I don't think that was ever in question. In large part, the devout are victims of religion. Unfortunately, it is also the ambition of religion to convert or undermine other belief systems. It causes people to do bad things by the standards of more enlightened thinking. Defending the right to believe is not the same as justifying the results.

The Reformation was not anti-religious and in general, the level of religious pervasion into people's lives was more the issue for the common man during the period where we became more secular. Catholicism was too restrictive and dominating. The Church of England evolved to enable a looser association.

Right. So all the SOX work I did for British companies with some US activity was pointless then.

We have other people on the forum with more knowledge of the financial services than I do but still I'd like to offer up these words.

I have some sympathy with you.....metaphorically of course....I don't think we should actually be hitting them!

I don't think perhaps you are referring to all bankers but instead to that small elite of bosses at the top.

We know from statistics that the wages of these guys from the seventies and earlier has rocketed.....it was always...as it should be for such a highly important job very well paid....but it became obscene a long time ago......This in my view hasn't been a good example of the meritocratic system because it hasn't always followed the same scale of success......It has the same issues that the wages of the top footballers have....there's an inbalance between how good someone is to what they are paid.

However, at the moment we have a financial sector which contributes....what is it...something like 25 percent of our tax.....We need to invest in other sectors rather than damage a productive one.

But the anger is justified all the same.....these people get to vote on each other's wages....it's like giving unions the right to set the wages of other union worker's wages...and most shareholders just don't care about ethics just as long as the bucks are flowing....complicity is obviously rife.

Edited by Stirlingsays (17 Nov 2018 9.43am)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Sanctions is different - sections 302 and 404 are for US listed companies - plenty of cos are listed in London and NY though. My point was you don't need to be sox compliant to trade.

I have some doubts about those numbers ...

I sincerely hope the tax payer didn't cough up nearly £100 bn to save an industry worth £119 bn and simultaneously plunge the country into decades of austerity and wage constraints?

Denial is not just a river in Egypt

Annual income versus market cap methinks

But I stand to be corrected on the figures