The government has been urged to back a parliamentary inquiry into the credit crisis because of its far-reaching consequences on everyone and the importance of learning lessons for the future.

The call comes from the leaders of seven opposition parties from across the political spectrum in an open letter published in Wednesday’s NRC Next.
The aim of such an inquiry would be to investigate whether the crisis was properly handled and to find out if financial supervision in the Netherlands is adequate, the political leaders say.
They also want to know if the state acted appropriately in its rescue of the ABN Amro and Fortis banks and in giving financial support to ING. The letter was written before yesterday’s capital injection to insurer Ageon.
The letter expresses support for finance minister Wouter Bos (Labour) for ‘putting out the fire’ which, it says, is of vital importance while the crisis continues.
But once the crisis has died down the government and supervisory bodies will start making all sorts of proposals to strengthen financial systems, it says. Therefore it is in everyone’s interest that parliament has access to detailed research so that it can make the right decisions.
The parties that signed the letter are: the right-wing Liberals (VVD), the green party Groenlinks, the Socialist party, Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration PVV, the Liberal democrat party D66, the animal rights party PvdD and independent MP Rita Verdonk.