After a truly frustrating day yesterday sitting around for 15 hours waiting for bailiffs to arrive, who then didn’t but didn’t bother to advise us of that fact, today it is back to the equally frustrating past time of reading the accounts in the newspapers of more lunacy in La La Land – which seems to be a Country on an unknown planet we were all transported to back in the noughties while we were asleep. Personally I would have preferred to be transported to the Disc World where they call a spade a spade and the thieves at least have their own guild and do not pretend to be anything other than thieves.

Today’s newspapers, understandably, are full of the stories of Stephen Hester’s bonus and the inability of Mr Cameron to rein in the excesses of the bankers. My favourite la la quote of the day comes from Iain Duncan Smith who told the BBC:

“You can’t interfere and tell them what to do. And if we did not like that, the only option would be to get rid of the board. If you do that, imagine what would happen in the banking sector, and imagine what would happen to RBS. You would have chaos.”

Four sentences that seem to epitomise the catastrophic and totally ridiculous position an entire nation is in. There is no question that, thanks to the financial sector, the whole Country is in chaos and has been plunged into economic disaster and austerity. But according to our politicians, we can’t do anything about it because that would also cause chaos. So the answer seems to be that we keep handing over all our sweeties and even the last crumbs of the dry crusts they would have us survive on, to the same playground bullies that caused all the chaos in the first place. Because if we don’t, we will be in chaos! Well suck an elf, we’re screwed.

I have nothing against Mr Hester personally. He may well be a very, very nice man for all I know. Certainly he must be some sort of genius because the very idea that he will throw his toys out the pram has got the Government into a state of near hysteria. But if he is a genius, you would have thought he would have had the good sense to avoid the current situation by politely declining to take his bonus before it became such a big issue? After all, with a salary of £1.2M he is hardly likely to starve. Additionally, if he is indeed clever enough to turn RBS around (and not just by sacking thousands of staff) then he will apparently be entitled to get a bonus of up to £8M in the future – which will presumably be on top of his annual salary, which I don’t suppose will decrease. All in all he is in a win, win situation at a time when almost everyone else in the Country is in a lose, lose position.

Therefore, making himself the latest banker to stand for the ‘most detested person of the year’ award (mind you, we’re only in January so plenty of time for other candidates to come forward) does not seem to very genius to me. And the real damage he has done, is not to his own image but to the image of the Government and particularly Mr Cameron. Mr Hester has illustrated in neon lights what we already knew but hoped was not true – our political leaders have absolutely no control over bankers and even with regard to a state owned bank. In short, they are impotent and cannot protect the society they claim to govern from people who’s only concern is how many millions they personally make from the misfortunes of that society. And there is no doubt society in general was badly damaged by previous management of RBS. Yes, Mr Hester has been brought in to remedy that situation but I doubt if the RBS shareholders or the thousands of people who have lost their jobs at RBS since 2009 will feel he has been very effectual so far. So what is this bonus for?

It may well be that under the terms of his contract, Mr Hester is entitled to get his bonus or a bonus (although I believe it was discretionary). But surely that is neither here nor there. I’m pretty sure that under the terms of Fred Goodwin’s contract he was legally obliged to look after the best interests of the banks shareholders. Ditto Eric Daniels, Andy Hornby, Peter Cummings and Lord Stevenson. That didn’t happen. Similarly, under the laws of the land, which I think must over ride commercial contracts, anyone who has been defrauded by a bank, should be entitled to expect redress and compensation – that rarely happens either. So all this pontificating about contracts is a bit of a red herring. Contractual obligation in the financial sector is clearly not worth the paper it was written on and this seems to be more about petulance than contracts. I want it, I’m going to get it and there is nothing you can do about it unless you want me throw a wobbler and cause chaos. Yeh, yeh Stephen, we know all about bankers and chaos.

There was a time when stories about bankers and their seemingly endless excesses started to slip under the radar and if you tried to give the press a story about dodgy bankers you were greeted with an attitude of “not that old chestnut again.” I know that for a fact because I spent a considerable amount of time trying to expose the story of a bank fraud that has now been the subject of a 20 month police investigation (on going). Back in 2007 and even after the debacle in 2008, the media simply would not accept the idea that bankers were anything other than respected business men. But, thanks to bankers themselves, the anger over their behaviour is now refuelled on an almost daily basis. It’s a toss up now who the public would trust the least – Bankers or second hand car dealers? My husband suggested the comparison should be between bankers or politicians but some might then call it a trick question.

