Bamboozled by instant headlines

By Tim Reid
BBC Scotland Westminster reporter

There has been a good deal of confusion and misunderstanding over the number of job losses expected at the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Mobile devices have led to far wider access to breaking news

Some chaos was caused when, in evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee, RBS deputy chief executive Gordon Pell gave a figure of 2,700, as opposed to the 2,300 previously announced by the bank.

RBS has now clarified the situation, explaining that the extra job losses had been announced internally.

But some of the confusion was caused by new technology and the ability of MPs to know what is in the up-to-the minute headlines even as they sit in a committee room taking evidence.

When Mr Pell told MPs the figure of 2,700, it duly appeared on the BBC website.

A few moments later, the SNP member Pete Wishart quizzed Mr Pell on that headline, suggesting the bank had - when it hadn't - announced the new figure publicly even as the committee was taking place.

Mr Pell himself was taken by surprise, thinking for a moment, before an aide thrust a piece of paper into his hand, that RBS had made an announcement about which he wasn't aware.

He even threatened to "barbeque" someone back at headquarters when he got back.

In the end the committee realised that it was their questioning which had made the headlines... but even the RBS press officer was taken by surprise by Mr Pell's figure of 2,700 job losses and the 260 jobs he said would be axed in Scotland.

Afterwards, leaving parliament, Mr Pell refused himself to clarify the confusion over the figures, saying it was a "misunderstanding."

Lessons to be learned, perhaps, for the committee and for RBS.