A couple of weeks ago Bob Diamond of Barclays said:

Our aim is clear - it's to be the premier global investment bank over the next couple of years

He wants that for personal advantage.

He can only do it with our cash.

And as Vince Cable has said:

it is madness for the British taxpayer to be a last-resort guarantor for this kind of business.

And yet that is exactly what we are doing.

This is madness. We have to regulate. Barclays cannot free-ride on the back of the UK taxpayer. It is. It mustn’t. And it really is time the government realised this. Or, and I’m quite convinced of this, the next crisis may arrive much sooner than anyone is predicting because there is no substance to current increases in bank activity, and another crash could in that case happen sooner rather than later.

It’s not a pretty prospect. Curtailing Barclays’ ambitions will be a small price to pay for preventing it.