Barclays

A big improvement here in profits, but if you strip out investment banking and all those dodgy derivatives, the High Street part reflects the slow conditions in the core economy. However, though I hesitate to disagree with George and whilst I know it is akin to blasphemy to question the wisdom of Vince, I now believe they are both wrong, when they whinge on about insufficient bank lending.

The old collapsed economy was built on excessive credit offered in rivers to anyone who asked and many who did not even have to. The result was a very big crash. The banks were at the root of the excess of credit, but to build a sound economy, they will be at the root again. However this time their job is to say no, unless the loan proposition meets the age old criteria for sound lending, which was the bedrock of economic management until all these wisdoms were forgotten and everybody, including the banks, nearly borrowed themselves into financial oblivion.

Economic recovery, built not on sand but on a firmer foundation, requires a good deal less borrowing all round. The banks, the retail side certainly, appear to have got the message. We must now let them get on.