As the new chief executive of Barclays, it was inevitable that Bob Diamond would attract considerable attention at the first annual shareholder meeting since he took the helm in January, but even he must have wondered at the number of questions that were about himself, bonuses or both.

Diamond and Marcus Agius, Barclays' longer-serving chairman who oversaw today's proceedings at London's Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, steered a largely smooth course through sometimes choppy waters as they negotiated bouts of shareholder disgruntlement.