What I’d like to know is, where will it end Mr Cameron? Regardless of what they do and how many stories of fraud and corruption are exposed, neither the Government nor the regulators have any appetite to prosecute offenders in the financial sector. Regardless of how much money the banks lose, how low their shares go or how many jobs are lost in the financial sector, the top bankers can still demand and get millions of pounds. Regardless of how desperately the economy needs new businesses to open so we can create new jobs, the Government can do nothing to make the banks lend to SMEs. Regardless of how austerity is demoralising and undermining hope though out the Country, we are still headed for another recession because our Country is dependent on a rogue sector that has become totally sociopathic.

Today’s papers seem to have focused almost entirely on Stephen Hester and he is no doubt feeling rather miffed to be so singled out. But Mr Hester’s own determination to get what he feels he is entitled to, has become a catalyst and may even have become the straw that broke the camels back because it poses a horrible question; If Mr Duncan-Smith is right and the Government really can’t interfere to stop bankers of a state owned bank from fleecing the Country yet again, then surely, its time for real concern about who is running this Country? The Government or the Bankers?

At this point it is of secondary importance whether Mr Hester takes his bonus or not. The question of public confidence in the power of our Government, has already been challenged. I have no doubt Mr Cameron does want to do the right thing and curb excesses and unethical behaviour in the financial sector – certainly Mr Cable wants to. But can it be done?

For a while, I think the fact that politicians and bankers have felt able to lie with impunity, lulled us into an unhealthy state of apathy. I know I have told many people the extraordinary story of ‘HBOS Reading’ and they’ve just shaken their heads as if to say “yes, it’s terrible how bankers behave so badly- wottayagonnado?” Similarly I’ve read countless articles about politicians being outraged over the behaviour of bankers – but they’ve done absolutely nothing about it and possibly because they were too busy dealing with the MPs’ expenses scandal – amongst others.

So the last few weeks when Occupy Wall Street or London or all the other global protests on the subject of the inequality in our societies, brought about mostly by the insidious behaviour in the banking sector, has been a welcome wake up call. What happened and what is happening in the financial sector is wrong. The fact politicians let it and are still letting it happen, is even worse.

I’ve probably blogged this comment from David Cameron before – but in a different context:

“Mr Cameron told Jeff Randall Live on Sky News: “I think that we need to look at the behaviour of banks and bankers and, where people have behaved inappropriately, that needs to be identified and if anyone has behaved criminally, in my view, there is a role for the criminal law and I don’t understand why in this country the regulatory authorities seem to be doing so little to investigate it, whereas in America they’re doing quite a lot.”

That comment was published in the Telegraph, 27^th January 2009. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/4348801/David-Cameron-calls-for-criminal-actions-against-bankers.html

I think I blogged it as a reason why I felt voting Conservative was a good idea. Now I’m blogging it as the most disappointing example of a politician lying to the public. Because now David Cameron apparently feels there is no law under which those bankers who recklessly ruined our economy and who continue to be rewarded handsomely for it, can be prosecuted.

I don’t think Mr Cameron is a stupid man so, presumably, he has had any number of lawyers look at this issue. But what way round have they been looking? Have they been looking at what laws would encompass the actions of some bankers and allow for prosecutions? Or have they been looking at how the law can be manipulated and interpreted to avoid prosecutions? I rather think it is the latter.

It’s not good enough Mr Cameron. You said you would sort this out. You said there would be a day of reckoning and your staunch words called for an inquiry into the failed banking sector.

In February 2009 Mr Cameron said on Channel 4 news:

“I think that it is unthinkable that we could spend all this public money, that we do all these things and at no stage there is an inquiry where we get to the bottom of who established the regulatory system and why didn’t it work,” Mr Cameron told Channel Four News. “Of course there will have to be an inquiry.”

