By Mandy Thomson

Heptathlon gold winner Jessica Ennis arrived at Buckingham Palace this morning to be honoured by the Queen with a CBE.

The 27-year-old arrived with her fiancé Andy Hill to receive the accolade and was among the many athletes at the palace who were receiving royal accolades.

A flourish of team GB athletes have been honoured with MBEs after their memorable performances in the 2012 Olympic games.

Long jump gold champion Greg Rutherford and boxing victor Nicola Adams arrived at the palace very excited about their awards and spoke of how doing well at the Olympics was a dream come true.

Rutherford, 26, who landed gold in the long jump, spoke of his excitement at being awarded the MBE.

He said: “I am very excited and very nervous as well. It’s not every day you get to do something like this and meet the Queen. The heart’s racing a bit.

“You dream of doing well at an Olympics, especially a home Olympics, and then the things that come along after that are just absolutely out of this world.It really is just extraordinary.”

Adams said she was ‘very excited’ as she arrived at the palace, looking stylish in a black Phillip Lim Jacket and Kurt Geiger shoes. She said: “I am over the moon and can’t believe I’m receiving this today.”

Also receiving awards for their performance at London 2012 are double 2012 cycling champion Jason Kenny, who will receive his OBE with team-mate and team pursuit gold medallist Joanna Rowsell, 24, who is being awarded an MBE.

British Cycling performance director and principal of Team Sky, David Brailsford, will receive his knighthood for his performance of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

By Mandy Thomson

RBS have revealed a bonus pot of £607m despite their overall performance resulting in a £5.2bn pre-tax loss. The publicly owned company faces criticism after their loss means they cannot repay taxpayers after the government bailed them out in 2008 – they now own 81%.

Their losses come from massive liabilities, which wiped out the £3.46bn operational profit that the bank made this year, which is almost double their profit last year of £1.82bn, and their highest yet since their downfall in 2008.

A £390bn settlement for Libor rate fixing, which happened earlier this year, and a £450m charge in the last quarter to cover mis-selling PPI in previous years have left them in a worse position than last year’s loss of £1.2bn.

Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of the part public-owned bank described the bonus situation as ‘toxic for everybody’ when asked why RBS can afford to pay bonuses to its staff but not pay anything towards what the public spent in bailing it out.

He said: “The bonus rates have been falling very substantially. Our bonuses now in our markets business, where all the big bonuses are, are 25%, a quarter of what they were four or five years ago.”

Fraser Thomson, Managing Director of financial services firm Professional Partners, said: “RBS is making an operational profit and is doing all it can to reduce balance sheet debt. However it remains burdened by liabilities from previous activities and we can only hope that if they have a period of no further liabilities the bank will improve its position and increase shareholder value. The bank must of course make more inroads to their activities and ensure that they reduce risk to the business but there is strong evidence they are doing this.

Alistair Grant, Chartered Accountant for Wylie and Bisset, Glasgow, said: “We believe that RBS will turn the corner and see no issues with the bank continuing to be viable. They performed better than they did last year, and without their liabilities they would have been in a good position.”

Sir Philip said bonus levels were “tough to swallow” for the public, but that levels are falling ‘slowly but surely’.

He said RBS was trying to rebuild customer service and confidence, but that it couldn’t be done overnight.

*Libor means the standard rate of interest for loans between financial institutions

RBS have made a pre-tax loss of £5.2bn in 2012, and have caused public controversy by still spending £607m on staff bonuses. Despite making a trading profit of £3.5m, liabilities set aside to cover PPI mis-selling, the mis-selling of interest rates and it’s Libor fine have left the company drained. 

Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of the part public-owned bank described the bonus situation as ‘toxic for everybody’ when asked why RBS can afford to pay bonuses to its staff but not what the public spent in bailing it out.

Paraolympic star Oscar Pistorius has been arrested over the shooting of his 30-year-old girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp at his home in Pretoria at 3 am this morning.

Police were called shortly after the incident, and the gold medalist is expected to appear in court later today.

The model’s heartbreaking death comes just 15 hours after she tweeted: “What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow??? #getexcited #ValentinesDay“.