Lawrence Gosling

Of course, last week's Queen's Speech was an electioneering one and you cannot blame old Gordon for having a go. It is always better to get HRH to deliver your ideas in person when you have such dodgy handwriting and spelling!

It was very kind of the Government to make the announcement a few weeks ago that it was going to allow product placement on television - not on the BBC of course, because God forbid the Beeb should not be seen as being impartial.

"I don't need a financial adviser because I don't have any money to invest," is apparently something the ex-footballer John Barnes said in an interview last year.

The fund manager Crispin Odey describes fund management as a ‘social service'. Or more accurately, he believes wealth preservation for clients is a ‘social service'.

I had to smile. Just as I was sitting down to write this, the FSA announced it was going to clamp down on irresponsible mortgage and loan lending by the banks.

A leading multi manager said to me the other week that it was "a strange recession" we are living in, as he related how a relative of his who ran a small boutique (as in clothes shop, not asset manager) had hardly noticed a slowdown in trade.

Another story of what the banks get up to in this country - from a very personal perspective.

Apparently, it is 20 years since I got into financial services journalism. I only know that because a PR reminded me! Actually, it is not something I have been trying to forget, but it does make you wonder where the past 20 years have gone.

A couple of tales again about how rubbish the banks are that should warm the cockles of an adviser's heart.