Today Barclays Bank raised £7.3 billion from Middle East-based investors. That makes Barclays one of the high street’s premier brands, not just in terms of perception, but in terms of reality, along with HSBC.

It matters whether a bank takes a state handout to survive or does a deal on the open market to achieve the same objective. There’s a huge difference between the two options. Barclays Bank and HSBC had the confidence to say no to Gordon Brown’s offer of receiving taxpayers’ money to overcome the credit crunch.  We should all feel indebted to them because for sure most of their rivals are indebted to us.