General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

A lot of the blame for the collapse goes back to the repeal of The Glass Steagall act of 1933. This was introduced to stop a repeat of the 1929 crash, which caused the Great Depression. It was repealed under the Clinton administration.

https://www.thebalance.com/glass-steagall-act-definition-purpose-and-repeal-3305850

This led to banks being "too big to fail", so they had to be bailed out, and that is what Brown and Darling were forced to do in the UK, otherwise the whole financial system would have collapsed.

£500 Billion was spent on bailing out the banks, which explains the deficit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_United_Kingdom_bank_rescue_package

The "light touch", on banking was the prevailing wisdom of all parties. And you know what; George Osborne agreed.

If Brown did "veto Barclay’s decision to buy Lehman Brothers" he did them a favour, as Lehman Brothers went bust, as the biggest bankruptcy in history.

Barclays bought Lehman Brothers AFTER the crash for a bargain basement price.

https://smallbusinessprices.co.uk/remain-eu/

"It has been five years since Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and five years since Barclays picked up the US business for just $250 million. It was a steal, and one that has changed the trajectory of the domestically heavy retail bank and DCM house to that of a global financial institution."