Somebody got it wrong with both his salary and pension plan, but to hear the Chancellor on the radio this morning suggesting that Fred could make it alright by waving his pension is like expecting all the turkeys to vote for Christmas and Thanksgiving on one day. It just won’t happen.
And why should Fred do the right thing. He surely has a duty to himself and his family both now and in the past and it is clear that he placed that duty above the duty he had to shareholders and the nation. Otherwise we wouldn’t be in this mess and have a 70-80% ownership of a bank.
Whilst the Govt may or may not be able to do something about his pension, I would be delighted to see him stripped of his Knighthood, probably given for “Services to Banking”. That would be both humiliating and more importantly: it is in the Govt’s gift to do so.
So – Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown – stop dithering, don’t expect Sir Fred to bow to pressure of any sorts, just strip of something that he probably holds very dear. And let it be known that the Knight Formerly knows as Sir Fred is now to known as Fred for services to nationalisation.
