My friend Andrew, a newly retired ex-shark of capitalism, does not agree that Bob Diamond deserves any credit (see previous post).

“He’s a real arrogant insufferable ****, ******* convinced that he deserves all this ****** money, sleazy ******,” Andrew said, or words to that effect. It was a nice, beautiful, heartfelt speach, words of somebody who believes there must be integrity even in the City.

Andrew has had enough of the City. “I might sound naive to you, Sveta, but I do believe that people, even bankers, should try to do the right thing. If, while doing the right thing, you also maximise your own profit, that’s fine. But they only care about what they can get away with. How is Bob Diamond different from your oligarchs? They are exactly the same.”

My own experience of the City is limited; however, I tried to remember a work of art about a banker who tried to do the right thing, and failed. I remembered the film “It’s a Beautiful Life” where doing the right thing nearly cost a mortgage provider his life. We all have this idea of the right thing, and yet what we see around us screams quite the opposite: the wrong thing is a much better thing.

Bob Diamond doesn’t give a toss what Andrew and I think about him. And I’m sure there does exist a moderately successful, honest executive at Barclays Capital who has always done the right thing, but we will never know anything about him.