It's as if people used the invention of seat belts as an opportunity to take up drunk driving.

The financial system in its current condition poses an existential threat to Western democracy far exceeding any terrorist threat.

We wouldn't care so much what people thought of us if we knew how seldom they did.

The standard personality type for a writer is a shy megalomaniac.

In other words, RBS had its origins in a failed speculation, a bail-out, and a financial crash so big it helped destroy Scotland's status as a separate nation.

It has been a masterful fight-back by the big banks. We the paying public can't do anything much except admit defeat and settle back for the next set of bills. In the meantime, perhaps, we should try and think of a name for the new economic system, which certainly isn't capitalism ... The most accurate term would probably be "bankocracy".

It's as if people used the invention of seat belts as an opportunity to take up drunk driving.