If you expected anything better from George Osborne, you're a fool

I refer, of course, to the Tory-led govt's cave-in over bank bonuses. While the previous Labour administration was hardly doing a Wolfie Smith on the bankers' asses in this regard, the ConDems' surrender in the face of flyweights like Barclays' Bob Diamond is breathtaking - or at least it would have been if I had believed anything the govt said since May.

Is there anybody out there who really believed that George Osborne wasn't umbilically linked to the financial sector? If so, what drugs are you on? Something like the guy from Fringe (which I received the Seasons 1 and 2 box set of for Xmas and have just finished watching them... will post on it soon as it's awesome).

Sunder Katwala over at Next Left produced his best piece in months with a sardonic takedown of the ConDems' capitulation to Big Banking. Best line: ">Diamond - whose "bankers should stop apologising" performance today suggested he may just be an undercover sleeper agent for his local Constituency Labour Party..."

Sunder also mentions the Lib Dems' latest (last?) line of defence against the charge of being spineless collaborators. Defending every policy decision the govt has taken, no matter how crazed or right-wing, has been a disaster; but at the same time, the Vince Cable overgrown teenage punk approach of "I can take down the Coalition any time I want to" was risible, and removed the narrow bargaining power Cable had. So now it's time for agitprop and regrets: "listen guv, we really think these Tory policies are bleedin' dreadful, and we BLOODY SAID SO OURSELVES!! But did they listen? Nah mate."

Sliding from a crisis into complete irrelevance. I love the Lib Dems. They've unified the British Left by Kindly Leaving The Stage.

(Reassured to find this is the first time the label 'George Osborne' has been used on this blog...)