April, 07, 2010

Sir, During election campaigns even the more cerebral politicians can be expected to court the populist vote, but for the business secretary to attack Bob Diamond not only on account of the level of his remuneration but also for his alleged failure to build a business reveals, if taken at face value, a startling ignorance of a leading British company that has revenues of some £11bn and employs 23,000 people across the globe (“Politicians try to take the shine off Diamond”, April 6).

If we assume that Lord Mandelson is indeed aware of Barclays Capital’s emergence as a top five investment bank globally then we have to assume that he now regards this as an embarrassment and a regrettable development. He is entitled to that view, just as Lord Turner is entitled to reassess his period in an industry that he now describes as “socially useless”, but both these senior figures need to share with us their vision of a world without such banks.

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