It surely can't get any worse

Their sheer arrogance appals me. When are they going to be prosecuted for their fraudulent activities, and the fat cat bankers relieved of their jobs before they do further harm?

It really does gall to learn that tens of thousands of Natwest banking jobs for the lower paid staff have been moved out to India, and a 'naive' Indian technician was blamed for ruining Natwest's records so that people couldn't get their own money out. My SIL has waited over a week to be able to see whether his salary is in his account. My daughter works for Natwest but is on maternity leave. She has learned that many people being encouraged to go in to the bank about their accounts are being asked if they want their finances reviewed whilst they are in the bank, so they can sell some more loans or savings accounts. Disgraceful!

whitewave, I saw that programme, and was disgusted. It's an 'ill-divided world' indeed. In fact, to have Portland Road divided by an imaginary line which the privileged just didn't cross, or have any knowledge of the people who lived on the other side of it...oh, it makes my blood boil!

But you know I felt very sad for people like the couple who had been mugged at gunpoint and yet want to move to a bigger house further down the posh end. They have a baby, does it not occur to them that their children could be at risk in the future? Unlike the elderly (clearly Guardian-reading) early "settlers" who sent their kids to the local primary and survived, I can't see this happening. What sort of a communityis it where you cannot feel safe - ever?

There is now a call for a full enquiry to find out who did what and who knew what. Diamond won't resign apparently.
I heard a suggestion that the 'technical hitch' might be a ruse to keep the bank's assets high enough to stop it being downgraded. The really sickening thing is the childish messages swapped between these over-paid idiots when they agreed to collude to fix the rate artificially. I picture them all wearing white socks and red braces!

They learnt nothing from the Nick Leeson scandal did they?
Inexperienced, overpaid, aggressive, greedy, loose ethical boundaries.... and that's the kind of people they recruit and then fail to manage adequately.

Now this is what I call a culture of entitlement. Not the poor so and sos on benefits Dave!

Jess - Spot on - 'a culture of entitlement' and, I suspect, this sort of thing has been going on since the 80's.

The Now Show was brilliant on the subject. Only 1 in 8 of those on housing benefit are non working!
Thatcher's grandkids, yes.

Indeed!

I find that very hard to believe, Jess. I'm not doubting you, just those statistics.

Why should you doubt the statistics - housing benefit is means tested and plenty of people on the minimum wage qualify for it.

And what is more, a great many people, especially single mums don't count as unemployed because they have part-time jobs, albeit for just a few hours a week.

My daughter's a low-paid single mum of twins, and she doesn't qualify for housing benefit.

Sorry anagram - you're right. that will teach me to quote comedians. Certainly true that an awful lot of HB claimants are working though. Here are some stats for 2010 :-

statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/adhoc_analysis/2011/lha_regional_impacts_tables_may_2011.pdf

Thank you, Jess.

A few minutes with my calculator showed 360,950 employed people in receipt of housing benefit for the public sector, and 227,270 in the private rental sector - a total of 588,220.
I am not sure what this proves - that housing is too expensive, that the minimum wage is too low?

Probably both greatnan Was there this problem when we had council houses?

As to the bankers - they are in different league altogether - what they have done doesn't just affect the welfare bill but peoples morgages, our taxes helped to bail them out and put the country into debt, which meant cuts to peoples welfare as well as jobs, businesses trying to thrive but not gettting the financial support from the banks in fact whole countries have gone to the dogs to the tune of billions.

I insist on my money back!!

As I see it the banking staff are not breaking the law therefore won't be sent to prison. When the British code of law was made up - and we still have no written constitution - the criminal acts were theft, murder, and so on. No one was prosecuted for making a 'mistake' involving millions of pounds.

To catch these people and bring them to justice, means that the government of the day has to look at what is on the statute book and if necessary make new laws fitting to the circumstances of this globalised elecrtronic age. I can't see a coalition Goverment getting down to this.

Perhaps some legal GNetter can enlighten me about this.

I have tried not to be emotional about this but it is terrible what has happened and will continue.

Where is the voice of the shareholders of these banks? Why aren't they protesting about it all. Surely they have a responsbility as large insitutional investors?

Nothing illegal was done so make it illegal then,

I hears a suggestion that the RBS fiasco was caused by a hacker and that banks do get hacked but never admit it. Maybe just a conspiracy theorist.

So Bob Diamond has gone, also a top director. Marcus Agius is back as chairman.

This all took place between 2006 and 2010?

Labour have a hell of a lot to answer for. At the moment the Bank of England are being dragged into it all as well. The light touch regulations Labour put into place will haunt this country and continues to damage the bank of U.K. PLC. We will suffer for years over this shambles and tomorrow, wednesday July 4th, Bob Diamond is before the Treasury Select Committee. It could be explosive and possibly this will put Leveson into the shade. Watch this space.

The Vickers report should go through as soon as possible and a clean up of banking regulations and culture cannot come too soon. A judge-led investigation will take years and the government have started the ball rolling it must not let anything jeopardise the hopeful Bill passing at the beginning of next year after due process.