Yes we do need the bankers, as popular as it is to malign them, we need what they represent. When Osborne's plan announced yesterday goes through, we will not have queues at airports of bankers with one way tickets after all. Brain drain is an overstated fear. Successive governments have tried destroying research, higher education and innovation, (whilst rattling on about protecting them.) Cambridge is still the white heat of the furnace and other British universities are leading the way in scientific research.

However, what our higher earning bankers are failing to appreciate is that more people (and politicians) are realising that their art is no longer exclusive. Software algorithms do buying and selling faster and with more factors weighed up than stock brokers could ever do. A bit like how drummers must have felt come the '80s....   Looking good on stage but having a beer whilst the machine lays the studio tracks.

banking will always be needed and their boards will never be house trained. Sad but a fact. Live with it. The same boards are exploring ways of doing away with the high earners on the floor at the same time as media and the general public malign them.

Interesting times ahead. Osborne did at least acknowledge the issue of hitting benefits without hitting the banks, and regardless of what anybody thinks of the government, he did acknowledge this and announced measures to rake more in.

(Just out of interest, if a bank pays out huge bonuses, the treasury get 50% of it back in income tax. If they don't a bank can squirrel it abroad or hide it. Ironically, taxpayers do better by bonuses being paid, as income tax is more transparent, especially PAYE.