Times are tough for bankers. It is one thing to have Derek Simpson, general secretary of Unite, Britain's biggest union, question your probity. It is much more disconcerting when it is the Archbishop of Canterbury voicing what seems to be the views of a large proportion of the population.

The huge bonuses paid to bankers have grated for some time, but now that the same executives are being blamed for serially damaging financial markets - costing tens of thousands of jobs in the process - such large rewards appear insupportable.