Is City Spy alone in despairing of the vacuousness of the Treasury Select Committee? Here we are, in the middle of an almighty banking crisis and the MPs are still banging on about Sir Fred Goodwin's pension. By all means have a go, but the point, surely has been made. Yet, oh no. They haul Lord Myners before them and question him about Goodwin's retirement pot. Tens of billions of pounds have been lost, banks have been taken over by the state, thousands of jobs have gone - and the MPs still harp on about the Royal Bank of Scotland former boss's £700,000 pension.

* Recent meetings of the Treasury Select Committee have served only to highlight the shortcomings of our elected representatives - the humbling of Sir James Crosby aside - and even public enemy number one, Goodwin himself, left Westminster relatively unscathed last month. So what inspired yesterday's much improved performance by MPs when grilling the City minister, Myners? That the main topic of debate was Sir Fred's pension certainly helped - after all, gold-plated retirement packages are something MPs know all about.

* City Spy wonders increasingly if keeping the pension row going is a deliberate smokescreen. If only John McFall and his colleagues on the committee showed the same interest in pursuing the Labour government over where it screwed up...

* Labour MP Martin Salter has tabled a Commons motion which "expresses its indignation at the continued refusal of Sir Fred Goodwin to reduce his pension; believes that in order to preserve the integrity of the honours system his knighthood should be forfeited; and accordingly calls for an early meeting of the Forfeiture Committee to consider his case". Scottish Nationalist MP Pete Wishart has added a mischievous amendment - "and notes that Sir Fred Goodwin's knighthood was awarded on the recommendation of the Prime Minister in recognition of services to banking".

It's going from bad to verse...

To the tune of The Beatles' Let It Be:

“When I find my personal wealth in trouble
Father Bernanke tries to comfort me.
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness
Obama is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, buy it all.
Let it be. Let it be, let it be
But nothing can seem to help me, except Sell it all
Sell it all, sell it all...that will ease the pain...let it be

And when the brokenhearted investors
Living in the world agree,
We have not hit bottom, let it be
They will learn the wisdom to, sell it all.
For though they may be in bankruptcy, there is
Still a chance that they will see
We have not hit bottom, sell it all.
Let it fall, let it fall. Yeah
There will be a bottom, but not today

And when the night is cloudy,
There is still a loan to repay,
Pay it all tomorrow, sell it all.
Speaking words of wisdom, sell for me.
Sell it all, sell it all.
If there is answer, let it be.
Whispering words of wisdom, sell it all.”

Few bonus points for Meacher the preacher

Under-siege City bosses with telephone-number salaries may be forgiven for suppressing a guffaw or two at the latest figure to join the bandwagon against them.

Step forward veteran Labour MP Michael Meacher. Meacher was environment spokesman under Tony Blair, but now wants the Government to “ban” the payment of bonuses where companies have made substantial losses and/or have been bailed out by taxpayers' money.

But is Meacher really so very wise to wage war on such wealth? He and his second wife, Lucianne, have owned a large home in Wimbledon, a Cotswold stone retreat complete with swimming pool, and the normal MP's pied-a-terre — in Chadderton, part of his Oldham constituency.

According to documents deposited at the Land Registry and Companies House, the Meachers owned as many as nine properties — a figure he has denied, but he has never disclosed the true number.

At a Labour Party conference fringe meeting, he once condemned second-home owners for “robbing people of a home which is a basic right”.

* How is former City editor Patience Wheatcroft, now a non-executive director of Barclays, enjoying the firestorm over the bank's alleged tax avoidance practices? No one could accuse her of having changed her tune from her days as a journalist. “Efficient tax planning has, until recently, been regarded by boards not only as a right but as a duty to shareholders,” she wrote in The Times in 2006. “As Gordon Brown strives to increase his income to try to balance his books, there is no such thing as legitimate tax avoidance.” She also warned that “coming down hard on avoidance... seems set to backfire. A few artificial schemes may be stopped but big companies will consider moving to more hospitable regimes”. No wonder Barclays was so keen to hire her...

Tries but no conversion at RBS

Oh dear. If Royal Bank of Scotland shareholders think they've sailed through the worst of the financial turmoil which saw their company recently post record losses, think again.
Overheard in Edinburgh at the weekend, where Scotland hosted Ireland in the Six Nations rugby, was one RBS employee moaning to a friend who asked how his job was going.

He replied: “At branch level, the company is actually doing well and making money but otherwise there's a real fear we could lose even more money next year than we did this year.”

Is that possible?

* Golly. From the Associated Press: “Iowa Senator Charles Grassley suggests AIG executives should take a Japanese approach toward accepting responsibility for the collapse of the insurance giant by resigning or killing themselves. The Republican lawmaker's harsh comments... echo remarks he has made in the past about corporate executives and public apologies, but went further in suggesting suicide. Grassley says AIG executives should follow the Japanese example' by publicly apologising and do one of two things: resign or commit suicide'.”