Don’t let’s be beastly to the bankers

The Twitter hashtag #BankerOutrage was launched by Radio Four yesterday summing up a very popular mood. It’s not unusual for bankers to be hated after crashes. After the South Sea Bubble burst in 1721, there were calls in the Lords for the bankers involved to be dumped in sacks filled with serpents and dropped in the Thames. But that was the immediate aftermath: what’s odd now is the timing. As we say in the leading article of this week’s Spectator, Hester had a bonus twice the size last year — and no one seemed to care. Now, it’s suddenly a crisis and Fred the Shred’s knighthood is a matter of urgency. The Sunday newspapers are full of bonus-hatred, and Justine Greening has just told Sunday Politics that she’ll vote against Railtrack directors’ bonus. Three years from the crash, and it’s eat-the-rich time. Why?
 
Part of the explanation is that the government is encouraging, rather than confronting, the hang-a-banker mood.