Tuesday 10 February 2009

Bankers, the lowest of the low

The current furore about bonuses for bankers continues to fascinate me. I have always been a believer in having some of one's remuneration linked to one's performance and to the performance of the enterprise. However the apparent attitude of some bankers beggars belief. Surely it must be clear to them that a significant proportion of the British public hold them responsible for the current economic mess. Thus for RBS to deploy one sixth of the money pumped in by the taxpayer to pay bonuses is (in my opinion at least) completely unacceptable. Our lily-livered government must act to stop it. Now. And if a few bankers decide to quit as a result, them that is probably an unexpected benefit. Branch Managers and staff who face us real customers must still be eligible for their performance related rewards, but the traders and merchant bankers who seem to be rewarded for conducting transactions whether good or bad, must be told to go and spend more time with their families. It would do them good. These people really do desreve the appalling press they are getting and it is to be hoped that a few are hung out to dry without large payoffs and generous pensions.

Let us hope that those elcted representatives on the Treasury Select Committee who get the chance to question the senior bank exectutives today give them a really, really hard time and make the views of the rest of us very plain.

In other news, the weather remains vile. It is cold and there is a biting wind.

As a result of not being able to get out much, I have completed the Probate applications form and will be submitting this to the local probate registry today. Now all I have to sort out are the IHT forms for the inheritance tax calculation.

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