A couple of weeks ago, the latest shock horror story to hit the front pages related to plans by Lloyds Bank to pay its staff bonuses. How very dare they, said the press. Some of the more thoughtful media pointed out that most of the bonuses were paid to staff on low wages – that they worked out at an average of £1,000 per member of staff, many of whom were earning around £17,000 per year. Hardly the stuff of excess. It was argued here that it was a non story, and that by so vilifying a bonus, which on closer examination seemed actually quite modest, some media had demonstrated once and for all that they don’t care about truth or balance. Instead, they seemed to do little more than reinforce every overreaction, in turn compounding the crisis we are living through. But not all agreed. Some argued that it was irrelevant how small the bonus was, that if a company does badly then bonuses should not be paid. Well now we know a little bit more. The first ever set of results from Lloyds Banking Group are out, and actually the Lloyds TSB bit was quite good. Overall