Claim 0d96fab7Checked 09 Jul 2026
TrueOn the truth scale
“In the Eighties and Nineties, London became in many ways a genuine global centre for very hard work.”
Reasoning & Evidence09 Jul 2026
The historical part of the claim is supported. The Bank of England described London in 1989 as a “world financial centre,” and later said that 1986’s Big Bang reforms opened the Stock Exchange and helped the City build on its position as a leading international financial and banking centre. HMRC likewise summarizes Big Bang as a major 1986 reform that increased market activity and let banks and other financial institutions enter the LSE. The phrase “very hard work” is subjective rhetoric rather than a separable factual assertion. Sources: Bank of England, “London as an international financial centre” (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/quarterly-bulletin/1989/q4/london-as-an-international-financial-centre); HMRC, “STSM121020 - Financial markets: background: big bang” (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/stamp-taxes-shares-manual/stsm121020); Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin 2007 Q2, “The crest of a wave or swimming with the stream?” (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-bulletin/2007/quarterly-bulletin-2007-q2.pdf)
From article
The pressure of being a market-maker in a busy market, when you’ve got people all around you screaming and shouting at you and you’re dealing in numbers and it’s like that, that, that, that – that’s pretty pressurised. That’s why it’s a young man’s job. You don’t get many 50-year-old money-brokers: they can’t do it any more. Goodness me! It’s not an easy job. Not an easy job.
When I joined the City, it was the dying days of a gentlemen’s club: magnificent, socially wonderful but going nowhere – there was still a whiff of P G Wodehouse about people who toddled off to the City all day and did things that nobody understood at all. But what I saw in the Eighties and Nineties was London becoming in many ways a genuine global centre for entrepreneurial flair, for innovation, for very hard work – and for creating profits. And without those profits we can’t have the schools and hospitals we need in this country – it’s very, very simple. I am absolutely not conflicted in any way at all about the fact that what we did, overall, was for a social good.
Sources opened+ 42 search hits considered
| [1] | bankofengland.co.uk |