BUDEHAVEN pupil Joe Munday returns with his weekly column — and looks at the bonuses being paid to bank employees.

Am I the only person on the planet who doesn't understand how banks, who have lost their shareholders and savers millions of pounds and some have even been 'bailed out' by the government, can afford to pay huge bonuses to their top employees?

Where does the money for these bonuses come from? Have the banks got a giant ceramic piggy bank somewhere out the back where they've been saving their coppers for the last 20 years? If they have the money for the bonuses then why did they need government money to continue to stay open?

Ok, I'll admit I'm not a maths genius, in fact, I'll be lucky to pass my Maths GCSE this summer, but I'm not stupid either and I just don't get it. First of all I thought a bonus was for doing a job well? How have these 'bankers' done their jobs well when one of those banks received a 20 billion pound handout from the government and others made huge losses last year?

One of those same banks now plans to give one billion of that government handout to its 'high flying' employees in order to keep them. Why? Let them go to a rival bank and lose them money instead and anyway that's tax payers money and not theirs to give away if you ask me.

This ridiculous situation is made all the more pertinent when unemployment is rising and ordinary people are struggling to pay their food and heating bills. Just remember, John Paul Getty once said: "If you owe the bank £100 it's your problem. If you owe £100 million, it's the bank's problem."

I'll tell you what though, I'm gonna try and get that Maths GCSE, because if I do I think I might head straight for a job in banking, preferably a bank prepared to give me a big fat bonus even if I'm rubbish at actually doing my job. Maybe this will spur on loads of other kids struggling with maths like me to do the same. Work hard in your maths lessons; you never know it may pay off one day!