Public purse persistent pilfering promotes promiscuity, promises, profoundly poor proposals and piss-poor performance

So let’s get this right.

Fred Goodwin, the CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland while overseeing the collapse of his portion of the banking industry which led to the £45.5billion bail out funded by the tax-payer was having an affair with a senior colleague at the bank which allowed the mistress to receive two promotions (and associated salary increases no doubt).

When discovered, ‘Sir’ Fred then sought an injunction so draconian that it even prevented him being identified as being a ‘banker’ (we’re spelling it differently) and in so doing his aim was to gag the press and prevent his sordid affair from being made known to the so-called financial regulators, the FSA in case some breach of corporate governance was revealed.  More importantly, perhaps he simply didn’t want his extra-marital relationship from being known to his family and he used his position, influence and tax-payer bailout money to cover his tracks.

What hacks us off is not the fact that he’s had or is having an affair, that is entirely his own business but when Fred seeks to use our money (our bailout pays his salary after all) at a time when real people are getting on with their lives and doing their best to survive the austerity measures thrust upon them as a result of the debt caused by the bankers who still get ludicrous bonuses before their debt to the public purse has been repaid.

Questions are being asked about the relationship but we have some questions too:

1. While this man was playing footsie on company time and abusing his position to promote his mistress, was he paying enough attention to the job he was getting paid to do – results would suggest not.
2. Why does this man still have a job when such abject failure should be rewarded with the sack – will he, in fact, answer for his failures with his job?

We don’t give a hoot about corporate governance rules which we all know can be bent and manipulated to ensure that ‘no rules have been broken’ (ala the on-going MP expenses fiasco); what we care about is people going hungry, children being denied an education and disabled and vulnerable people being hounded to suicide due to government plans to cut budgets and services across the board in order to save money while people like this continue to receive their over inflated salary and huge bonuses because banks need to ‘retain good people’.

We extend a ‘thank you’ to Lord Oakeshott and John Hemming MP for ensuring this matter was brought out of hiding.