A Treasury Select Committee report on the banking crisis was released on 1st May with an aim of establishing what went wrong.

It turns out (surprise, surprise), that the bankers were to blame by making “an astonishing mess” of the UK financial industry which includes hiking bank charges despite being bailed out by taxpayers.

The report also called for UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the body set up to represent the taxpayer’s share in part-nationalised banks, to start being more assertive.

The report was not hailed by everyone – Vince Cable, LibDem Treasury spokesman, said: “This is a disappointingly weak report. It fails to meet the previous standards of tough criticism advanced by the select committee when interrogating the bankers.”

And of course, the bankers themselves had something to say, which went along the lines of the famous Bart Simpson quote…”I didn’t do it”. Angela Knight, CEO of the British Bankers’ Association, said: “If we simply continue to blame the industry for all of the problems of the economy in the UK it will do little to help us out of the recession and will further damage the UK as an international financial centre.”