Grandstanding MPs turn out to be impotent

After yesterday's entertaining head-to-head between Bob Diamond and the Treasury Committee, today various MPs are clamouring for Bob to give up his £20mm leaving package:

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said it was wrong for Mr Diamond to take a "socking great bonus" in the good times and not give it up when wrongdoing was uncovered.

Well, Nick, what are you going to do if he doesn't give it up? Get him fired?

I was pleased to see BoJo actually standing up for London financial services: whether you think he was right to do so or not, he's taking a stand on what he thinks is good for the London economy, and that's what he's supposed to do:

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, was a rare voice defending Barclays, as he warned against "an orgy of self slaughter" over the scandal.
"I'm not going to run down Barclays Bank. I'm going to stand up for financial services and London's pre-eminent role in supplying those services," he said.

What's really scary to me is that Barclays was the first bank to come clean about the LIBOR fixing. What about the other (seven?) banks that participated and have so far been out of public attention? If they see this happening to Barclays, they're going to take a far tougher stand in announcing the part of the FSA, Bank of England and former Government ministers in the mess - after all, what's to lose?