Is a big UK bank scandal about to break? A good many folk are still waiting for the cloud under which Stephen Hester was ousted from his CEO role at RBS to to blow away and shed some light on what really happened. But a number of things are suggesting something much bigger might be afoot.

The Deputy Bank of England Governor Paul Tucker – he who allegedly told Barclays to lie about the Libor – resigned in something of a hurry last Friday. He wasn’t expected to. And the RBS Chairman Sir Win Bischoff is also backing away from events at the ‘troubled’ bank, dropping broad hints that he “won’t be around much longer”.

The Slog wonders how much all this might have to do with George Osborne and Vince Cable getting their heads together about Hester’s jiggery-pokery in relation to frauds committed by RBS against SMEs – as reported here ad nauseam. Much as I’d like to mark up Hester’s abrupt departure as another victory for The Slog, word reaches me that Cable tipped wee Georgie the wink that at least one well-organised SME support group might be about to drop a bomb of immense tonnage upon RBS in general – and the senior management in particular. The ‘unofficial official’ reason being put out for the RBS CEO going on extended permanent holiday knitting leave is that Osborne wanted more lending, and Hester didn’t. The real problem, however, seems to be one of a politician keen to distance himself from a mess in which both the Bank of England and the Treasury knew perfectly well what was going on. Stay tuned – this could get interesting.

Italian chaos is teeing up another euro-crisis. Italy’s “grand coalition” government, led by Enrico Letta, is about to raise the level of VAT. If you’re trying to stoke a recovery, that’s about No. 2,809 on the Hot Hundred list of things to do during an economic downturn. But the VAT is going up because Silvio Bungasconi’s negotiating card on joining the coalition was the lowering of property taxes….something the rich are more likely to want.

So the VAT will pay for a rich person’s tax by driving the economy even further into reverse. Italian coalitions tend to go like this after a while. Now that finance minister Fabrizio Saccomanni and other ministers are pointing out the farcical nature of what he’s been forced to do, the finger of blame is pointing straight at Silvio.

The big, big problem with the VAT millstone, however, is that it will very probably lead to Italy missing all its deficit targets…sending bonds spiking again – and the Sprouts into headless chicken mode.

Plebgate gets back on its bike. The Plods that refused to be called Plebs have just arrested two more people involved in what does look more and more like a set-up of former Minister, the profoundly unlovely Andrew Mitchell. One is a special duties uniform cop (aka working at the scene of the crime on the acrimonious day itself) and the other a civilian female.

I have only one source left on this, and she still insists there’s a lot more to come out. For myself, I suspect the public’s forgotten the whole episode. We shall see. As time’s gone on, my suspicions increasingly surround (1) the speed with with the Johnson Hunt axis moved into the fray and (2) the odd behaviour of Mitchell on the day, who returned on his bike several times to the scene – for no apparent reason. But to be honest, I’ve no idea what it all means. The thing that really puzzles me is how Newscorp got clean away. But then, nothing new there, eh?

Last night at The Slog: Nature’s many facets are brutally fascinating