A Sense of Perspective

So the Board of RBS will resign if the Chancellor uses a veto to stop payments of up to £1.5bn in bonuses in their investment banking arm this year.

As a taxpayer and an interested party in the matter as I participate in the 70%+ shareholding we have in that bank, I say the door is there and mind it doesn't smack your backside on the way out.

Why are we arguing about this? A year ago this company was broke and dead, thanks to the board of directors who are largely the same as before with a few notable exceptions. Had we allowed them to fail then they would have collapsed owing hundreds of billions - that's how bad it was. Even though we rescued them they made thousands of redundancies of everyday banking staff who were not party to the mindless decisions to squander money on such stupid activities as playing poker to buy ABN AMRO or for that matter loan Dubai World around $2bn.

So they have turned £6bn in profit - thanks, we will take that as we generously allowed them to write off a further £8bn in loans only a few weeks ago.

For the public at large, it is incredible that a few strutting peacocks in the city dare hold us to ransom when we came to their aid and preserved their way of life not 12 months ago. They tell us the 'talent' that is capable of winning and losing so capably will go and join other banks if we don't pay and then we'll be sorry - and that by paying them they are doing good by their shareholders.

Hi guys - welcome to the real world. The public is your major shareholder and the 'talent' can leave whenever it likes - don't let us stop them. I'm a shareholder, that's my vote.