Once he became Prime Minister, there appears to have been a 180 degree turn. By January 2011, the Telegraph was reporting, “David Cameron tells voters – No revenge on bankers”: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jameskirkup/100072083/david-cameron-tells-voters-no-revenge-on-the-bankers/

But we don’t want revenge Mr Cameron. Nor do we want a witch hunt – which is what will happen if the Government doesn’t take action soon. What we want is justice. We want to know that the Laws of the land apply to everyone including bankers. We want to see those bankers who have broken or flaunted the law, prosecuted accordingly and, if the law finds them guilty, we want them to face the same penalty anyone else would.

We do not want this ridiculous concept of ‘market confidence’ to stand in the way of justice. We’re sick of market confidence – it’s cost the tax payer over a trillion pounds and it’s got us nowhere. What we want and need, is to have confidence in our elected representatives. We want you to do what you said Dave. That’s why some of us voted for you and that’s why we appear to have egg on our faces.

As for the comment that there is no law under which to prosecute these people. That’s ridiculous. I’m just an ordinary business person (who happens to have spent years investigating the bank fraud that ruined my business) and I would happily give you a list of crimes some of the HBOS and Lloyds Banking Group executives have been guilty of.

It’s not rocket science. They attempted to mislead MPs, the FSA and the police from 2007 to 2010 by denying any fraud had happened, in the full knowledge it had – that’s attempting to pervert the course of justice. They set up a false bank account to hide the legal cost of persecuting the victims of ‘HBOS Reading’ and then they added £250,000+ of penalty interest and charges – that’s false accounting. In 2008 they allowed the better part of £30M to be paid (with bank funds) from a company that had already gone into administration owing the bank £113M, to the subsidiaries that had been sold for £7.00 and a promise – that’s defrauding the bank’s shareholders.

I could go one and on.

But that’s the problem. The public know what happened because we’ve lived through it. Personally, I’ve also lived through the horrifying fact that it’s all but impossible to get the authorities to act when given substantial and blatant examples of criminality by bankers. I and the victims of ‘HBOS Reading’ may be luckier than most (even although we’ve seen no resolution and are still living as paupers) because Thames Valley Police are doing a very good job of exposing this scandal (even if they won’t go after the top dogs). Maybe we will see some justice and maybe we will get our lives back.

However, that won’t be of interest to the millions of pensioners, savers, small investors, jobless or homeless who can attribute their losses to what came to a head in 2008. And just to remind you of how bad it was and how so much of the current austerity and misery is attributable to individuals with uncontrollable megalomania, I would invite you to visit the BBC iplayer and watch ‘RBS, the bank that ran out of money.’

At a time when hundred’s of thousands of people worldwide are asking for their leaders to stop the rot in our society before it becomes a totally incurable cancer, I would like to know, Mr Cameron, are you going to stick to your word? I hope so because apathy no longer reigns. We’re sick of betrayal and now we really do want leaders who represent the people.

p.s. and we note that whether or not we, as individuals want a referendum on EU membership, you have chosen not to consider our opinions. Disappointing.

Dear Bill,

I have spent over 4 years investigating a major fraud against over 50 SMEs in the UK so I know a lot about the banking system in the UK, if not the US. And let’s not start this debate by splitting hairs. Scorpion’s can change their nationality but not their nature.

For two years the police and the FSA refused to get involved in the fraud I and others reported. Now the police say what we uncovered is the biggest financial crime ever in the UK. The police and the FSA continue their investigations. 8 people arrested so far. This fraud cost the tax payers in the UK £1BN from one small office of the bank. Nothing the police or the FSA have done so far has altered the lives of the victims of the fraud who continue to be persecuted for their lack of money. My family has had 22 eviction hearings in 3 years from the bank who first defrauded our company. Then they set up a false account in the name of our company to off set their legal costs in the case. That came to £372,000. Then they added over £250,000 in interest and charges. The cost goes up at over £11,400 per month. The police will not investigate. The regulator gives excuses for the bank. The bank, having finally accepted there was a fraud, says they are a victim but there were no others.

My husband and I represent many of the victims. Some of them are very ill with stress related issues; some have terminal illnesses; some have lost their homes as well as their businesses; most have gone from being successful business people to being destitute.

