But knowing that you had gone wrong, and knowing how you had gone wrong, were not the same thing as knowing how to put it right.

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".

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.

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 can be a way of knowledge, a path, an inspiration, a Tao, an ordering, a memory, a fantasy, a seduction, a prayer, a summoning, an incantation murmured under the breath as the torchlights sink lower and the forest looms taller and the wolves howl louder and the fire prepares for its submission to the encroaching dark.

The person doing the worrying experiences it as a form of love; the person being worried about experiences it as a form of control.