The Credit Crunch - YOU are to blame

That's right, you. Not the banks, the chief executives of said banks, the traders, short-sellers, estate agents, gazumpers, or even politicians. You. Well, partly.

Now I know this is harsh. And here in the UK the chiefs of several major banks have been hauled before the Treasury Select Committee in the House of Commons and 'grilled', as they say in the jargon here, on their role in the credit crunch. Like medieval undesirables being put in the stocks, the bankers were forced to endure the rotten tomatoes thrown by, of all people, politicians.

You could just sense the MPs' relish at finally getting their chance to play the role of people's champion, and striking a blow for the common man. Rarely do politicians find themselves in such a position, usually being themselves pilloried for their duplicity and greed and universally despised to boot. So there they were, like modern-day Wat Tylers in their own little Peasants' Revolt. Except of course, it was nothing more than an exercise in theatre and hypocrisy. Politicians like John McFall MP, the Chairman of the Committee, are trying to salvage their own reputations - and who better to make even a politician look like a virgin bride than a banker? To quote Oscar Wilde, it was 'the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable'.

But all this blaming and outrage serves to obscure the pernicious tendency in today's society to blame everyone under the sun but oneself. I agree, the banking ghouls who sought quick bucks, the spineless regulators who let them carry out regardless and the politicians, now crying foul, who encouraged them all the way are to be despised. But how about the general public accept that they played their part, and take some of the blame themselves?

I don't remember a mass boycott of 100% mortgages, at 4, 5, or 6 times a borrowers salary; no boycott of cheap and easy credit cards with their low interest rates. Where money was available, people took it, investors bought buy-to-let properties, bank shareholders approved the bonus culture which skewed the banking system. Shareholders also voted en masse for the de-mutualisation of the building societies for a few bucks - great, but these banks are now all bust or have been sold to foreign buys for a pittance. Not so great.

For years everyone I spoke to spoke of the 'housing bubble' - warning of the inevitable 'correction' in the housing market. The whole country could see it, but not everyone acted on it. Gordon Brown, as Chancellor and then Prime Minister, did nothing whatever about it. We've had housing booms in the UK before. Unsustainable demand always collapses. The same with credit cards, that everyone was in love with until just recently. It all boils down to personal responsibility, something lost in British society.

If you go ice-skating and break your leg, it's your fault. Mostly. But everyone wants to sue the ice rink now. When people get themselves into a mess they cast around for a pantomime villain - the system, the government, their parents, their friends; anyone but themselves. And so it has been with the recession. I always find it hard to sympathise with people who have a debt problem. Just because you walk past McDonald's every day doesn't mean you have to ram down their big macs, does it? It's your own damn fault.

Bankers, politicians, regulators and a flawed system have to take a lot of the blame. But don't wriggle out of personal responsibility. Consider the inverse: people who shunned easy credit and high debt and instead saved might be feeling aggrieved right now. The Bank of England is slashing interest rates, printing money, offering vast loans and generally prostituting itself to save the indebted, and their egregious banks. It seems unfair. But hold on. People who have over-stretched themselves most will be hit hardest, and first: repossessions and bailiffs. If you lose your job, those with savings will be best placed to ride it out.

The causes of the recession are many, and complex. But you reap what you sow. Collectively, as a society; but also individually. There's a lesson in there somewhere.