Skipper

The best comment on the Barclays scandal was made by Jonathan Freedland, in my opinion First he ridicules Diamond's use of the word 'inappropriate' to describe activity which affected $350 trillion worth of deals. Secondly he recalls that:

"It was the same Bob Diamond who last year told MPs, "There was a period of remorse and apology for banks and I think that period needs to be over" – calling time on the era of bankers' penitence before most thought it had begun."

As Dominic Lawson in the ST yesterday observed, it was Diamond, the investment banker, who was responsible for his mafia cohort of rogue traders, who, it might be pointed out, helped to earn the huge bonuses he drew to much criticism for receiving in previous years. The notion that bankers deserved anything like such huge rewards, or are blessed with out of the ordinary skills, has been blown cleaqr out of the water by these recent revelations. They are no more skilled than the average bank robbers, who at least might own up if caught bang to rights. Diamond's refusal to resign with dignity exposes a man with no integrity though, I suspect, a man typical of his profession.

I thought Freedland's most telling point was contained in the following paragraph

"It's quite a contrast with the severity of punishment meted out to those guilty of more visible crimes, starting with the 1,292 people jailed for their part in last summer's riots, including the man imprisoned for six months for stealing bottles of water worth £3.50. There was no question of the authorities lacking a proper remit then, nor did any rioter have the chance to tell a parliamentary committee it was time we all moved on."

He'd better be on top form on Wednesday when he answers questions posed by the formidable Andrew Tyrie's Treasury Committee. His future depends on how convincing his 'It wasn't me guv' defence proves to be.