Bank bosses to start jail terms

The top managers of troubled bank Hypo Alpe Adria, which had to be nationalised by the Austrian government to save it from collapse, have exhausted the appeal process and are now due to start their jail sentences. Ex-CEO Wolfgang Kulterer will serve three and a half years, his assistants Günther Striedinger and Gerhard Kucher four years and tax advisor Hermann Gabriel will serve four and a half years. 

The former high-flying fat-cats could do their time in either the grim Stadlau jail, or the delightful renaissance Karlau in Graz, where the Nazis guillotined hundreds during the war, and the British hanged a few dozen war criminals after it. It seems the Austrians don’t have cosy open prisons for the Ernest Saunders class.

And if the Austrians are jailing their delinquent bankers, why the hell aren’t we? Fred Goodwin should be in Barlinnie. Why is Cameron protecting the guilty men?