Inconsistencies & Questions

As of 1st April 2009 the total annual remuneration of the Prime Minister was £197,689. The boss of RBS gets an annual salary of £1.2 million just for turning up to work and millions more if he does anything useful. Way down the pecking order from the boss, annual financial sector bonuses exceed the Prime Ministers salary. Whatever ones view of Gordon Brown there is surely something wrong here. Why does Gordon (or anyone else) want the job? Could it be that power is more important than money? I wonder if we capped ALL financial sector remuneration at £200000 p.a. how many would actually quit?

Barons & peasants yet again

Two stories in today's [8th August] Financial Times. On the front page, Stephen Hester of RBS bewailing the continued criticism of the bank(s) saying that the numbers of top performing staff leaving had doubled in the first six months of 2009 after the bank agreed with the government to place restrictions on future bonus payments. The fact that all Mr Hester has to do is to get the banks share price to 70p in three years to earn himself £9.6million, does, I'm sure, not influence his view of the role of the bank for the public good. I had no sooner finished mopping up my tears of sympathy when lo, on the back page of the FT Money supplement, we find that the banks are refusing financial support to SMEs forcing some sound and valuable businesses to go bust in the process. The global financial industry had to be kept afloat (sadly) but we should have allowed Northern Rock & RBS to go bust just to make the point to the others & deny Goodwin & Applegarth their grotesque rewards for failure. It has to be probable that depositors funds could have been protected for the same kind of money that has in any case been pumped into these two banks.

Sick joke=British justice

John Kiely was today jailed for 5yrs. It should have been 20yrs & he should have been stripped of everything he owned. This man terrorised hundreds of poor people who had borrowed trivial sums from him on which he charged outrageous interest. It was reported that he had made profits of £2.9m from 2003 until his arrest. Only last year he was given a Licence to trade in financial matters. So much for regulation & justice. Meanwhile 1400 female shoplifters, of whom 80% will re-offend within two years of release, are clogging up the prisons at a cost of some £35000 p.a. each. Is this really financially smart,let alone justice?