Before Christmas, George Osborne, the UK chancellor, told members of parliament that the Royal Bank of Scotland, in which the government has an 83% stake, “will make further significant reductions in the investment bank, scaling back riskier activities that are heavy users of capital or funding”.

Last week, the UK bank (soon to become an English bank if Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland, gets his way) announced that it was planning, through either sales or closure, to get out of a number of different businesses. This led many people - especially politicians and the mainstream media - to trumpet an end to "casino banking" at RBS.