THERE is a saying: "Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank but give a man a bank and he can rob everybody." Harsh? Yes, but in the wake of the financial crisis it's easy to see how banker bashing became commonplace.

It will take more than pledges to be more customer focussed for high street lenders to win back our trust.

Chancellor George Osborne is a more forgiving chap and is ready to hand £140bn to UK banks on the proviso they loan it to small firms.

Banks' recent history in this area is far from impressive.

North-East entrepreneur Mike Carter who runs training company Tyncan Learning told me that he was recently offered a £20,000 loan to grow his business at a rate of 19.5 per cent interest.

"I could be sitting on my backside claiming benefit," he said. "But instead I'm trying to create wealth and employment. Sadly the banks are so risk averse they ramp up the rates so they can't lose."

His experience is backed by alarming figures from the North-East Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), that said 40 per cent of its members applying for credit are rejected. Coupled with that is the fact that, of the 2,000 firms that took their banks' decision not to lend to the independent appeals adjudicator, four in ten were successful at getting the decision reversed.

Getting credit to small firms isn't going to be solved by flooding the market with cash - what's needed is a change of mindset. Or more small business loan funds such as the one proposed by Tees Valley Unlimited that last week bid fir cash from the government's enterprise fund.

In the meantime the banks are spending a fortune on glossy TV adverts to help soften their image. Who could fail to be moved by the one running at the moment that shows a concerned dad using his internet bank account to help his stranded daughter after she loses her cash abroad? Thanks the bail out she can carry on her merry way. Much like the banks themselves.

The first shipment of steel made at SSI's Redcar works arrived in Thailand at the weekend. Workers thronged Prachuap docks to welcome the 48,000 tonnes cargo that was valued at £18.5m when it left Teesport, but thanks to plummeting global steel prices was worth about 5% less at the end of the 33-day voyage.

Nevertheless it's another milestone in the revival of Teesside iron and steelmaking and a reminder that the sun never sets on the North-East's trading partners.

This region exports more as a proportion of its economy than anywhere else in the UK.

To keep track of North-East firms around the globe I scan websites such as The Bangkok Post for snippets of news. Some of the writers on these sites use a very flowery and formal version of English.

An article in The Times of India this week was a case in point. An interview with the managing director of Tata Steel noted that he was speaking to journalists shortly after "felicitating" three mountaineers who conquered Mt Everest in May. Hats off to the Indians who clearly know how to show appreciation for returning heroes - over here we'd have probably given them a pat on the back. I hope he warmed his hands first.

Last week I asked for help to decode a baffling press release that talked about: "The ability to be able to drill first wheats into post-vining pea ground...." What on earth did it all mean? One correspondent reckoned it meant that the sender needed to find a good PR agency - good shout Tony and if you know one please be sure to give me their number.

I should have unsubscribed to the original emailer because another bizarre farming industry story dropped into the echobusiness@nne.co.uk inbox this week. It read: "Fungicides such as azoxystrobin, metconazole, boscalid + pyraclostrobin (Signum), chlorothalonil + cyproconazole (Alto Elite) or chlorothalonil + pyrimethanil (Walabi) will give useful control of leaf and pod spot and Botrytis in the crop and can give yield increases when applied during flowering and pod set."

Help.