Have you seen the size of the RBS Company Report?...

I'm an RBS shareholder. There, I've admitted it! That's what used to be known as The Royal Bank of Scotland. Now you may remember that this is the bank which was forced to reveal, if I've got my facts right, that it had given it's Chief Exec a no conditions pension pot which meant that, however long he worked for the company he would receive what amounted to a £750,000 a year pension for the rest of his life. Not bad if the company decides to retire you early, largely due to your own incompetence, in your early fifties. I'd settle for that! The bank, perhaps not surprisingly, then nearly went to the wall and was bailed out by the Government and therefore in turn you and I. They then pay another top Banker a small fortune to rescue them if he achieves targets; targets which are no doubt fairly attainable. In the meantime they make pledges to keep costs down and bonuses in check. So anyway, being a shareholder, the other day I received their company report; nothing so odd in that you may be thinking. Until you see it and feel the weight of it. It wouldn't fit through my letter box for a start, so I had to make a trip to the post depot to pick up this mammoth document, which was printed on heavy glossy paper in full colour, and wasn't far off the thickness of the Yellow Pages. I'm not exaggerating either. I'm not sure how many shareholders the company has but it must run into hundreds of thousands at least so what cost for production, distribution and postage I wonder? Is this the best use of what is now indirectly tax payers money? Are the wheels in this particular large organisation so slow that they couldn't stop this mostly boring document being churned out because that's what they always produce? You'd think that they wouldn't leave themselves so wide open to criticism this year of all years....