There is something quite naive about the way business leaders approach politics. They are used to defending themselves with numbers, lawyers and key performance indicators. Nothing prepares them for the brutality of Westminster.
Sir James Crosby fell foul of this brutal real-politik today. He was forced to resign from the Financial Services Authority over his role in sacking a whistleblower while running HBOS. The FSA's own report into the affair was said to have largely exonerated him. Yet the seeds of his destruction are there for all to see: he may have been innocent, but it still smells awful.
Not only was the FSA effectively looking into the affairs of one of its own, Crosby is also a key adviser to Gordon Brown on cleaning up the mess left by the housing bubble. The irony is he probably did more than any other individual to fuel the bubble when he was running Halifax.
Like many bankers brought into government of late, his expertise is invaluable, but the wider challenge facing Brown is that he looks part of the problem not the solution. At at time when the government desperately needs to make a break with the past and show it is responsive to public anger on issues like bank bonsues, it is surrounded by men for whom the concept of a large bonus is nothing remarkable.
