Last night I may have heard the perfect summing up of the public’s attitude to banks, bonuses and the crisis, courtesy of one Billy Connolly.
His take on bonuses was: “We lent them billions and billions of pounds, then they all got together and divvied it up among themselves.”
He then noted how the banks have been saying they have to keep paying bonuses to keep the best people and added something like ‘These are the same ‘best people’ who got us here in the first place. So where are they going to go?’ He phrased it a little more colourfully and I’m not going to say what sort of labour exchange, Mr Connolly said these people should go to. He has not mellowed with age. Yet he has a point which all the PR and lobbying from the banks has not challenged.
The attitude of the public is going to remain deeply sceptical unless their is fundamental change. As for people working in investment banks, for all that money can buy you autonomy and a high degree of independence, no-one likes to be hated.
If it continues, I think it is going to wear everyone concerned down.
Personally I hope the Big Yin is still giving performances like last night’s in ten years time. But if jokes about bankers, admittedly delivered with perfect timing, are still getting the sort of raging laughter that nearly took the roof of the Apollo last night, a few years hence, then I think bankers are underestimating the sort of forces ranged against them. They might win this round of lobbying but if most taxpayers believe that the interests of banks run contrary to their interests, the game will change for good.
“We lent them billions and billions of pounds, then they all got together and divvied it up among themselves.” I would love to hear a state owned or state backed bank explain to me, or perhaps better still to Billy Connolly exactly how that isn’t really what’s been happening.
