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Just when you're supposed to be out spending and helping to refloat the economy, it seems the Great British are discovering the virtues of saving instead.

According to a survey commissioned by Standard Life and carried out in October, the proportion of people who say they are actively saving or investing for their future rose over the previous six months by 10 points to 58%.

Those saving regularly are up to 43%, rising by 9 points in a quarter, while another 29% save whenever they have spare cash. Those figures don't add up, of course, but whoever said the Great British public had to make any sense when confronted with an online pollster?

The catch is that people are finding it harder to save, even if they want to. In January this year, 23% of people in the 1500-strong sample of the British population said they save less than they were saving a year before, but that rose to 37% by October.

The background to the savings figures is the grim public view of what the survey measures as "consumer sentiment towards various saving and investment categories". Across a basket of measures, that has entered negative territory for the first time since the Standard Life Savings and Investment Index began in July 2005. It peaked two years ago, when positives outweighed negatives by 23 points.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is trying to turn some big negatives into something at least slightly more positive, with its promise to lay off mortgage defaulters for at least six months.

With that comes an interesting article by new chief executive Stephen Hester in the Financial Times today. He's complaining about attacks on banks being "an easy way to a populist headline". And while he admits the banks have brought those attacks on themselves, and should admit to their mistakes, this is an unusual plea for the rest of us to be more understanding of banks.

The economy needs healthy banks, says Mr Hester. Yes, there will be human errors in the future too, both when RBS says "yes" to people as much as when it says "no". But the increases in customers' borrowing costs are because of the steep increases in the bank's own borrowing costs. And, he argues, there is a need to balance the needs of creditors with the requirements of savers.

Perhaps the most imaginative reckoning for the £20bn of taxpayers' capital injection that keeps his business in tact is that RBS has paid £15bn in taxes over the past 10 years. It seems a mega-bailout is the least it can expect in return.