Originally Posted by blue-sophist

I have no difficulty with the mahoosive salaries paid, because like it or not, this is a Global market. According to the Beeb this morning, there are 3 UK banks in the City out of 23. "Cut the pay and the guy walks 50 yards across the road to a new job."

Are they going to walk 50 yards to a new job? Given the speed at which the investment banking sector is shrinking and the large resulting job losses, it might be a bit more difficult. Maybe a star performer will get a new job, but Joe Average might find it a bit more difficult. It also looks as if 'ring fencing' investment banking from retail banking is going to reduce the scale of investment banking because it'll make it more difficult to finance - again reducing the pool of available jobs.

Me thinks those in investment banking might become more risk adverse in the future...

Wordsmith

Of course its a political sop to the masses.
Of course Fred Goodwin doesnt give a rats ass
Of course its not made a single penny's difference to RBS balance

But I did grin like a wanking jap when I heard he had lost his knighthood.

Originally Posted by TheIronDuke

Fuck off. Some of us did rather nicely out of Mr. Brown giving us two weeks notice he was about to drop Britain's entire gold reserves onto a free market. I call the Jaguar 'Gordon' as a tribute. It is a shite name for a car but I don't tell many people it is called Gordon.

I had hoped that the circumstances in which the words 'Gordon' and 'Jaguar' were in close proximity on a page would also involve the words, 'Amazon', 'visit', 'lost', and, my favourite, 'mauled'.

I couldn't give a shit about a title and as far as this little episode goes, frankly, who cares! I'd have been more impressed if they had said he shouldn't get the enhanced pension deal he got. I think there are other notables who have not lost their titles and who certainly should have if this was normal practice. This doesn't in any way make up for anything other than for the masses to think that he's somehow been severely punished for what happened. It's just populist tokenism and an inconsistant action by the authorities which let's his mates such as Jackie tell us all he's being picked on.

He can still afford to stop in the very best hotels, drink the best cognac and smoke expensive cuban cigars when him and Jackie Stewart sit down in front of a roaring fire after some succulent best Aberdeen Angus. This is a load of nonsense and people in government and whoever else has still got a bee in their bonnet about Goodwin need to get over it and get on with sorting out the mess. Goodwins epitaph is always going to be that he's the guy who screwed up massively and he's got to live with that. It's not an easy lable for someone who's reached the corporate heights that he has. What else do both his peers and anybody else need to know?

The subtext to this is:

We have a populist government who have found an easy target in FG.
They have no intention of this setting precedent and having a cull of other less-than-meritorious people, until the papers bay for it.
Our honours system is screwed anyway, for some CS they with the job, as do they for drones on the Royal Household. Or you can buy them with party donations.
Stripping him of his Knighthood keeps the trickier questions at bay such as:
Who else should be in the firing line? Chances are the papers will bore of this and so the answer is 'no one.'
If we had the courage of our convictions with FG, wouldn't we prosecute?
We own RBS, so what's going to change in terms of governance to prevent a repeat? Nothing - just one bad egg who we've stripped of his Akela badge? Oh, ok.

It stank. They stripped him of a knighthood. It still stinks.

I don't care if he has lost it but I bet Mrs Fred is giving him a hard time.... I hope

Never mind, when his mate Mister Blair comes in out of the cold perhaps he will be able to fit Mister Shred up with something else?

(And to think, we used to offer at least peerages to ex-prime ministers )

!

If I was Fred, I'd call a press conference and invite the world's media. Just before I spoke, I'd light my cigar with a burning £50 note.

Like he really gives a shit? They know that they can't touch him financially and all this recent bollox is just to hide that fact from the likes of you and me. Only the very gullible will believe that something effective has actually been done here.

Originally Posted by Victorian_Major

The subtext to this is:

We have a populist government who have found an easy target in FG.
They have no intention of this setting precedent and having a cull of other less-than-meritorious people, until the papers bay for it.
Our honours system is screwed anyway, for some CS they with the job, as do they for drones on the Royal Household. Or you can buy them with party donations.
Stripping him of his Knighthood keeps the trickier questions at bay such as:
Who else should be in the firing line? Chances are the papers will bore of this and so the answer is 'no one.'
If we had the courage of our convictions with FG, wouldn't we prosecute?
We own RBS, so what's going to change in terms of governance to prevent a repeat? Nothing - just one bad egg who we've stripped of his Akela badge? Oh, ok.

It stank. They stripped him of a knighthood. It still stinks.

Indeed.
The FSA report into RBS had very little direct criticism of Mr G.
Lord Turner (FSA Chairman) even stated that there was no basis for disciplinary action or enforcement.
So from a professional and legal perspective is not guilty of anything as an individual, unlike many other title holders........

Originally Posted by AIR FILTER

All rather a bit sudden this dramatic news don't you think?

The normal protocol for knighthood striping is a criminal conviction, i also note that there were other knights on the payroll of RBS at the same time as Fred such as the chairman for example, however, Fred was unlucky to have acquired a household name status for all the wrong reasons.

I think that Fred has been dicked by the establishment with the short straw for "Fall Guy" in a effort to please and calm down the masses who are disgruntled about the stinking rich in Britain today.

This stinks of spin and political bullshit.
The establishment will have to go a great deal further than this cheap stunt to please the British public regarding run away pay packets.

couldnt agree more, i dont really object to it being taken from him if there was precident of this kind of thing happening but the fact that it is so clearly politically motivated pisses me off.

with the opposition, unions, large groups of the general public and even the current chairman of RBS calling for the disparity in pay for the poorest and the wealthiest to be addressed it probably seemed easier to just strip an honourary title off Fred and call it progress.

Originally Posted by geezer466

Think of it this way.... CMD would probably love to stitch Tony Blair up to the point where he could be dragged before the Hague. He never will and neither will any who follow him because they know at some point they will be out of power and by the setting the precedent could be prosecuted themselves.

Only one reason the Sainted Tony is not sitting comfortably in the Lords that is because he has not yet asked for the honour. He cannot take a seat in the Lords because to do so would open up his financial affairs to official scrutiny.

All politicians reward their predecessors because in time they expect the same to be done to them. Look at how many failures go on to high appointments at the gift of those who fiercely opposed everything they supposedly stood for. The opportunities are endless - EU Presidencies, European Commissioners, IMF appointments, International Courts, Embassies and HCs, the BBC, QANGOs, et al.

I can think of many who deserve stripping of honours more than the ex-Sir Fred!