One of the justifications given by the big boys at the Barclays Group when Bob Diamond became Chief Executive in March 2010 with the promise of considerable incentive compensation on top of his annual salary of £12 millions, was that his bank had weathered the financial crash and did not have to seek-out Government funds.
Even though it later was admitted that their healthy balance sheet was helped in no mean part by Government cash-injections, it was argued that they had behaved prudently during the boom times.
What about now?