Save Godfrey Palmer, impressionist of Howard from the Halifax

Spare a thought for poor Godfrey Palmer, lookalike of recently redundised Howard from the Halifax ads, whose fortunes may well have taken another bashing with the purchase of Halifax Bank Of Scotland by Lloyds TSB – a process that will likely subsume the brand of the former into the latter. Spare a thought too for the removal of a lucrative showbiz academy for average Halifax staff up and down the country, not to mention the loss of many of their jobs. The real kicker is that standard rules of competition had to be set aside for this ‘merger’ to happen. So, the US gets two new deposit banks – Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, transformed from investment status – and we lose one. Hardly fair, especially for poor Godfrey. Perhaps he should head Stateside?