But we are a success story Bill. Tiny as our group is, we have managed to get the regulator (who came kicking and screaming to the party) and the police involved and 8 people have been arrested. We have no money. We only have our outrage and our determination. Every case of extreme arrogance has its Achilles heel and we are exactly that for one major bank in the UK.

I was over the moon to see the Occupy Wall Street protests start. I’m 55 – until I got involved with the bank in question I can’t say I had a bad life or even thought about banks – in fact, give or take the odd Italian husband, I’ve had a good life. But I can’t see too much of a future for my children or my grand children ( new one arrived two weeks ago). And I have no doubt why they have no future without radical reform.

A minority of clever manipulative sociopaths have decided my children and my grand children have no future because they (the elite minority) have extreme delusions of grandeur. They think they have the right to control the lives of every ordinary citizen and manipulate those lives to their own ends. First they bought the Governments that proport to represent the majority, then they started their dictatorship. And, as in the case of our fight against the UK bank that defrauded my family and many others – I will not accept that.

I do not accept the bankers in Wall Street or in the City of London have the right to ruin my children’s future. The fact I have no money because of their excesses or criminal activities does not make me feel like a second class citizen. I woke up a long time ago to the international con we have been living through and it does not make me feel despondent. It just makes me feel glad I am awake to what has been happening. And I am glad the protesters in New York are also awake.

I have no idea who you are Bill. Maybe you are actually a banker – maybe you are the right hand man to one of the so called masters of the universe. But bear in mind – we all meet the same fate some day. If you think I or millions of others will go quietly into that dark night having had our lives and opportunities wasted and ruined by a few wide boys with posh suits and champagne tastes, you are mistaken. I fully understand we voted in the puppets of these people – and that was our fault. But believe me Bill, as a survivor, it’s never too late to turn around and get it right. My children, the children of every hard working person in the US, the UK, the EU (muppetsville) or even every banana republic in the world, are worth more than the people the US and the UK Governments are busy protecting.

Interesting times Bill. Historical even. I feel very comfortable to have chosen a side. And I love New York and that ultimate metropolis. I love it that they are leading the way forward. You should be proud of them.

Finally Bill, not knowing your position in all this, tell me, do you really think the people in charge of our global financial sector when it hit the wall and who, for the most part, are still making private fortunes, are the kind of people who should retain political and financial power over the masses? Are you happy to have your children’s future determined by them? Just curious.

Kindest regards

Nikki

Some may say my various tweets on Saturday (24^th September) about Eric Daniels were a bit harsh or that I have been indulging in what has reportedly become a common pastime in the UK, banker bashing. But I have good reason to feel Mr Daniels should not be allowed to cock this last snoop at the British taxpayer or at me.

I do remember 2009, when Eric Daniels became head of HBOS as well as Lloyds. I remember thinking that finally, the victims of HBOS Reading would get a fair hearing and a resolution because obviously, the management of Lloyds would want to clear up such an unwholesome mess. Not so.

I wrote to Mr Daniels on several occasions and those people who replied on his behalf (he never replied personally), simply said that, as far as Mr Daniels was concerned, the issue of HBOS Reading had been dealt with, there was no fraud and the Bank did not intend to correspond further. They are still corresponding now, over two years later and our last letter came from Harry Baines, General Counsel for HBOS and now Lloyds Banking Group, in July 2011. His variation on a theme was the matter has been well ‘ventilated’ and that’s the end of it.

The serious question this behaviour poses is not just as to why Mr Daniels, or anyone else for that matter, would be happy to see business banking clients left in such a sorry state having been defrauded by bank employees but rather; why would the CEO of a bank ignore evidence of criminality and allow the situation to progress to a full scale police investigation which could only be detrimental to the bank and its shareholders?

I’m fully aware that banks get hundreds if not thousands of complaints on a daily basis and they very often deal with them using the ‘delay, deny, dilute’ tactic. But, I truly believe in this instance it was absolute madness and totally negligent to repeatedly ignore complaints about HBOS Reading and even when:

1. Several MPs were asking for a resolution on behalf of Constituents.

2. The HBOS Reading scandal was the subject of a File on 4 broadcast.

3. MPs had a Debate at Westminster on 2^nd June 2009 and James Paice MP even used Parliamentary Privilege to expose some of the unwholesome details (documented on Hansard).

