It was the repeal of glass stegall in 99 that was the catalyst of the 2008 crash , certainly from the Anglo Saxon sphere of influence . Once the US market had been deregulated dubiously run banks such as RBS started using your money to leverage debt on folk who were never going to pay . Could you blame labour for that ? At the time new labour were very friendly to finance so in that regard yes that was a mistake but directly responsible , that would be a no from me .