FT238

If there has been a single theme running through this column it is that mega- or meta-conspiracy theories – of the it’s-all-the-fault-of-the-Jews-Masons-aliens-lizards kind – are a distraction from real conspiracies. Sometimes, though, these two fields threaten to overlap – for example with bankers. Now, this makes many respectable commentators nervous lest it should be thought they are interested in banking conspiracy theories – which sound, of course, rather similar to Jewish banking conspiracy theor­ies, that deathless staple of the far Right.


But so obvious have been the conspiracies in the sub-prime lending fiasco in America that I think I detect a certain diminution of the hostility towards the use of the ‘c’ word among our polit­ical-media gatekeepers.