4. The FSA did a Section 166 Review which progressed to a Section 168 Investigation.

What part of the list above would allow the CEO of any business to think this was a matter that could simply be swept under the carpet and denied? At what point did Mr Daniels think the best way forward was to ignore the victims or, in our case, to proceed with trying to evict us from our home 22 times so that we could not continue our investigation into the fraud? Leaving aside integrity or even decency, has Mr Daniels never heard of damage limitation?

And the end result of pretending the HBOS Reading fraud never happened is Thames Valley Police and SOCA are now into their second year of ‘Operation Hornet’, the full scale investigation into what really happened at HBOS Reading. 8 people including 2 bankers have been arrested so far – which suggests that while Mr Daniels has not taken this matter seriously, the police have.

That cannot be good for the reputation of HBOS, Lloyds Banking Group or any of the senior executives, past or present, of HBOS or Lloyds who have refused to deal with the matter. Surely it is the responsibility of these people, who are paid vast amounts of money, to make make sure that a) major frauds do not happen in the Bank and b) when something does go horribly wrong, it is dealt with quickly, fairly and efficiently. But that has not happened – not under Andy Hornby nor Peter Cummings nor Eric Daniels. More importantly, anything detrimental to the Bank’s reputation, is not good for the shareholders which, in this case, means the Country. We have all seen Lloyds share price drop from pounds to pennies – while pay and bonuses for the top bankers have gone from thousands to millions. For what? For running the banks into the ground?

To make matters worse and even more confusing, Mr Daniels was in charge when the false bank account in the name of Zenith Cafe Ltd was being debited. I have already blogged about this but I forgot to add a vital point. While the Bank are busy convincing the FSA this is an ‘internal’ account which our company was never going to be asked to repay, we have the letters demanding repayment and telling us we must stick to the overdraft limit – which is of course zero as you can’t negotiate an overdraft for an account you don’t know about.

Presumably Mr Daniels would say he didn’t know about the account. He would be oblivious to the fact Zenith Cafe appears to owe the Bank approx. £630,000 – £200,000 of which was to pay the Bank’s lawyers to be involved with 5 of our eviction hearings when they weren’t instructed in that matter.

But even the FSA are now saying they are taking this matter very seriously because it simply isn’t possible to add approximately £250,000 worth of interest and charges (going up at £11,000+ per month) to a £372,000 debt for their legal fees and come out with a £600,000+ credit which is explained away as an ‘internal’ matter. So maybe, as CEO, Mr Daniels should have known about it so he could have asked the question – who authorised it? And how many other fake accounts were/are manipulating the Bank’s loan book? What impact is this or other ‘internal’ accounts having on the P&L? Or did this well paid now ex CEO have no idea what was happening on his watch?

This morning I was reading an old letter from a Mr Godfrey at the Bank on behalf of Mr Daniels. It says – over and above the usual, “we’ve dealt with this so go away” – that the Bank is fully aware of our level of indebtedness. Maybe they were – but I certainly wasn’t as I knew nothing about the account for the first 18 months after the Bank created it! And I’m wondering now if my other company, Zenith Publishing Ltd, also has a false account attributed to it and how much does that one show as owing to the Bank?

Many people would say the ‘fantastic’ deal Mr Daniels and friends did when they merged a good or at least functioning bank, Lloyds, with a basket case, HBOS, caused thousands of people to lose a fortune. Not the kind of fortune top bankers or Corporate CEOs make in bonuses but the few thousand pounds a lot of people thought they were going to get annually as a pension when they retired – or the reasonable wage they made before thousands were made redundant when the Bank had to off load staff to increase profits – or the comfortable nest egg they had which meant they could afford a reasonable lifestyle. So many people’s lives changed thanks to the Lloyds/HBOS merger and even more lives have changed thanks to the overall bank bailouts.

I think we are all entitled to question why so many of the people who caused economic catastrophe have been so handsomely rewarded?

We are entitled to ask why people who have possibly broken the law, are not being prosecuted?

