GEORGE OSBORNE portrays his fire-sale disposal of RBS shares to City institutions as the “right thing to do for the taxpayer,” which begs the question which particular taxpayer he means.

A deal that leaves the Exchequer with a £1 billion loss on a sale bringing in just £2.1bn cannot be justified for the vast majority of taxpayers.

When the Labour government bailed out RBS on the grounds that it was too big to fail, the bank was dead in the water.

It should have been taken into the public sector on a permanent basis then.

Gordon Brown, who decreed New Labour’s “light-touch” regulation of the financial sector, did City parasites a favour by bailing them out as a temporary measure while the bank was detoxed before being returned to the private sector.

Osborne, whose sole criticism of New Labour’s light touch was that it should have been lighter still, shares New Labour’s ideological obsession that banks belong in the private sector.

Shadow chancellor Chris Leslie’s only gripe with Osborne’s decision is over timing.

Their shared private ownership obsession mirrors parliamentary front-bench adherence to the shibboleth of Bank of England independence from democratic accountability.

Independence bestows great power on Bank governors, which ought to have resulted in former incumbent Mervyn King calling time on the private banking system’s speculative activities before they sparked the 2008 financial crisis.

Yet King only acknowledged the inevitability of the crisis after the event and “with the benefit of hindsight.”

Bank governors are as likely as neoliberal politicians to be mesmerised by rocketing profits and orthodox economic formulas until the excrement collides with the air-conditioning.

That’s why no-one should be too impressed by current governor Mark Carney’s gung-ho backing for the Chancellor’s “phased return of RBS to private ownership” or his claim that this will foster “financial stability, a more competitive banking sector and the interest of the wider economy.”

Given that 60 per cent of the shares were taken up by hedge funds, the idea that this fire sale fosters financial stability rather than short-term speculation is fanciful.

The selfish priorities of the City and the political elite beholden to it are alien to the rest of society.

Since RBS was given the kiss of life by taxpayers, half of the bank’s staff have lost their jobs, paying the price of a financial crisis they did nothing to create.

Those who benefited most from rabid speculation, mis-selling of PPI insurance, the US subprime mortgages scandal, Libor rate-fixing and who knows what other excesses that boosted profits, bonuses and dividends have escaped scot-free while the poor bloody infantry trudge to the jobcentre.

Private banks continue to pay what appear to be eye-watering fines for their criminal activities, but they amount to no more than a licence to continue fleecing the public.

Osborne’s response is precisely what might be expected from his ilk — handing over public assets to his City mates no matter the cost to the mugs too poor to dodge taxation.

He’s already revealed his aim of running down the public sector by disposing of £32bn of assets this year alone to reduce the government deficit.

This is par for the course, but why is there so little trenchant opposition criticism of his action?

Why is there no call for RBS transformation into a publicly owned people’s bank providing no-risk financial services rather than be returned to the same casino that bankrupted it in the first place?