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	89% of Europeans want Bankers behind Bars by YouGov/Avaaz opinion poll   Oct 2012   Massive majority demands criminal sanctions against fraudulent bankers across the EU.   A new YouGov/Avaaz opinion poll released today reveals that the overwhelming majority of people in France (90%), Germany and the UK (89% each) believe that bankers responsible for fraud or manipulating markets should face criminal sanctions such as jail sentences. Avaaz is additionally handing in a petition, signed by over 720,000 people, calling for such sanctions.   This poll, commissioned by the global campaign group Avaaz, as MEPs were set to vote in Brussels on a proposal to penalise bankers in all EU Member States. The poll of a representative sample of more than 3,700 people across France, UK and Germany also showed:   A large majority in Germany (60%), France (56%) and the UK (70%) think that guilty bankers should be sent to prison rather than the banks themselves pay fines.   Most people in the UK and Germany think their government mainly listens to big banks when considering laws and regulations on banking (France 49%, Germany 67%, UK 64%).   78% of people in France and 76% of people in Germany think that EU member states should agree to common legal standards for criminal sanctions on bankers.   In a ranking of the five biggest banks for each country, the ones blamed for the worst abuses of the financial system are Barclays and RBS in Britain, Société Générale in France and Deutsche Bank in Germany.   Today in Brussels, Avaaz will deliver a petition, signed by over 720,000 people to MEP Arlene McCarthy who’s leading the European Parliament Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on the issue. The petition calls for “strong legislation against market abuse, including criminal sanctions for bankers who ride roughshod over regulations or break our laws”.   Alex Wilks, campaign director at Avaaz, said: “People across Europe want to see bankers behind bars. They are massively rewarded for their reckless gambles and get off far too lightly when caught. 720,000 people are today urging MEPs to agree that no banker is too big to jail.”   Vice Chair of the Economic & Monetary Affairs Committee MEP Arlene McCarthy said: “The financial sector cannot be trusted to self regulate. Fines have proved ineffective and have not changed the culture in the banking industry. We are therefore extending the law to, for the first time, impose tough EU wide criminal sanctions and jail time. It will cover all benchmarks and indices as the Libor manipulation shows that abuse is still rife in the banking sector. Thanks to the support of the Avaaz campaign, which has mobilised hundreds of thousands of Europeans, I am confident that the full committee will back a tough approach to abuse and manipulation.” Visit the related web page
	Growing public anger over official corruption by BBC News China   October 2012   China"s next generation of leaders will start assuming power at the 18th Party Congress next month.   Growing public anger over official corruption will pose one of their greatest challenges during the next decade.   The scale of the problem is stunning. Last year, the People"s Bank of China mistakenly released a report on its website which was then quickly taken down.   The report said that between 16,000 and 18,000 government officials and employees of state-owned enterprises had smuggled more than $120bn (£75bn) overseas between the mid-1990s and 2008. That works out to more than $6m per official.   Earlier this year, Premier Wen Jiabao warned that corruption was the greatest threat to the rule of the Communist Party.   The Chinese public read headlines about anti-corruption campaigns almost every day. Last month Bo Xilai, the politician at the heart of China"s biggest political scandal in years, was expelled from the Communist Party.   Among the charges he faces are that he took "huge" bribes.   Increasingly however Chinese internet users are playing an active role.   In August, an official was photographed smiling at the scene of a fatal bus accident. Bloggers were infuriated by what they saw as his callousness and started investigating.   Pictures of him were posted at various functions and meetings wearing expensive watches - too expensive to be bought on an official salary.   The authorities later announced that he had been sacked.   While low-level and mid-level officials are often fair game, the finances of top leaders and their families are strictly off-limits to the Chinese media, apart from in a few high-profile cases.   In a system where officials are only accountable to the party and not to the public, it is very hard to see how corruption can be rooted out.   "It"s impossible to tackle corruption within the system without having independent bodies," said Hong-Kong-based China analyst, Willy Lam.   "Top officials have stopped investigations and refuse calls for other senior officials to publish the assets of their families."   Many of the thousands of incidents of unrest in China every month have their roots in corruption - such as land deals by local officials.   Mr Lam believes that unless China"s leaders make meaningful political reforms, they will face "rising social unrest".   In a society where corruption is rife, many Chinese have come to accept it as part of daily life. They know they will often have to pay bribes to get good medical treatment or win lawsuits in the courts.   Chen Wei wants her five-year-old son, Lu Siyuan, to go to a good state school in Beijing. But in order to ensure a place for him, she says that she would have to pay more than $10,000 in bribes to education officials.   "This is the cost we face," she said. "We have no choice."   Like many here, Ms Chen wants China"s new generation of leaders to tackle corruption. If they do not, they will be storing up trouble for the future.
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