Under normal circumstances, if a company expands recklessly, faces collapse and needs an emergency rescue, the very least you can do, on showing the executives responsible the door, is to clean out those non-executives who failed in their job of restraining such over-enthusiasm.

Yet I am told there is no intention to dispose of the 14 - count them - 14 non-executives at Royal Bank of Scotland immediately, most of whom sat back while Sir Fred “The Shred” Goodwin galloped madly over the precipice with last summer's purchase of ABN Amro.

Sir Tom McKillop, the chairman, they can't get rid of because they can't find a replacement. All the other 14 are staying, for now. A couple will retire shortly and another three must leave under corporate governance rules by 2012. Three more, to be fair, arrived at the start of the month, including Stephen Hester, who replaces Fred The Discred.

Let's look at the others. Sir Steve Robson is one of the brightest men to have served as a Treasury civil servant. Peter Sutherland is the heavyweight chairman of BP and Goldman Sachs International. Did neither have anything to say?

As to the others ... oh dear. Various worthies with impeccable Scottish connections, naturally, an American who has been there since 1993 (he's retiring), a woman from something called Forum for the Future and from VisitBritain, the old British Tourist Authority.

RBS says stability is important. A bit late, you might think. The least we can hope is that one or two of them choose to donate their fees to an appropriate cause.

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