............as the hapless stewardship of Britain’s banks

The most extraordinary business story of last year shows no sign of running out of shocking twists. Yesterday the senior regulator who approved the appointment in 2010 of Rev Paul Flowers as chairman of the Co-op Bank was grilled by the Treasury Select Committee. Clive Adamson denied that he had been ‘negligent’ but admitted that he thought Flowers was fit for the top job despite having no relevant banking experience and the small matter of a spent criminal conviction in 1981 for gross indecency. The man now dubbed the ‘crystal methodist’ stepped up to the pulpit last year to provide the sex and drugs scandal that the banking industry had been lacking. Headline writers had a field day when Flowers, compared by one unkind MP to the amorous Uncle Monty from cult comedy Withnail & I, was caught by an undercover reporter in November allegedly buying crack cocaine. Further tawdry details emerged, including emails from Flowers organising drug-fuelled romps with rent boys......Read more here