Ian, you and I both don't know the full details of the Lloyds takeover, but it wouldn't surprise me if in future years it is investigated somewhat seriously.
The losses of 10bn are, IMO, somewhat massively over-exaggerated.
I would suggest that before the takeover that figure would be nowhere near (I may be wrong obviously, I'm not at a level to know this).
There are a lot of people in this whole takeover who will do seriously well while I suffer on my <20k wage.
I have a theory that the banks are doing this to force the government to wipe out their debts that would naturally occur in a recession anyway
what has to happen is that the government in the good times gets all the money back plus interest