I understand why people feel puzzled when someone receives a huge bonus for doing their job, but really it's just a 'payments by results' or 'productivity' scheme.
Which bankers are getting the bonuses that you are referring to, redvanman? What if they are contractually entitled to them, and have made the business much more profitable (or less unprofitable) than it would have been.
Have you allowed for the fact that 45% of the payment (plus 2% NI, I think) will be going to the public purse (the taxpayer) as tax.
Not all banks got any tax payers' money.
And the bail out was in the form of the government buying shares in banks. The government could sell these at some stage