Public evidence about the 1980s City supports Farage’s point: a House of Commons banking-standards submission says investment-banking transactions required "immense concentration of time and effort" and teams often worked "very long hours"; an Oxford academic history says the 1980s City was built around performance-related compensation and quick, short lines of management; and a contemporaneous TIME report described the market as increasingly round-the-clock and highly paid. That makes the claim that they were not earning a lot of money for doing nothing accurate. Sources: House of Commons Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards (Sir Alan Budd evidence); Oxford Academic / Oxford University Press chapter on the City’s 1980s transformation; TIME, "Bang-Up Time in London." (publications.parliament.uk)