We’ve let the greedy bankers off the hook

TO bring a nation to the brink of bankruptcy, as the major banks have done, is not merely an act of selfish greed but of treason. The consequences of their  behaviour have become shockingly clear as councils are being obliged, by slashed  central government grants, to reduce staff (adding to already high levels of unemployment) and to make severe cuts in services to the community, including its most vulnerable members.

Yet the banks responsible have only been mildly reprimanded or punished, so they are once again in profit and doling out huge bonuses to senior staff. 

The government seems pathetically intimidated by the possibility that, if treated more severely, they might up sticks and leave the country.   

I wonder how many other nations would welcome personnel who use their financial acumen for their own selfish interests, whatever the dire consequences to the state and the more honest taxpayers obliged to bail them out.