the donkeys and sheep in the valleys. However, when a Vickers comes along or a Volcker and says, right we are going to revert to Glass Steagall principles and separate the investment banks from the high street branches, listen to the scream that goes up and watch the serious, heavy-duty arm twisting that ensues to ensure that that does not happen. What this demonstrates conclusively is that the level of dependence of the investment divisions on the allegedly loss making high street branches in the hills and valleys is much greater than they will allow when they are booking their profits and bonuses. Were it not so they would be happy to be separated from their loss making brethren and they very obviously are not. That combined with the fact that people hammering bits of metal / digging things out of the ground can be done much, much cheaper in far away places. London evolved with the changing world (thanks to an unfair advantage of course) and became a world class leader in a range of industries - media, law, accountancy and of course the much maligned financial services. The rest of the UK (with some honourable mentions such as aerospace in the South West) became world class leaders in irrelevant council jobs. Labour had 13 years in power to help reverse this trend, to encourage big business to the regions but all they did was mask unemployment figures by giving people pointless public sector jobs. The solution? Not sure,