A readers poll carried out by the Daily Mail to identify the countries 'most loathsome individuals' has placed bankers at the top of the list, above both pedophiles and serial killers.

	Parenting associations across the UK have joined forces in a coordinated attempt to "keep this loathsome individual out of our country". Gary Glitter (right) has also received criticism following his release from a Vietnam prison.

In a survey designed with the sole purpose of allowing the newspaper's rabid readership to vent its collective spleen, readers were invited to rank pedophiles, bankers, readers of The Guardian and serial killers in the order they found most offensive.

Bankers topped the list, narrowly followed by Guardian readers, then pedophiles, with serial killers deemed the least offensive.

When asked to comment on the results, Mail editor Paul Dacre suggested that "although pedophiles provoke the most extreme cases of individual disgust, what Daily Mail readers realise is that bankers' crimes effected the whole country, not just a few hundred individuals."

Adam Francis, Chairman of the British Bankers Association, played down the significance of the poll. "As the credit crunch bites, I think the general public will realise that bankers, and all workers in the wider financial sector, are nothing more than convenient scapegoats in what is a media-driven witch-hunt."

Mr. Francis continued by challenging "the vilification of the banking industry" and cited the popularity of Howard Brown, "the loveable, singing Brummie and star of the hugely successful Halifax adverts'' before he was set upon by members of the assembled press and pummeled into a bloody pulp.

Gary Glitter, the UK's most high profile sexual pervert, is currently working on a new album. Meanwhile Barry Glitter, until recently the UK's only Gary Glitter tribute act, has finally been forced to hang up his glitter jumpsuits and silver platform boots. Barry - real name Sid Troutbotherer - has called time on his act following a decade of "dwindling ticket sales and the occasional audience-induced hospitalisation".