Fatcat bankers undermine the bailout

For the tabloids, the credit crunch has opened up a rich seam of stories about greedy bankers and their outrageous lifestyle. Today, the mail captured the national mood with a story about a group of Barclays bankers who jetted off to Italy on a 500,000 junket. Trips like these are public relations disasters for desperate banks.

In the past, bankers could brush aside such outrage by claiming that the huge profits they generated for their employers justified their lavish lifestyles and huge bonuses. With the taxpayer pumping in uncountable billions into stricken and insolvent banks, bank employees can't expect any sympathy when they abuse their shareholders by wasting money on such a massive scale.

Banks are now state owned enterprises, and in the coming weeks, this status will be cemented by huge taxpayer financed capital injections. Like other public sector employees, greater job security needs to be traded off with lower salaries. That is the deal that other public sector workers accept when they sign up for a government salary.

The taxpayer financed bailout is deeply unpopular amongst ordinary people. This kind of arrogant behaviour simply won't be tolerated in the future. The days of big bonuses, expensive junkets, and private jets are over. Britain is now a socialist country, and the overriding principle of socialism is that everybody is brought down to the same low and dreary level. Bankers cannot complain with their new public sector status. After all, it is what they wanted.