60 billion of public money was spent before yesterday on bank bailouts. Another £50 billion was committed yesterday to Lloyds and RBS, including tax breaks.

Chancellor Alistair Darling announced that a shocking £33.5bn in cash and debt guarantees will be given to the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) – on top of the £20 billion the taxpayer has already handed over – to make the RBS bailout the costliest bank rescue in history. The government also handed another £5.7bn  to directors at Lloyds to add to their earlier £17bn state handout.

This huge the injection of public money, which takes the government’s ownership of RBS to 84 per cent and of Lloyds to 43 per cent does nothing for ordinary workers. The deal means that RBS and Lloyds will have to close more than 900 branches which could threaten as many as 25,000 jobs.