Why has Lloyds escaped media spotlight?

What is it that makes some elements of the media challenge and pursue some stories to the very last vestiges, creating near hysteria, while events of a similar nature merit hardly a mention?

The reporting season for our two part-nationalised banks is on us this week. Chief executive Stephen Hester, who has made progress in turning around Royal Bank of Scotland, was hounded from “pillar to post” over his proposed £1 million bonus, which he eventually turned down. He was unconnected with RBS at the time of its casino banking. Fred Goodwin has probably been the media’s “public enemy number one” and the hysteria created even managed to strip him of a knighthood.

Now, let us look at Lloyds Banking Group, where – unlike RBS – the five executive directors who sanctioned the purchase of HBOS have not even had the decency to apologise for the fiasco. Andy Hornby, then HBOS chief executive, has gone on to two high-ranking posts after the bank collapsed on his watch: Alliance Boots and Corals have seen fit to resurrect him.

Then we have Helen Weir, who sails into the role of finance director with the John Lewis Partnership – a company well known for the care of its staff. Pity Ms Weir had not thought about the financial wellbeing of Lloyds staff before supporting the takeover.

Archie Kane has put his slippers on. Tim Tookey continues to work with Lloyds, but is heading for pastures new in February. Truett Tate sits at home for a year, with an income of £656,000, and looks forward to his pension.

The doyen of “bank destroyers”, Eric Daniels, glides gently into an advisory capacity with Stormharbour. Quite why any-one would want advice from the bold Eric is beyond me, but there you are. What criticism have the media heaped on this lot? Very little. Have you even heard a voice raised in anger as they smoothly move from the Black Horse they took to the door of the knacker’s yard, to another lucrative number?

Why has Hester had such a pasting from the media when he has done a good job in comparison to the above ?

To add insult to injury, chief executive Antonio Horta- Osorio was going to be given a bonus by the Lloyds board – a bonus for a year, when he only started in March, has taken the share price to new depths and took time off work as he reocvered from stress.

The news should not be that Horta-Osorio refused the bonus, but the fact that the board saw fit to award him one in the first place. What he is paid should bring a chief executive who is the last man standing, not the first man falling.

It is high time the media started to shine the spotlight on Lloyds, or explain why it is being given such an easy ride.Why has a report been produced on the collapse of RBS but nothing as yet on the Bank of Scotland? Answers are needed, but the media only seems to want to get them from one part of this collapse.

Alan Crombie

Almond Way

Glenrothes, Fife