as far as I can see this is today's John Guant column: -
quite what the reasoning is from Davidrh is obscure,
"UNLIKE most members of the Cabinet, I have lived in the real world and been bankrupt. Nobody helped me so why the hell must I and every other taxpayer have to bail out the bankers? I still remember the humiliation of standing in the dole queue behind a drug dealer who I used to chuck out of my nightclub. I remember the pain of having my home repossessed. How the banks sold it at a knockdown price then chased me for the shortfall. I remember what it was like to rent a hovel in Coventry with our new baby and how the child benefit cheque was a godsend.
My only crime was that I tried to do something positive and create jobs in Coventry but failed. Like thousands of others in the last recession I had the balls to give it a go and, because of some bad luck but mostly my mistakes, I lost the lot. I say all this not to be self-pitying but to contrast my failure with that of the bankers. I and thousands of others paid a heavy price for our failure. It was years before I could get another mortgage, credit, or dream of a future. But do you think the twit (with an A) who ran Northern Rock has been selling copies of the Big Issue down the Bigg Market in Newcastle? Has he hell! He’s been spending the summer playing cricket and living in his multi-million-pound home. Do you think sacked Royal Bank of Scotland bosses will be queuing for the dole? Fat chance. They will be living the high life on their copper-bottomed pensions or the dosh they’ve salted away. Is anyone going to carry the can for dropping us all in the proverbial? Not if the behaviour of Barclays’ bosses is anything to go by. They are on a binge in Italy while we mugs pick up the pieces. Bankers have been stuffing their pockets as quickly as they quaffed the champers and snorted the Colombian marching powder. Now we are bailing them out and our so-called democratic Government haven’t even debated it in Parliament. Our unelected Prime Minister, the most unpopular leader since Pol Pot (he’s certainly taken us back to year zero!) is now promoting himself as the only bloke who can sort out the mess. But hold on, as Chancellor for ten years, shouldn’t he have kept his one good eye on the banks? He constantly said there wouldn’t be a return to boom and bust. Now, although this is a world crisis, it is one time when the invisible man can’t hide from his part in it. Why the hell have Gordon Brown and his puppet Chancellor, Alistair Darling, dithered? Why wasn’t Parliament recalled last week?I accept that this taxpayers’ bailout of the banks is the only answer. But it is too little, too late. We have been failed as much by the politicians as by the fat cats in the City. The latest interest rate cut is great but only if passed on to small businesses and mortgage holders and not salted away by banks. The Federation of Small Businesses are warning other banks may follow Barclays’ lead by increasing overdraft rates for small firms, which would have the direct result of sending businesses to the wall. We are lending failing banks our cash yet they have the cheek to put up our overdraft charges if we dare to borrow back our own money. Why hasn’t The Bottler banned bankers’ bonuses and made a firm promise that their sky-high earnings will never be allowed again? It hurt me when I went bust but at least that was my fault and I paid the price. I don’t see why you and I should pay the price for the actions of the City and the Government."
oh and I think the words are actually 'Sieg Heil' which some people still find offensive
