Yesterday I spent a lot of time on the road and found myself listening to Radio 4's You & Yours programme, which topically enough was all about SME experiences with banks during the downturn.

You can listen again here.

Most of the contributors were, unsurprisingly, having an unhappy time of it. The most common problems cited being the sudden withdrawal of overdraft facilities, and the imposition of swingeing charges and punitive interest rates on loans. The issue of late payments and the differences between the approach here and in France also received an airing.

It seems that banks are at least being even handed in their ability to say "no" to pretty much everyone, whether it be a business experiencing a bad patch, or a firm that is actually thriving and in need of access to funds to help it grow.Vince Cable's comment on the bottom of this BBC story about the monstrous bad debts racked up by HBOS would appear to accurately sum the situation up.

During the course of the programme it also emerged that the government's Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme doesn't seem to be all it was cracked up to be either, with business owners who have managed to get a green light for such lending finding themselves stiffed with high fees here too.

I imagine these experiences are mirrored in this industry, because print is a sector that banks have earmarked as being automatically problematic. It puts me in mind of a favourite episode of The Simpsons, "Call of the Simpsons", when Homer attempts to buy an enormous Winnebago-type vehicle. The salesman runs a credit check and a red flashing light and siren immediately goes off. Homer: "Is that a good siren or a bad siren?". I have a picture in my mind's eye of similar scenarios at bank branches up and down the country.

Anyhow, an unnamed print boss did contact You & Yours yesterday, they'd been successful in securing a loan, hoorah, but wanted to take the government to task about corporation tax. Would love to know who that was.