In Britain the state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, pictured above) is planning to pay annual bonuses of up to £5 million to each of some of its senior executives in an incredible snub to struggling taxpayers. The average employee in its high-risk investment banking arm is likely to take home £240,000, with the top 20 staff in line for payments of between £1 million and £5 million. The payouts by the investment banking division — from a total pay and bonus pot of £4 billion — would top the deals awarded at the peak of the financial boom in 2007 and are 66% higher than those paid last year. RBS, then headed by the now disgraced Sir Fred (the Shred) Goodwin, had to be rescued from collapse by the Treasury last October with an initial injection of £20 billion. The taxpayer now has a 70% stake in the bank.
Any suggestion of bumper bonuses will put RBS on a collision course with UK Financial Investments (UKFI), which oversees taxpayers’ investments in banks. UKFI would have to approve the payments. RBS is expected to lobby hard to be allowed to make the payments, claiming that dozens of its top performing executives have been poached by rivals offering even bigger pay deals. Almost a third of the bank’s wealth management staff in Singapore walked out last week over fears they would receive lower than expected bonuses. Well the UKFI, if it speaks on behalf of the British taxpayer, should be absolutely clear on this issue. Unless and until ALL the money owed to the taxpayer is paid back by RBS, there should be no fat bonuses for ANY of its employees, who after all wouldn’t even be in a job with such obscene bonus opportunities if it wasn’t for us. Especially when prevailing market conditions over the last year have made the attainment of such bonuses easy, there being little or no competition and a commercial background conducive to facilitating the rip-off of customers. And if any of these greedy employees are insensitive, stupid and arrogant enough so as to dislike that arrangement, they can piss off.
In the UK the Royal Mail (above) is heading for a really nasty dispute with postal workers after announcing plans to recruit an unprecedentd 30,000 temporary staff in an attempt to crush the national strike that starts this week. In a move that stunned union leaders and raised tensions between management and workers to new levels, Royal Mail said it had ordered the biggest recruitment drive in its history “to help keep the mail moving during the strikes called by the Communication Workers Union (CWU)”. Sources inside the CWU, which has called national strikes for Thursday and Friday, questioned whether the move was legal and suggested that it could be challenged in the courts. It seems the obstinacy and stupidity on both sides of this dispute just keep growing and growing. And hiring 30,000 temporary staff will certainly guarantee one thing – the mail deliveries will be even more chaotic than they are already - if that’s possible.
Large numbers of Sikh, Hindu and other ethnic minority voters support the right-wing British National Party (BNP) when it comes to its hard-line anti-immigration stance, its pug-nosed leader Nick Griffin (pictured above) claimed yesterday. But he said the BNP’s purpose remained to stand up for “indigenous Brits” which did not include ethnic minorities, even those born here who had fought for their country in the armed forces. He also declared that “Islam and our society don’t mix” and said he wanted to swap “the very large number” of Al Qaeda-supporting British Muslims for former Gurkhas and their families. Well if Mr Griffin keeps talking bollocks like that this week – and the BBC get a couple of trendy-left breathless, self-righteous anti-fascists organised, eager to show off their inclusive credentials and ethnic victimhood – then Thursday’s “Question Time” might be quite good entertainment.
Yet another anti-Islamic march by Nick’s mates over the weekend – this time protestors gathered in Swansea city centre (pictured above) in a demo organised by the Welsh Defence League (WDL). And with dreary predictability, rival groups also converged on the scene. A heavy police presence and cordon kept the 2 groups apart. So once again, the taxpayer is having to foot the policing bill for keeping order when a few right-wing knuckle-draggers without a football match to go to are confronted by a few bussed-in Muslim rent-a-mob nutters. Why don’t the authorities just ban these marches AND the counter demos ? These tribal confrontations have nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with violent anarchy - on the part of BOTH sides.
Iran’s armed forces have accused Britain and America of being involved in yesterday’s suicide bomb attack on their elite Revolutionary Guards (pictured above) - and warned of revenge. A suicide bomber killed 6 senior commanders and 23 other people in one of the boldest attacks on Iran’s most powerful military institution. The headquarters of the armed forces blamed the bombing on ‘terrorists’ backed by ‘the Great Satan America and its ally Britain’. For Iran to blame anyone else for organising suicide bombings is rich indeed – and in any case, the attack, taking place as it did in the south-east of the country, is almost certainly all to do with drug trafficking rather than politics. So Tehran would do well to stop judging other countries by its own standards.
And yet more protests – this time from the climate change brigade. Hundreds of them clashed with police over the weekend as they tried to close down a power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, near Nottingham by breaking into the premises. Several eco-concerned groups were involved in what police described as “serious concerted disorder”, including the “Camp for Climate Action”, “Plane Stupid” and “Climate Rush”. The protestors were reportedly “outraged” that at least 10 of their number were arrrested as they were travelling TO the protest site – and it has to be said that such pre-emptive police action must have questionable legality. On the other hand, if you were a patient in an operating theatre when power was cut off because a few crazed green fascists had broken into your local power station, you’d be pretty upset too.
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Over last weekend, I read about the bonuses that some of these companies like AIG, RBS etc that were bailed out and I was fuming. One of the CEOs of a bank was even comparing his earnings to that of celebrities. He said that people can accept the huge paycheck of celebrities because they provide valuable entertainment. As for his work as a banker, it is hidden or low profile. And some people just cannot live with the fact that there are people like him who is earning this kind of paycheck.
As a small shareholder (as many other citizens are that have indirect ownership via their pension pot) I have long been frudtrated by the inability to influence the salaries and benefits awarded to employess of banks and large companies. It is outrageous that the boards of these companies “give awaya” shareholder assets in the form of free shares to their employees thus diluting the shareholders equity. Then there are the corporate actions with acquisitions, restructuring, selloffs and takeovers. These always appear to be mainly for the benefit of the executives in the form of shares and jobs rather than the shareholders and ordinary employees.
I believe in rewarding executives for building and maintaining profitability and growth of a business in a responsible manner for the benefit of investors employees the population and customers.
Arbitrary bonuses have no place in ethical business, especially as long term results are rarely attributable to individuals. The corollary is that arbitrary bonus payments should be subject to retrospective recovery so that at least some responsibility will be encouraged form those concerned.