Introducing Fat Cat, a new columnist for Financial News in 2010. A City of London insider who believes in living life to the full, Fat Cat is frequently amused and bemused by goings on in the Square Mile. His column will appear fortnightly in the newspaper and online in the New Year. In his first dispatch, he muses on the unholy truth about the bonus round…

Seasonal cheer is in short supply in the City of London but not, perhaps, for the obvious reasons. Forget, if you can, Alistair Darling's tax grab and the baying of the fourth estate: in my experience the annual bonus round is always unholy for both giver and receiver.