Make the bankers accountable

Too f:@k;-g right. They're all complete bastards, total and unmitigated bastards.

I couldn't agree more blighters! This recent scandal is "fraud" surely and people have to made accountable. Bob ( wanker) Diamond is walking around smiling at everyone as though he couldn't care less, the useless government are doing nothing about it. He's just cost Barclays nearly three hundred million pounds in fines and whose going to pay that in the long run, "Us" of course! Arrest the bastards and charge them with fraud because that's exactly what it is!

Much as I enjoy a debate, I can't argue with any of the above, gentlemen. These people, including politicians lining their own pockets, have ruined millions of lives with their fraudelent practices. They should all be punished and their assets confiscated. Linda

I can only add I'm with everyone on this, but I still have to say it: THE FUCKING SELFISH UNFEELING BASTARDS OUGHT TO BE STRUNG UP BY THEIR HORN-RIMMED TESTICLES AND PELTED WITH ROTTEN EGGS!

I don't live in Britain but the problem is endemic around the world. Maybe societies do indeed get the government (and the bankers) they deserve. Most of these banks and other mega companies are ultimately owned by thousands of individual shareholders but the top people behave as though they entirely own the bank or company they are employed to manage. I think that is the root of a lot of the problems - ordinary shareholders (the wage and salary earning man/woman in the street) are too distanced (via unit trusts, pension funds and other complex investment instruments) from the companies they are invested in or who their brokers/ pension funds have invested in on their behalf. The only ones who turn up at shareholder meetings are representative of other mega companies, colossal pension funds, units trust managers and the like. They all know each other, arrive in Ferraris and are easily bribed and manipulated. Mrs Smith is never there and more to the point is never invited even though she may ultimately be a (minuscule) shareholder. In the past the thousands of individual shareholders, broadly representing society at large, held managers and CEOs accountable but now that doesn't happen. In consequence they are totally out of control - like kids who have been given the keys to the booze cabinet by careless or disinterested parents. I personally feel it is one more manifestation of the growing complexity of modern life - we seem to have lost control of our own appetites, demanding more all the time and divorcing ourselves from the means and the consequences.

What do you mean "almost". They totally own the governments thoughts Blighters.

These threads just make me angrier and angrier. Needless to say I agree with you all, but it is always so futile and the bad guys always win. Many of you have mentioned above the reasons why nothing will/can change, but isn't it for exactly this reason that riots were designed? ;) But then riots mean something different now don't they? Something about knicking trainers and big bags of Basmati rice? Problem is it's not as if the middle classes are on their knees, struggling to survive. The furniture might be a bit ropey and the telly is one of those bulky bastards from the late 90's, and your disposible income might have been decreasing lately, but traditionally I'm not sure how many of history's great upheavals arose from this sort of situation. Liklihood of the middle classes acting on this and maintaning their assault until something is done? Zero. Less than zero. This is why I want to buy a camper van and live in mid-Wales... but what if I do that and decide I've made the wrong decision and can't get back into gainful employment? I abhor gainful employment by the way... ...Fuck's sake.

Stan, thank you for the offer. I have resolved to doing something which takes me off the conveyor belt this year. I have worked in a shitty sales job for 2.5 years and hated every minute, but I've saved hard and I want to go and see the world. I think this is what I will spend some (probably most) of my savings doing. To think, I wanted to get a mortgage when I first joined this company! I will bear it in mind for the future though, I certainly think it would be an adventure, and I could do it, for a time. Although I will be 27/28 and skint when I return. The future is a difficult one isn't it?! So, bankers... I shit em.

Did you know that it wasn't only the FSA that fined Barclays? The FSA fined them £59.5m, it should have been £85m but because they settled early they qualified for a 30% discount! Can you beleive that because they said they were guilty they saved £25.5 million. Just shows how crap our so called "regulating body " is. There was a global investigation into the LIBOR scandal, the investigation involved our FSA, The U.S. Department of Justice DOJ), The U.S Commodity Trading Futures Commission ( CFTC)and, wait for it, the fucking FBI. They were found guilty of manipulating the LIBOR rate and were fined most heavily by the USA. The DOJ fined Barclays $160m and the CFTC fined them $200m. There are now also rumblings that Barclays had "secret" meetings with senior members of the Bank Of England, if this is true it implicates the Treasury and ultimately the Government, wouldn't it be great if this turned out to be our Watergate!

Yes jolono, yes it would! Instead of Big Ben chiming for midday, I'd like to hear a gargantuan flushing sound as all of the turds get flushed out of Westminster!