THE Scottish Parliament has shut for the summer as our MSPs head off in search of the sun, but Westminster is still going like a fair.

It should be the barbecue season, but the weather is too wet for sausages so it is bankers who are being grilled instead.

Much fuss has been made about whether Bob Diamond, who resigned as chief executive of Barclays, should give up his bonus – which could be £20million – on top of earnings last year said to be £18m.

Wait. Run those figures past me again.

If reports are accurate, this man, and he is by no means unique in The City, is eligible for a bonus that is not far off double his salary.

The money is made not even by producing anything tangible, like cars or computers, and then selling them, or by building something essential, like homes, hospitals or roads.

No, the money is made by taking other people's money, yours, mine and every other ordinary Joe with a bank account, and moving it around in clever ways to generate more money, a lot of which does not actually exist.

If everyone wanted their money back in the form of cash it would not be there, because the bankers are using your deposits to invest or loan to make more money, which obviously does not all come back at once.

They do this by methods most of us do not understand and would not claim to, which is part of the problem.

We naively thought we should be able to trust bankers to be honest and responsible with our money.

RIGGING interest rates for commercial gain is a scandal. Unregulated banks and lax financial systems are also a scandal.

Those who are guilty are doing it (a) because they are greedy and (b) because they have been allowed to get away with it.

Meanwhile, in the world of Westminster they are preoccupied with avoiding the blame and shifting it on to their opponents.

Chancellor George Osborne blamed former Chancellor Gordon Brown while Prime Minister David Cameron said it was "completely wrong" for Mr Diamond to leave with a huge pay-off.

But, presumably, he thinks it is acceptable for him to earn a Euromillions jackpot salary each year.

I am in no doubt Mr Diamond and other senior bankers are hard-working and intelligent people.

Then again, so are millions of others who will not earn a fraction of that in their lifetime.

Bob Diamond's earnings last year were 700 times the average salary.

Now that is completely wrong.