Breaking news on BBC - Fred Goodwin refuses reduced pension

Masomnia

matthewcb wrote: »

I have heard first hand stories of his arrogance and generally unpleasant personality. He may be a millionaire, but that doesn't mean he has any class. A few less of this sort of person will not make the UK a worse place imho. Having money does not make him a wonderful asset!

And I suppose those threatening his children are much better?

This is the danger of creating scapegoats of people.

lostinrates

matthewcb wrote: »

. Having money does not make him a wonderful asset!

But spending that money here would have made him a decent one, at the very least to his local economy!

GeorgeHowell

Masomnia wrote: »

And I suppose those threatening his children are much better?

This is the danger of creating scapegoats of people.

There are always those who go over the top in these sort of situations -- like those morons who physically threaten football managers when their team does badly. They are undesirable idiots who are a darn site worse then their intended victims.

However the behaviour of the lunatic fringe does not detract from the criticism due to reprehensible individuals like Goodwin. To say that we would be better off with him staying in the UK because he would spend his money here rather than abroad represents the same sort of cras, materialistic, unprincipled approach to life that has got us into this deep mire in the first place. I would love to see him disappear abroad never to be heard of again.

I would also like to see those members of the RBS board and senior management who are still in situ called out to publicly explain why they engineered this obscenely generous package for Goodwin in the first place, regardless of whether or not HMG actually knew about the full implications.

And for once I agree with Harriet Harperson --let's do whatever it takes to ensure that Goodwin and his ilk get the minimum possible reward for failure. If that takes an Act of Parliament, then so be it.

matthewcb

Masomnia wrote: »

And I suppose those threatening his children are much better?

This is the danger of creating scapegoats of people.

Go back and read my post again before you make such silly posts.

I wasn't advocating threatening his children, I was pointing out that there are other children affected by this. The ones you've never heard of.

Masomnia

matthewcb wrote: »

Go back and read my post again before you make such silly posts.

I wasn't advocating threatening his children, I was pointing out that there are other children affected by this. The ones you've never heard of.

I'm not saying that you did advocate harming his children. I'm saying that the notion that he's any worse than the majority of people is silly. Of course he has no class, no sense of morality, no conscience in all probability, but anyone who threatens his children is worse in my view. Why single him out? Why aren't we posting in this thread about the state of a society where people are threatening innocent children?

matthewcb

Masomnia wrote: »

I'm not saying that you did advocate harming his children. I'm saying that the notion that he's any worse than the majority of people is silly. Of course he has no class, no sense of morality, no conscience in all probability, but anyone who threatens his children is worse in my view. Why single him out? Why aren't we posting in this thread about the state of a society where people are threatening innocent children?

He certainly is worse than the majority of people. Have we really set the bar so low that we expect most people would behave as despicably as him?

And frankly, yes, he should be singled out. Along with *every* other person who has played their role in this. He's clearly not solely responsible, but he played a significant part in it. The whole Goodwin affair has been a smokescreen engineered by the government of course, but people's feelings of anger and helplessness are fully understandable.

As I said, he *could* have done something to ease the growing public anger. He *could* have renounced part of his pension. He *could* have delivered an apology not laced with hubris.

Again, I repeat, plenty of innocent children have been adversely affected by this man. Where is the voice for them?

donnykebab

matthewcb He certainly is worse than the majority of people

What utter tripe. Good luck to him - he got the best deal from his former employer that he could - just like anyone would.
Guess you'd give up half your salary/pension if Gord popped round and asked you to?

You are going to have a very long list of people to 'single' out but i look forward to reading it - it should be fascinating. (how about Queenie for knighting him - you can have that one for free for your list)

Cannon_Fodder

"Harman in Sir Fred honour gaffe"

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7923661.stm


"Harriet Harman has admitted wrongly telling MPs that the ex-banking boss Sir Fred Goodwin had received his knighthood for charity work.
Labour's deputy leader made the blunder as she stood in for Gordon Brown at prime minister's questions. The official record shows the former Royal Bank of Scotland chief was knighted "for services to banking". "



Despite being part of the Govt, pushing the news agenda to bring pressure on Fred, this dozy person does not have the sense to be briefed accurately, when standing up in front of the whole country.

After her "court of public opinion" gaffe, you have to wonder at the competance of her advisors.

Has GB lent her some of his, to scupper her leadership hopes...?

matthewcb

donnykebab wrote: »

What utter tripe. Good luck to him - he got the best deal from his former employer that he could - just like anyone would.
Guess you'd give up half your salary/pension if Gord popped round and asked you to?

You are going to have a very long list of people to 'single' out but i look forward to reading it - it should be fascinating. (how about Queenie for knighting him - you can have that one for free for your list)

Thank you for your eloquent and incisive post.

What an utterly stupid and childish post: "how about Queenie for knighting him". So because there's a lot of people who have responsibility for this we shouldn't bother? Good grief.

I could pull your post to pieces but frankly I'm not going to waste the effort on you. I'll just hit 'ignore' and then your troll-like outbursts will no longer exist.

torontoboy45

donnykebab wrote: »

What utter tripe. Good luck to him - he got the best deal from his former employer that he could - just like anyone would.
Guess you'd give up half your salary/pension if Gord popped round and asked you to?

You are going to have a very long list of people to 'single' out but i look forward to reading it - it should be fascinating. (how about Queenie for knighting him - you can have that one for free for your list)

'good luck to him'.

jesus....

if my pittance of a pension was suddenly halved I'd be a tad miffed.
but what of uncle fred? is anyone seriously telling me he can't scrape by on £330k p.a?
in a fair world he'd be stripped of his knighthood and his his pension reduced to the absolute min. of £27k - if only to warn others.

you sound like a troll - another one for the ignore list.