Dear Mr Osborne: This is a dose of the wrong remedy (and it’s too little and too late anyway)

“The government says is to increase its levy on banks to £2.5bn this year which will raise an extra £800m for the treasury. With talk of £7billion bonus pots for the bankers, and an uncomfortable looking Mr. Diamond of Barclays pleading that its time we stopped bashing them, this move is going to please nobody.

“If you`re making a political point Mr. Osborne, it is ill advised. The bankers will be up in arms. The public will see the disparity between bankers’ rewards and the piffling amounts you are raising with this move. We, the public, think the banks should be paying out more than we are to clear up the economic mess they’ve made.

“And anyway, this isn’t a battle so we don’t need a peace settlement. The bankers are doing the only thing they know how; make a quick buck when they see an opportunity.

“This is the wrong remedy. Mr Osborne. We need you and the government to take the bankers’ opportunity for a lifetime free lunch away from them.

“You have set up the Independent Commission on Banking so you know there is something fundamentally wrong with the rules governing banking transactions. So does the Bank of England’s Governor and many economists. And now more and more of us realise the bankers’ incredible trick that creates money from nothing.

“You have a once in a lifetime chance to change it all. Don’t mess it up. Take banking to the cleaners, not just the bankers.”