I used to think you a lucid and balanced commentator on financial affairs, but I am fast forming the view that you have a personal agenda on the UK banking system to which you are prepared to subordinate the presentation of fair and reasonable arguments. I have just been watching Newsnight and am once again disappointed that you persist in associating HSBC (I declare my interest: my employer) in the same breath, without differentiation, with banks that have needed bailing out by the UK taxpayer. You know this not to be HSBC’s position, and yet you are content to mislead the viewers (and, as I have heard on the radio in the recent past, listeners) in this way. I should appreciate your taking more care in the future over what you say, as I should not like you to end up in my and the wider public’s estimation as a mere populist ‘tub-thumper’. I have to say that it is almost as disappointing that neither Gavin Essler nor his producers appear to have the sense of balance in their reporting to redress your omission.

Yours sincerely

Mark Cheesman