We are entitled to ask why people who have breached FSMA 2000, who have acted with little or no integrity and who have caused damage to our banking system via their negligence, have not been struck off as directors?

Personally I would ask why the ex CEO of Lloyds Banking Group was able to; totally ignore the evidence he was sent of a major fraud which has resulted in a major police investigation that is detrimental to the bank ; allow and even authorise the malicious persecution of the victims of the fraud; allow a false account to be operated in the name of a victim’s company (when false accounting is a criminal offence); and why should he walk away with £5 million pounds?

It doesn’t make any sense to me and I’m deeply disappointed UKFI, our Government and our regulators seem unable to understand how offensive this pay off is to the majority of the British people. This is not about banker bashing – it’s just logic and I imagine the 43,000 people who have lost or are losing their jobs at Lloyds, will also be wondering about the logic of them all ending up with nothing when the man in charge of the disastrous merger, can get so much?

Maybe, on a personal level, Mr Daniels is a good man – I wouldn’t know. But in my view, he isn’t a good business man and I cannot understand why a bank that is 41% owned by the state, is paying him £5M? Or why he has been getting £3,333 a day since last March for doing nothing? Or is the implication, it was costing us much more than that when Mr Daniels was doing ‘something’?

I’m inclined to think it was. He has cost this Nation a fortune – and now his pension from the part state owned bank he was instrumental in ruining, will keep paying him a fortune every year for the rest of his life.

Eric Daniels, Fred Goodwin, Peter Cummings – some might consider them to be three of the most successful bank robbers in British history. No horses, no getaway cars, no balaclava’s, no dynamite. How did they do it?

A friend of mine e-mailed me yesterday to ask if I was ill? Her logic was, as I hadn’t expressed my outrage at the Vickers Report or, at the very least the time scale attached to it, in hundreds of tweets, I must be ill. I’m not ill. The problems I have had with banks have nothing to do with what Sir John Vickers was asked to address. As far as I know, Sir John was not asked to look at unadulterated profiteering by delinquent individuals in the financial sector – so I can’t see how his report will clean that sector up?

Actually, I was already disappointed in the report before it before came out and that’s because the remit of the Vickers report had already told us so much about what it would not do. REMIT – I hate that word. It’s become an establishment cop out that translates in the real world to ‘how to officially skirt the problem and not get anyone in trouble who might get us into trouble.’

I was never going to be excited about the Vickers Report – nothing against Sir John or even his proposals but because he was never going to look into what I consider to be the root of the problem with banking – bankers. Not all bankers but some bankers. In particular the ones who have got confused as to which particular definition of banker they were employed to be. Some have clearly interpreted their role as:

“Banker, a noun; the person in charge of the bank in a gambling game.”

Unfortunately, the game finished in 2008 and the ‘bankers’ left the table having taken all the unwitting player’s money with them.

For me, the good thing about the Vicker’s Report and its restricted remit, is the fact it still leaves the door wide open for someone else – hopefully not just via another report, to tackle the issues Sir John didn’t – the bankers. I suggest it should be done by a purpose built police task force, assisted by people like Professor Prem Sikka, who should have access to all documentation of the Section 166 and 168 FSA Investigations since 2005 – really it should go much further back but even I know you have to be realistic. They could start with looking at the part State owned banks and then move on to other UK banks who have paid millions of dollars in fines to the US Authorities for money laundering activities that should have seen senior executives go to jail. ‘Operation Hornet’ by Thames Valley Police could lead the way and set an example, as it is already into it’s second year of investigation into activities at HBOS – and it’s a cracking tale that would also show the spicier side of banking. I know the bankers, the regulator and the Government would really hate it but, hey ho, you can’t win ‘em all.

Sorry George, I know you’re having your own problems at the moment, what with tales of prostitutes and cocaine slipping into the press – and to be honest, I didn’t think you were the kind of man to associate with either, you dark horse you – but I hope your Government is beginning to understand that the problem of the bankers has not and will not go away until you deal with it. It’s a problem you simply cannot ring fence. You simply can’t allow the bankers to keep mugging us – and, let’s face it, saying you would stop it, is what got you into power. So do your job.

