Fred Goodwins Knighthood Removed!

tac

On a side note - why are people given 'honours' for simply doing the job that they're supposed to be doing (and are already being well paid for) anyway? Surely an honour should be reserved only for those that have really gone 'above and beyond' expectations consistently over a long period of time, and/or for those that have performed acts of courage or selflessness or skill or usefulness quite apart from what is expected of them by their job anyway? It seems quite normal for senior civil servants, for example, to be given a knighthood before retirement simply for being a senior civil servant, or a banker to be given a knighthood simply for, well, banking...

That was my initial point but I was in a rush and couldn't expand on my point earlier. Why do these people get these accolades just for being high up in the business world? Did they really do anything special or were there plenty of others who could have done the same thing given the job?

Rasputin

Lardgainer

Rasputin


Dont think its fair at all. Realistically how is one man accountable for what was a global financial crisis. The way he has been made a scapegoat is unfair imo. 

Who's saying he is the one man reponsible? No one, surely.

He destroyed RBS. And thousands of jobs. That is not serving the country.

He didnt destroy RBS on his own though. He didnt make the decisions his underlings did he was merely the mouthpiece as all CEO of big corporates are. He was awarded his Knighthood due to services to banking for many decades prior which helped build London into the financial epicentre it is today. Better than some of the other people who got them like Alex Ferguson for instance whats he ever done for anyone? His idea to expand RBS was also techinically a good one just failed due to the timing of the US collapse and poor advice. 

When you look at other people who have had theres stripped ie Mugabe, some otherpolitical figures just doesnt seem fair. 

 
Sorry Rasputin i think your way off on this one , whatever he did , he did with zero risk , he creamed in the cash when IR's where low took cheap money in and give dearer money out , so his success was down to  the reason the whole thing collpased , if RBS was using his cash as collateral and he foot up the cash when the went belly up I would agree with you , but what he did was run crying to the tax payer and still wanted a disgusting pension paid for by the very people who he had been fleecing ,  not only should they have stripped his knighthood , he shouldnt have been given in the first place but he should be on his knee's under a guilotine.
 
Alex Ferguson on the other hand is a great manager and an ambassador for the sport , wether he should get one over a paramedic for example , probably not .... 

Rasputin

Lardgainer

Rasputin


Dont think its fair at all. Realistically how is one man accountable for what was a global financial crisis. The way he has been made a scapegoat is unfair imo. 

Who's saying he is the one man reponsible? No one, surely.

He destroyed RBS. And thousands of jobs. That is not serving the country.

He didnt destroy RBS on his own though. He didnt make the decisions his underlings did he was merely the mouthpiece as all CEO of big corporates are. He was awarded his Knighthood due to services to banking for many decades prior which helped build London into the financial epicentre it is today. Better than some of the other people who got them like Alex Ferguson for instance whats he ever done for anyone? His idea to expand RBS was also techinically a good one just failed due to the timing of the US collapse and poor advice. 

When you look at other people who have had theres stripped ie Mugabe, some otherpolitical figures just doesnt seem fair. 

 
Sorry Rasputin i think your way off on this one , whatever he did , he did with zero risk , he creamed in the cash when IR's where low took cheap money in and give dearer money out , so his success was down to  the reason the whole thing collpased , if RBS was using his cash as collateral and he foot up the cash when the went belly up I would agree with you , but what he did was run crying to the tax payer and still wanted a disgusting pension paid for by the very people who he had been fleecing ,  not only should they have stripped his knighthood , he shouldnt have been given in the first place but he should be on his knee's under a guilotine.
 
Alex Ferguson on the other hand is a great manager and an ambassador for the sport , wether he should get one over a paramedic for example , probably not .... 

doc

Rasputin

Lardgainer

Rasputin


Dont think its fair at all. Realistically how is one man accountable for what was a global financial crisis. The way he has been made a scapegoat is unfair imo. 

Who's saying he is the one man reponsible? No one, surely.

He destroyed RBS. And thousands of jobs. That is not serving the country.

He didnt destroy RBS on his own though. He didnt make the decisions his underlings did he was merely the mouthpiece as all CEO of big corporates are. He was awarded his Knighthood due to services to banking for many decades prior which helped build London into the financial epicentre it is today. Better than some of the other people who got them like Alex Ferguson for instance whats he ever done for anyone? His idea to expand RBS was also techinically a good one just failed due to the timing of the US collapse and poor advice. 

When you look at other people who have had theres stripped ie Mugabe, some otherpolitical figures just doesnt seem fair. 

Sorry Rasputin i think your way off on this one , whatever he did , he did with zero risk , he creamed in the cash when IR's where low took cheap money in and give dearer money out , so his success was down to  the reason the whole thing collpased , if RBS was using his cash as collateral and he foot up the cash when the went belly up I would agree with you , but what he did was run crying to the tax payer and still wanted a disgusting pension paid for by the very people who he had been fleecing ,  not only should they have stripped his knighthood , he shouldnt have been given in the first place but he should be on his knee's under a guilotine.

Alex Ferguson on the other hand is a great manager and an ambassador for the sport , wether he should get one over a paramedic for example , probably not .... 

 
Right ok top synopsis of the banking crisis straight out the DM comments. He  failed due to the US banks fecking it up not solely himself. HE didnt personally cream anything in that any other bank was doing or top exec wasnt doing. 
 
Had the govt not bailed them out all the poor people who were taking advantage of the cheap mortgages would have been foreclosed and be out of homes. So hardly him going tail between legs. Him and other execs made it possible by cheap mortgages for millions of people to buy there homes but many happily overlook this. 
 
