Unfit To Govern

Today, Lloyds (41% taxpayer owned) posted a first half-year pre-tax profit of £1.6bn.  Lloyds is the 3rd bank this week to post positive news and follows Northern Rock (also taxpayer owned) and HSBC.

Part of the good news at Lloyds was due to job losses resulting in a reduction of costs by about £1bn.  Lloyds stocks are currently up 2.4% at 73.65 since opening. HSBC and RBS are down slightly.

Obviously these banks have been improving under the policies of a Labour Government. It will be interesting to see how the banks are doing this time next year (Aug 2011) after the Coalition policies have had a chance to bite.

Meanwhile RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland Group who also owns NatWest) is to sell 318 branches to Spanish banking giant Santander (I personally feel very sad about this as it’s yet a another part of British business being sold to an oversees business).

Main source: Politics.co.uk