand however, you want to move forward and you have some ideas on how to fix the problem, I'm all ears. My suggestion is to outlaw OTC trading, a closed-door inter-bank process almost entirely unregulated and unchecked, by men or women.

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