What a Great Deal?!

You couldn't make it up but I suppose it's to be expected.

Today, our prize investment, RBS, having just got the details of the extra £30bn we are pumping into it, has announced it is shedding around 4,000 jobs.

It makes you stop and think. Recently, there was a lot of controversy in that RBS' investment bankers will be getting fat bonuses this year and, indeed, their CEO, Stephen Hester, is in line for a £9.6m. They may get some deferred but that will really sit well with the 4,000 who will pay for them. In fact, around 16,000 jobs have already been shed from the back room, branches and other places - the sort of jobs that the expensive adverts on TV about NatWest and their push for more personal banking might be lead us to believe have not gone.

4,000 jobs and let's say the average salary is £30,000 per annum - that would be £120m off the wage bill this year. That will probably be less money saved than the bonus bill.

But it gets better. 700 branches of British banks will be sold to other companies in the fire sale of the decade as the EU rules that banks that got state aid must split. Private Equity houses and foreign banks will love this as they will buy already stripped down versions of the banks branches with redundancies already paid for by the taxpayer and because so many branches will be up for grabs they will be sold at rock bottom prices, once again leaving the taxpayer with the mired end of the stick.

It gets better than that. Having given away the jewels of the banking industry cheap and subsidised by us, they will be precisely the same buildings, staff and products as before just owned by someone else who will reap the profit on our loans and mortgages rather than us at least contributing to the value of our 'investments', i.e. the banks we saved. We are told it will promote competition - sure it will. Why would anyone buy the banks and then trash the price when there is so much cash and profit to be made? Prices will remain the same, believe me.

And is it good that Tesco buys into a bank? They squeeze the living daylights out of suppliers and only pass on part of the savings to customers which makes them ever more profitable. We are handing them a cash business to make them more money. Meanwhile, Virgin must be laughing as they offered to buy Northern Rock when no one else would and when it was leaching money - now they get to buy the cleaned up good part at a knock down price with a great deal more advantageous loans from the Government to lend at a large profit.

Alistair Darling kept a straight face as he announced all this. He didn't want to let on that we have all just been right royally shafted. The smiles will come later.