Taxpayer nursing huge losses on RBS and Lloyds

From the source.
"Three years on from the bailouts and – instead of the profits expected – market meltdown and bank regulation mean the taxpayer is sitting on a £32bn paper loss." The Guardian.
Source

"When taxpayers bailed out Lloyds Banking Group – which was two separate banks Lloyds TSB and HBOS at the time – and Royal Bank of Scotland and the expectation was that the government stake would have begun to be sold off by now. And at a profit.

Instead, three years later, the taxpayer is nursing a loss of close to £32bn on stakes originally worth more than £60bn."

As a taxpayer in the UK I'd be damn angry that the Government didn't bail out the Bank - it bailed out the investors by propping up the share price - and has now lost a fortune.

I wonder how those whose pensions are being cut, or public service jobs lost, or services reduced feel knowing that the shareholders at that time were helped out?
By the taxpayer.
The poorest are paying for the mistakes of the investors. Let the banks fail.
When Governments are doing this, its time for them to go.
Time to take my money out before the shareholders want that too.
A huge loss and even this story is buried away in the blogs of the paper.
Best the public doesn't know why we have austerity measures.

I'm not from the UK, but so many Governments have this Mantra about saving the Banks, here in Australia they are so far in debt they will bankrupt the country when property prices collapse.
Thank God at least Iceland had the guts to do the right thing.

Two things that bother me about this whole situation is that in the UK we are governed by a bunch of millionaires. All presumably have to have earned their money whether inherited or not from somewhere and importantly have to have their huge wealth (in comparison to normal people) invested as shareholders
in among other things I expect the financial world. I wonder if this protection of the banks is because if they are shareholders themselves, they are hardly going to penalize and see punished the dividends and financial rewards they get back. I know we expect politicians to declare vested interest but I suspect its only directorships, of which many hold a number, and not individual shares they declare.

The second thing that really bothers me about those who aspire to government is the inexperience they bring to the job. This is a serious job with huge responsibilities and to have people leaping in from uni or advertising etc is ludicrous. I don't think anyone should be allowed into this work unless they have had experience that they can demonstrate will benefit government. I also think no one under the age of 35 should be there also, because dealing with the repercussions of government balls-ups such as our recent bail-outs needs an insight into the inconvenience, deprivation and problems caused to the people that is caused when they don't legislate properly.