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A bad day for Barclays

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Barclays’ AGM was a stormy affair. It started with protests about Barclays’ investment policies. For Barclays directors and shareholders, even getting into the Royal Festival Hall meant running the gauntlet of World Development Movement protestors, tax justice campaigners and other pressure groups, all with placards in Barclays’ corporate colours spelling out what they regard as Barclays’ misdemeanors. Colourful, and attractive to attendant journalists. Not the sort of publicity Barclays would have wanted on the day of its AGM.   This was bad enough. But once inside the hall, directors received a distinctly frosty reception from shareholders. And with reason: the bank is proposing to increase executive pay substantially while keeping dividends on the floor, even though its shareholders coughed up an additional £5.8bn not long ago to meet a capital shortfall. Sir David Walker, Barclays’ chairman, made a valiant attempt to defend the indefensible. He insisted it was due to c