Why put him on the block and not Brown, Blair etc he is a scapegoat end of.
 
Alex ferguson i a prick of the highest order met him twice he is rude obnoxious and dick yes won a lot but how hard is it when you get whoever you want. 

Rasputin



Why put him on the block and not Brown, Blair etc he is a scapegoat end of.

I agree with you to a large extent - but I dont see that as a reason not to punish him - rather as a reason why actually the numbers of people facing some for of punishment for the banking crisis should be massively extended.
 
Fact is that many serious mistakes were made by many people, both in government (and not just the last Labour government, the previous conservative one began the process of sweeping away legislation that regulated the financial system and prevented exactly this sort of thing from happening) and in the private sector... and frankly, given the scale and seriousness of the problem I find it rather disgusting that one scape-goat losing his knighthood 4 years after the event is the only real consequence.

Ok, getting a little too political now.  The reason we steer away from this is people argue (not disagree) and this ill feeling leeches into other topics, etc, etc

Rasputin

doc

Rasputin

Lardgainer

Rasputin


Dont think its fair at all. Realistically how is one man accountable for what was a global financial crisis. The way he has been made a scapegoat is unfair imo. 

Who's saying he is the one man reponsible? No one, surely.

He destroyed RBS. And thousands of jobs. That is not serving the country.

He didnt destroy RBS on his own though. He didnt make the decisions his underlings did he was merely the mouthpiece as all CEO of big corporates are. He was awarded his Knighthood due to services to banking for many decades prior which helped build London into the financial epicentre it is today. Better than some of the other people who got them like Alex Ferguson for instance whats he ever done for anyone? His idea to expand RBS was also techinically a good one just failed due to the timing of the US collapse and poor advice. 

When you look at other people who have had theres stripped ie Mugabe, some otherpolitical figures just doesnt seem fair. 

Sorry Rasputin i think your way off on this one , whatever he did , he did with zero risk , he creamed in the cash when IR's where low took cheap money in and give dearer money out , so his success was down to  the reason the whole thing collpased , if RBS was using his cash as collateral and he foot up the cash when the went belly up I would agree with you , but what he did was run crying to the tax payer and still wanted a disgusting pension paid for by the very people who he had been fleecing ,  not only should they have stripped his knighthood , he shouldnt have been given in the first place but he should be on his knee's under a guilotine.

Alex Ferguson on the other hand is a great manager and an ambassador for the sport , wether he should get one over a paramedic for example , probably not .... 

Had the govt not bailed them out all the poor people who were taking advantage of the cheap mortgages would have been foreclosed and be out of homes. So hardly him going tail between legs. Him and other execs made it possible by cheap mortgages for millions of people to buy there homes but many happily overlook this. 

Why put him on the block and not Brown, Blair etc he is a scapegoat end of.

 
the only reason people would have been foreclosed is because house prices where too expensive which was a direct result of IR's being set lower than what the market would have set them, and the fact that they can afford them now is because the are taking the purchasing power from pensioners and savers , had the banks failed IR's would have risen and houses would have become cheaper , people could then pay a sensible price rather than  being a victim of the distortions that the banks caused
 
now everyone is being punished and we are al more indebted , the banks still run at a loss and the execs still earn more than what they should if it was set up as a proper capitalist business.
 
Blair and Brown , yes just a guilty more guilotines needed, Cameron and Osbourne just continuing the same policies more guilotines.

Who thinks that Fred the Shred was absolutely lying when he and the rest of the executive team were repeatedly denying any real RBS exposure to sub-prime U.S repackaged debt during questioning at AGM's and results announcements?
 
 
 
 

Some good information from the BBC programme, an interesting watch.
 
42mins onwards for the denials
 

He's a Knight of the Realm.....knights don't lie.

Oh, hang on....no he's not!

PartyBoy


Who thinks that Fred the Shred was absolutely lying when he and the rest of the executive team were repeatedly denying any real RBS exposure to sub-prime U.S repackaged debt during questioning at AGM's and results announcements?

I think its pretty much accepted by everyone now that he both acted against advice while buying sub-prime, and lied about the exposure subsequently. He (and others around him) took an unacceptable risk with other peoples money, lied to cover his @ss, and then lost it all.
 
Hence 'services to banking' being such an irony.
 
At least the Catholic church has the good sense only to award sainthoods posthumously so the recipients cant make them look like @rses by promptly fcuking up as soon as they get one.
 
 

Desmo


I think the real question should be why was he given a knighthood in the first place?

This really, the honours system has been devalued by successive governments and used as a tool to reward cronies.
 
Fred Goodwin shouldn’t be a knight, but there are several others just as culpable that shouldn’t be either.
 

Reborn

Desmo


I think the real question should be why was he given a knighthood in the first place?

This really, the honours system has been devalued by successive governments and used as a tool to reward cronies.

Fred Goodwin shouldn’t be a knight, but there are several others just as culpable that shouldn’t be either.

And not just in finance - werent the English cricket team all given gongs not that long ago... shortly before getting beaten by everyone up to and including the New Zealand Women's 3rd eleven?

Just as they were given a parade for winning a thimble of dust

Elitist pish anyway

No sympathy for him what so ever, although as has been mentioned if the honors system is to continue I could think of much more worthy people to award an honor to than a bunch of people who's main motivation is self interest., and this included celebrities etc... too.
 
And anyway as someone said on 5live pretty much all its used for now is to get the best table in an exclusive restaurant lol.