"Only" Of The Week

From an article in The Times bemoaning the fact that the credit bubble-cum-house price bubble is deflating:

Mortgage lending fell to £10.2 billion last month — the lowest April total since 2000... the [Council of Mortgage Lenders], which is the trade association for the residential mortgage lending industry, added that a funding gap between what banks wanted to lend and what they can afford to was set to worsen in the next few years as support schemes such as the Special Liquidity Scheme are withdrawn from next year. Lenders say that since wholesale lending — what banks lend to each other — collapsed in the credit crunch, government support has provided only 25 per cent of what lenders could offer previously.

Michael Coogan, the director-general of the CML, said: "We welcome signs in the coalition agreement that some housing priorities are on the Government's radar. But we still do not know how the incoming Government plans to address the funding gap looming over the next few years in the mortgage market."

That "only" refers to a cool £300 billion of mortgage finance which you, the taxpayer, have financed and underwritten.

And before the Government explains "how" it plans to address the "funding gap", perhaps this joker could explain "why" it's the taxpayer's problem in the first place?