NEVER have so many had the right to be so angry with so few.
That, in cod Churchillian terms, is what new Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Sir Philip Hampton, is saying today.
In what is a long, detailed and honest statement (it had to be, of course) ahead of today's AGM, Hampton pins a large part of the blame for the once mighty bank's woes firmly on the few, not the many.
He says that "only a tiny minority" of staff at RBS "were in any way responsible for the major credit market losses" suffered in 2008.
It is, Hampton maintains, "remarkable" that only a few hundred people in London, Amsterdam and New York were to blame (not his word) for a substantial part of the massive losses, a record £24 billion last year.
He adds, none too subtly, that most of them have now left the group.
Hampton then states that his next observation should also be striking for those who are as yet unaware of it.
It is that RBS would have made an operating profit before tax and goodwill impairments in 2008 were it not for the purchase of ABN Amro.
To avoid doubt that Hampton is firmly blaming the previous regime at RBS - chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin and then chairman Sir Tom McKillop - it is worth quoting this passage in full.
Hampton says: "I don't think there can be any doubt that the key decision that led RBS to its difficulties was the acquisition of ABN AMRO. That is the painful reality that we can now do nothing to change.
"With the benefit of hindsight it can now be seen as the wrong price, the wrong way to pay, at the wrong time and the wrong deal."
Although he and new chief executive Stephen Hester have made reference to ABN as being a bad deal before, this is the strongest condemnation of it we have ever heard from RBS.
The chairman says that they were unable to completely unpick the ABN and RBS results but his conclusion is based on an "estimation" of the position, even after including the impact of credit market write-downs.
Now, one might think that it is all rather convenient for Hampton to say these things on a day when they are about to be quizzed by angry shareholders.
Nevertheless, the statement had to be made to clear the decks for their three to five year programme to rebuild the shattered institution.
And they also raise further questions about the corporate governance and risk management at RBS in the McKillop and Goodwin years.
Did the previous chief executive and chairman know about the "few hundred people" and what they were up to.
And if ABN, as we now know, was such a disaster why did they and their supposedly high powered board press ahead with the deal?
Hampton and Hester cannot, of course, answer these questions. For them the task ahead is to try to salvage a bank from the wreckage.
By the time both have finished speaking today, we may have a better idea of how they plan to do that.
Read Peter MacMahon's other blogs at the Scotsman's Business Club site