There will be 1,700 redundancies at Aviva, formerly Norwich Union. The job losses concern both full-timers and contract or, virtually employed workers. This second group make up an increasing percentage of the UK workforce. To all extents and purposes, they work as full-timers but they have fewer employment rights and are liable for their own business expenses.

These cutbacks are being undertaken to save shareholder value in the business and are a direct result of the effects of the abusive risk-taking (thank you Mr Obama) undertaken by many large financial institutions over the past 20 years.

The scale of these losses at the regional offices of Aviva can hobble local economies for years. If you would like an example, here’s some anecdotal evidence about what happened to the town of Hatfield in Hertfordshire after British Aerospace shut its factory there in the 1990s.