Fred Goodwins Knighthood Removed!

It's quite amazing what this guy managed to do all on his own, or so we are supposed to believe. Obviously he had a major part in it but is it fair the way he has been singled out? For my money no, I'd sooner see the former chancellor right alongside him.
 
http://www.dailymail.co.u...ishment-arrogance.html

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

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. 

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.

Desmo


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

Exactly my thoughts mate

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. 

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.

In that case Gordan Brown and the Labour government should be held to account for the part they played too.

I don't think he should have retained it but two points spring to mind;
 
1) He's not a convicted criminal. There are convicted criminals who have retained their peerage IIRC. Double standards.
2) It's a token gesture to appease the masses. The light touch regulation of the FSA and the governemnt policy behind that had a large part to play in this.
 
With the benefit of hindsight he made some poor decisions (ABN Amro for cash being particularly bad). I firmly believe that this government and the one before it have been trying to deflect as much attention onto him as possible.

Are RBS expected to ever pay back the £45bn bail-out?

When the shares are sold is when we should get our money back. Of course knowing how the system works somebodies chum will get a very good price and we'll not get the £45b back.

Desmo


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

I agree with this - I think there are far more deserving people of Knighthoods than people who basically make money for a living but I guess they are held in higher esteem in the country and are chastised higher than say attempted murder for something like fraud.  So I guess its obvious where, as a species our whole world revolves around coinage.

Barrel

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.

In that case Gordan Brown and the Labour government should be held to account for the part they played too.

THen you can go back further to what Conservatives did as well.
Ya wanna point blame you could just point to the two big banks in the US for starting all of this.

He's probably annoyed about it, then takes a dive in his money pool, before a relaxing half hour in his money jacuzzi and forgets all about it

Desmo


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

 
The reason given at the time was 'for services to banking'.
 
Given that, over the following couple of years he took a whole series of decisions against the advice he was being given that led to his company going broke, the government having to bail them out to the tune of £45billion, and contributed to the whole British economy coming to the verge of collapse, I think they pretty much HAD to remove the knighthood before the weight of irony created a blackhole in the space-time continuum.
 
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...

essex_chris


He's probably annoyed about it, then takes a dive in his money pool, before a relaxing half hour in his money jacuzzi and forgets all about it

 
Quite. Losing the knighthood wont affect his £16million pension pot. Im sure £16million can buy a whole lot of consolation - personally Id be paying a squad of bikini clad blondes to dry my tears with champagne soaked silk handkerchiefs....

tac

essex_chris


He's probably annoyed about it, then takes a dive in his money pool, before a relaxing half hour in his money jacuzzi and forgets all about it

Quite. Losing the knighthood wont affect his £16million pension pot. Im sure £16million can buy a whole lot of consolation - personally Id be paying a squad of bikini clad blondes to dry my tears with champagne soaked silk handkerchiefs....

When you have that much money, you have other ambitions/goals in life and I'd imagine this would have got to him a lot more than you'd expect.

James

tac

essex_chris


He's probably annoyed about it, then takes a dive in his money pool, before a relaxing half hour in his money jacuzzi and forgets all about it

Quite. Losing the knighthood wont affect his £16million pension pot. Im sure £16million can buy a whole lot of consolation - personally Id be paying a squad of bikini clad blondes to dry my tears with champagne soaked silk handkerchiefs....

When you have that much money, you have other ambitions/goals in life and I'd imagine this would have got to him a lot more than you'd expect.

Yes, probably true - I doubt theres much you can do with £18m that you cant do with £16m, so at that level the next £1m probably isnt that important, whereas the gong is a form of recognition of acheivement which may well be emotionally quite important to him.
 
I still think that people shouldnt get one for simply doing what they're already being paid to do though - and that in general more people should lose them if they subsequently fcuk up... Lord Archer kept his, despite serving jail time for dishonesty, as has Lord Hannigfield more recently. It would be nice to see more people getting them for life-long service to their communities and to the country, rather than just for doing a certain kind of job for a certain length of time... Bob Geldof, for example, I have no issue with him being knighted since he raised an awful lot of money for famine relief and it was in no way part of his job or what could reasonably be expected of him. If he'd been the Government Commisioner for fund raising and had been employed and paid to do exactly the same thing then it would just have been him doing what he was supposed to do - but it wasnt.

Oh i reckon he was probably fuming, but then he's likely used to getting his way or what he wants.
 
After the tantrum it fades away i suspect. It's not something that's a real achievement - had he got it through services to something worthwhile, which he worked his arse off for, then had it removed i would think it would matter.
 
It was just a token boys club slap on the back IMO

tac


When you have that much money, you have other ambitions/goals in life and I'd imagine this would have got to him a lot more than you'd expect.

Yes, probably true - I doubt theres much you can do with £18m that you cant do with £16m, so at that level the next £1m probably isnt that important, whereas the gong is a form of recognition of acheivement which may well be emotionally quite important to him.


Come on Tac, you know how 'narcissistic injury' works.  I imagine that this will have been not only a humiliation but a loss of status and I suspect will be profoundly painful to him.

LMC


Are RBS expected to ever pay back the £45bn bail-out?

Probably never, given that staff keep getting their bonuses cut or cancelled. Hester said this time last year when he'd only just taken over RBS that they weren't making as much money because their best people jumped ship to competitors since their bonuses got fried. The government don't seem to be learning their lessons with respect to micromanaging RBS.