When is a banker not a banker? When he's called Fred Goodwin!

Fred Goodwin got to be known as Fred the Shred for his activities whilst he was the semi-piratical captain of the ship at Royal Bank of Scotland. He took a once great institution so close to the rocks that it nearly broke into tiny pieces. For his ambitious greed, or maybe greedy ambition, he got given the boot. Now the cheeky knight in tarnished armour has the affrontery to suggest that calling him a banker is all wrong. He has gone so far as to get a judge (one in a stupor, no doubt) to grant him an injunction banning the media from calling him a banker. Well, if he isn't a banker, what is he?

He must have got out of the wrong side of his bed one morning. Thought to himself "I'm not a banker!" and then gone running round the house telling his family and then running into the street telling the good folk of Edinburgh "I'm not a banker". Well, we all knew that anyway.

FRED GOODWIN IS NOT A BANKER!!!

I'm glad to join in telling anyone who may care to know it that Fred is not a banker. I'm not sure what he is now, but no doubt he will tell us in good time.

Of bankers and soldiers

British bankers are in discussions about the possibility of reducing New Year bonuses from £7bn to £4bn. The expectation is that the £7bn figure will be paid, but one banker said, "Maybe we can cut that to £4bn. But although that would be a huge reduction, £4bn is still a big number - and we'll still face attacks." I still don't think they get it. It isn't necessarily about the money. It's about the greedy attitude in the face of a grave financial crisis hitting the country. Whilst many face the New Year with unemployment on the horizon, these cheesy characters are arguing the toss about bonuses.

"One of the great paradoxes about all of this is that ministers would love us to agree to cut bonuses, but they're powerless to stop us being prosecuted under competition law," a banker has said. If that was reported correctly, then it sounds like they are hiding behind a perceived prosecution. Did it ever occur to this banker that it might not be in the public interest to mount a prosecution?

The BBC reports that British banks are said to be irked that Wall Street is resistant to the idea of a mutual agreement on restricting bonuses. "There's no chance that the big US investment banks will follow our example, which means that business and good people could leave London for New York or elsewhere, if we're seen to be paying less than the market rate," another banker said. Good people? If we are all in this together, what is so good about just going after the market rate. Are the so-called good bankers only motivated by money?

Yesterday was Remembrance Sunday. Plenty of soldiers died fighting for freedom and a better world. Soldiers are still dying today and if these current conflicts don't end soon will continue to die. Those that died laid down their lives for their country.

It seems that good bankers are reluctant to lay down even part of their bonuses for their country. Doesn't that say an awful lot about the culture that has infected the once noble profession of banking?

Your country needs you, says David Cameron

David Cameron today has given a rousing speech in Birmingham about the future and how we all tackle this debt problem.

The "beating, radical heart" of the government was shifting power away from the centre to ordinary people, allowing them more choice over services, greater transparency about state spending and greater ability to get involved in running and shaping local services in their communities, he said.

"We are the radicals now, breaking apart the old system with a massive transfer of power from the state to citizens, politicians to people, government to society," he told the conference. Cameron also warned banks that they must "repay the favour" from taxpayers who had bailed them out by restoring lending to British businesses. "There's another way we are getting behind business – by sorting out the banks," he said. "Taxpayers bailed you out. Now it's time for you to repay the favour and start lending to Britain's small businesses again."

I do hope he's got the bottle to deal with these money-changing leviathans. Business needs a government that will be capable of instilling confidence in society. No good having a Big Society if those making it up are all quivering at the knees. Sorting out the banks? Well let's get to grips with what these gamblers are doing whilst sitting at their computers all day, schizophrenically counting bonus bucks as they watch thin air money whizzing past their eyes.

Transparency, honesty and accountability. Maybe this is the chance for the Rev.Stephen Green, formerly of HSBC, to stand up now, as his country needs him, to purge banking of its Las Vegas promiscuity and return it to an honourable estate.