This fact alone should have been enough to make the man hang his head in shame and take his leave both of the banking system and this country.

But what happens? First he is rewarded by Eric Daniels (chief executive of Lloyds TSB) with a job on the board in the proposed new organisation, carrying a massive salary/shares package. Then he initially tries to portray the takeover as a merger, further insulting our intelligence.

Am I alone in thinking that the man and his "management" cronies (I use the term management loosely) have acted like a bunch of morons?

I would welcome any comments your readers may have, whether or not they agree with what I have said.

Most of all, I would welcome a statement by Andy Hornby justifying his actions. I doubt, however, that he will ever be man enough to admit his catastrophic mistakes. "Teflon" types such as him never do, because, regardless of their errors, they always seem to come up smelling of roses.

If I were previously in any doubt, the last two weeks have confirmed to me that there is something rotten in the state of Britain.

Ed Halliday