Diamond's defence

Poor old Bob Diamond. He's telling a parliamentary select committee that he felt 'physically sick' when he discovered his traders manipulating the LIBOR rate. He's done nothing wrong, but 'the culture' is to blame. Oh, and he's using that tired old trick of using every questioner's forename, often. It's meant to establish rapport and restrict hostility. It actually comes across as smarmy and calculated.

Show some backbone, Bob. Here's one particularly bumptious young man's defence:

A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.

Yes, Stephen Dedalus in Ulysses. He'd be a corporate PR adviser these days.

While we're here, have a bit of Alan Plater on 'changing the culture': this one's for Michael Gove and friends.

The education of our children is a sacred responsibility. It cannot be entrusted to time-serving politicians. Especially those whose social judgement and emotional development have been permanently warped by the public school system. 

Big Al, in The Beiderbecke Connection.