Merchant bankers

(what a complete bunch of)

Banks are not my favourite institutions at the best of times. I object to the fact they can make vast sums just by holding other peoples money. I also object to the way they can make money out of thin air (most of the trading doesn't have anything to do with reality). So, as you can imagine, I'm not particularly impressed when the tax payer has to bail these institutions out when they go horribly wrong.

However, I also don't like that way that rules can be bent or broken to allow one big bank to buy another big bank and thus become a massively dominant player in the high street banking market. You can tell these are desperate times and Lloyds have played a blinder by picking the perfect moment to snap up HBOS. The government, of course, is all behind it because they're desperate to avoid another Northern Rock fiasco. But is it right? I think it's something Gordon Brown may live to regret - although probably not as Prime Minister.

As a shareholder (very, very small shareholder) in HBOS, I should probably be jumping for joy, but I never like monopolies because they go against the whole way things are supposed to work in the west (not that capitalism actually works, hence why we need so many watchdogs and laws and ministries to prop the whole thing up).

So well done to Lloyds for picking their moment, but shame on the Government for rolling over and positively promoting this because they're so afraid. Fear is what precipitated the whole mess in the first place and more of it doesn't do anyone any good.