Views on the news: Bankers' pay, praise for budget airlines and other strange phenomena

Sometimes, when the odds are stacked against you, playing in defence is a thankless task, and this week bloggers were in no mood for excuses. Banker Arnold Philips got things going with his comments that not all bankers are fat cats, and are in fact ordinary people who sacrifice any semblance of life outside work for their hard-earned rewards. "Wow!" leapt in scubadoc : "I traded in any semblance of a life outside of work as a trainee hospital doctor for several years. I am now, as a consultant, being asked to work from 7am to 7pm and provide cover overnight, probably living in the hospital, once a week. I'm held responsible for the team beneath me and we deal in life and death. If anything even seems to go wrong I face both the General Medical Council and the police. "I'm not badly paid: £80,000 before tax, but I still can't get my head around the rewards that senior bankers think that they're worth, and, indeed, the apparent contempt they have for their support staff." "My boss told me today that he will be laying off another three staff at the end of this month," added MaggieT . "Since the start of the banking-led recession, that will mean half our staff have lost their jobs as a direct result of the bankers greed and hubris." Of course, it didn't help that the defence of bankers came on the back of Barclays's announcement of its "remarkable" comeback and the possibly tactless invitation by the bank's president Bob Diamond for people to "celebrate" this success. "Celebrate?" asked radicalpete . "His jobs are disappearing like the pink champagne these greedy bankers guzzle when they pay themselves a bonus they stole from the rest of this poxed-up world. This is taking the piss big time and who the Donald Duck is going to stop them robbing us blind? GREED RULES THIS WORLD." "This is great news," said wooablackbetty . "So, having been made redundant by Barclays in September, can I now have my job back?" On Tuesday it was time for Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, to square things with the chancellor after it emerged that inflation had soared to 3.5%. "Well if you print money to bail out the financial system then that's what happens. Duh!" said RightWingZealot . "They tried a lot of "quantitative easing" in Zimbabwe and lo and behold it didn't make them more prosperous. It destroyed their society. "Unfortunately this government is full of financial illiterates who don't know that: 1) You cannot print your way to prosperity, and 2) Printing money is a direct act of THEFT from people with savings." "Yay, it's so heartening to know that I'll get a 0% pay rise this year and watch my savings be eroded by inflation – all to ensure that house prices won't fall and that I'll never be able to afford a home," cheered afcone . "Great news!" Frankly, pondered chrish in the wake of a row amongst economists about the right course of action for the next year, there was little point listening to anyone: "What we really know is that there is no consensus. Except of course that the economy is buggered." Amazingly, in a complete about-turn from usual form, airline arch-baddie Ryanair had some bloggers leaping to its defence this week, following a story highlighting the budget airline's hidden costs from currency conversion. "I don't like Ryanair, but at least their staff don't cost you thousands by threatening to strike over Christmas and forcing an expensive rebook," said rollmop . It must be hug an airline week, because Southwest Airlines got a reprieve too. The airline was forced into a hasty public apology at the beginning of the week after renowned film director Kevin Smith was thrown off a plane for being to big for his seat. "You are fat," thismuchiknow1 wrote to Smith. "Excessively fat. Therefore it makes sense to plan ahead when travelling. Don't expect to be able to fit into a 'normal' seat … Don't expect your fellow passengers to jeopardise their access to emergency exits by having a physically obstructive, less mobile person in its path. "This poor airline even had a quite polite and sensitive policy in place. It's just that this XXXL prima donna obviously thought he was too famous to have to tick the fat box." However, for most bloggers, there are no excuses for the government's position, which was laid bare this week by a succession of gloomy figures. Official statistics which showed the number of Britons claiming unemployment benefit have risen to the highest level since Labour came to power prompted harmonyfuture to ask: "As many, many posters predicted, the Christmas boom is over, the shelf-stackers, box-packers and all those taken on to deal with the re-stock run-up to Christmas are finished with, why could the experts not see this scenario?" Thursday's news that the British government had posted its worst borrowing figures for January since records began, got a similarly despairing reaction. "Is there any point in me getting up every morning and slogging my arse off at work, or should I just expire?" asked Kolin . "At least then the government can say unemployment has gone down (by one), as someone fills my position." "For all those that supported the New Labour reverse-Robin Hood bailouts (steal from the poor to give to the rich) this is what you bought – a long, drawn out, grinding period of stagflation, unemployment, wage cuts and lower living standards," warned teganjovanka . "None of the underlying problems have been tackled, all we did was bury them under a massive pile of borrowed cash, which we'll be paying for a generation." "Bring back Guy Fawkes," urged Wolfold . "Show him the front bench." It is always easier to defend a person with honest intentions, after all. Keep them coming.