What it comes down to is this:

We all only have one life, that we know of. All over the Country, people’s lives have been ruined by a few, elite, bankers. Not the credit crunch, not the US sub-prime or the UK sub-prime and not even the fact that half the population apparently had to have flat screened TV’s and Nike trainers. Or that we all wanted to buy houses we couldn’t afford – as if there were any houses on the market that we could afford. And yet these seem to be the very bizarre excuses Government and bankers rely on regularly to explain the collapse of the economy.

The real problem is that a handful of people were given an obscene amount of power and control over the Country’s wealth and they decided to pocket it. And even now, with our economy in ruins, the same sort of person is being allowed to continue to cripple the population and get away with it. I know you won’t like such candid talk George and it upsets you but there it is.

There is only one guaranteed was to make a minority rich – you make the majority poor.

I’ll say it again George – the only guaranteed was to make a minority rich, is to make the majority poor. And that is what has happened. Gordon Brown orchestrated and authorised the plan and now, your Government George, has condoned it. All that talk from Mr Cameron about “a day of reckoning” and how honest, hard working people need to know that those bankers who had robbed the Country blind must pay the price, was, at the end of the day, a political campaign. Nothing more. But it’s not enough.

To me, the Vickers report is relatively unimportant – especially as it won’t be implemented completely for 8 years (which is really ridiculous). I haven’t read the 300+ pages of the report so I don’t presume to criticize it’s conclusions within the terms of its remit although I am surprised that anyone thinks we will have any economy if we wait 8 years to implement it. Reading the Vickers Report, brilliant as it may well be, misses the fundamental problem and it won’t answer my questions. What I want to know is:

• Who is going to be held responsible for destroying my business and my life? And what is your Government going to do about it?
• Who is going to be held responsible for destroying thousands of other SMEs and depriving so many people of their jobs? And what is your Government going to do about it?
• Who is going to be held responsible for all those people who thought they could retire in comfort and now find they will be destitute in their old age? And what is your Government going to do about it?
• Who is going to be held responsible for turning our banking system into a milk cow for an elite few even although this obviously flawed ethos would and did destroy our economy and our Country? And what is your Government going to do about it?
• Who is going to prosecute those bankers who have broken the law – which, by the way, is the only way you will ever get any control in the financial sector or return the balance of power from the banks to the elected Government? And what is your Government going to do about them?

I think the whole Country is aware of some of the names of the culprits – and we would be happy to pass them to you and to Hector Sants (no it’s not a list of IFA’s Hector), in case you really haven’t been reading the papers for the last four years and have totally missed some stunning examples of theft, fraud and corruption. Personally, I have 35,000 + documents giving clear evidence of criminality in HBOS and also of the people in HBOS and Lloyds Banking Group who have gone out of their way to conceal that evidence and pervert the course of justice. I am sure many other people would be happy to volunteer details of bankers from other banks (not mentioning any pink wafer biscuits here).

Strangely – no one in authority (or even the press in most cases) seems to want that evidence and even when I put it right under their noses, nothing happens. I can only conclude that, for some reason, certain people in the financial sector have been given a piece of paper which gives them total immunity from the laws of this land. Please retrieve those passes George and rip them up. Its the kind of thing that leads to anarchy.

Finally George, I am a British citizen who voted Conservative and I am relying on you to represent my interests and protect me from criminals. I only have one life as do all the millions of other people who have had their lives ruined by bankers. My life has been ruined for years and I have reported criminality by bankers to every authority possible and supplied the evidence. Four years on and nothing has happened – although I have heard some stunning excuses from the FSA as to why, even blatantly criminal acts, like false accounting, are not what they seem and will not be prosecuted.

So Mr Osborne, in a Country where you can go to jail for stealing a T-shirt or a bottle of wine, what penalty will you give the bankers who committed crimes? Not bankers in general – just those bankers who arrogantly and wilfully committed crimes against the nation.

You know who they are as well as I do. Or is your Government’s refusal to take action against these people, your way of telling the entire Country that a banker’s life has a different value to ours? I hate to say it but it seems as if your Government believes that to be the case. And if that cat gets out of the bag it won’t earn you any votes.