Speaking as a taxpayer, I am getting seriously fed up with the banks. They seem hell-bent on resuming business as usual, or as near as they can contrive. They will probably get their way. And we will end up with the bill again.

It is not as if we lack ways of averting this. In fact, I have a modest proposal of my own, which I will come to. But the odds are stacked against us.

By the time the next crisis hits, today's senior bankers will have moved on. So will senior politicians. Only taxpayers are without that option, except in a rather terminal sense.