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If you weren't able to catch today's show, you missed a rare sight. Someone saying - "leave bankers alone".

Lord Jones - better known as Digby Jones - was our guest of the day.

As you'll know, as a former head of the CBI and as a former minister, he's rarely short of things to say.

And today he was particularly fired up on behalf of that much-unloved species, bankers.

Now - he has an interest to declare in this area. He's a paid adviser to both Barclays and HSBC, big international banks who are also major players in the City.

Like many other banks, they lost heavily in exotic financial trading or investing in mortgage debt (though - notably - they didn't turn to the British taxpayer for a bail out when it all went wrong; they got their financial support elsewhere, from their own shareholders or foreign investors.)

While he's their paid adviser, Digby doesn't exactly strike you as a toadying mouthpiece for the banks.

He's been quick to criticise them for not lending more to small businesses.

He fears more small business will go bust, even as we pull out of recession, because the banks are too tight with their credit. While he says he understands their need to stash more cash to cover potential future crises, he says he's "extremely disappointed" by their treatment of British business.

He's also highly critical of the massive bonuses that were paid to top bankers and traders in the City's bonanza days - a point he repeated on our programme today.

And he has long-called for a re-adjustment in the British economy, to become less reliant on financial services and the City, and to invest more in British manufacturing.

His frequent tours of factories and workshops across the UK have made him a passionate tub-thumper for industry. It's one of the reasons he accepted the job of trade minister - the chance to sell and promote British craft and excellence in all corners of the globe.

But, but, but ...

His time as minister also reinforced his belief that banking, insurance and financial services remain crucial industries for Britain. They're home-grown businesses that draw in customers and investment from around the world.

He says we need a healthy financial industry to create jobs for the future - and to generate the taxes we'll need to repay our enormous national debts.

So he's quite cross about some comments from the City's top watchdog.

His fellow peer (and predecessor as CBI director) Adair Turner suggested recently that some of the things banks do are not socially useful.

Lord Jones thinks that's bang out of order.

He warns an attack on the banks from someone so significant as Lord Turner could harm investment in Britain and damage the reputation of British industry abroad.

As he told us about bankers - "It's not the time to smack them, it's the time to get behind them"

The full edition of today's Working Lunch - and earlier programmes over the past week - are available to watch online on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ iPlayer or on watch-again services like BT Vision.

And - as always - your comments are more than welcome.

PS. We're sorry we're being shunted around the schedules so much, but that's our public service duty to cover the party conferences for you.