Mr Cameron's argument

[johnny come lately]

I'm not going to debate the rights or wrongs of the Stephen Hester bonus. It is the political war of words that caught my eye today.
Especially Mr cameron's response that the contract was made under the Labour gvt so they could do nothing about it.
I'd expect this is interesting for many public sector workers who would have signed their T+Cs, including the details of a pension provision, to now find Mr Cameron wants to remove / change their entitlements.

I'm not saying the RBS bonus is justified or unjustified. Or the pensions for public sector workers are justified or unjustified.
My interest is in the difference in the stance the gvt takes to workers contracts

 

[70-plus]

Very good editorial in the Guardian today about the "deserving" and "undeserving poor". While Cameron divides the poor, the rich get richer and the public sector gets privatised.

 

[Withnail]

Or, in this case, the 'deserving' rich and the 'undeserving' poor.

 

[Gramaisc]

Or, in this case, the 'deserving' rich and the 'undeserving' poor.

I understand that the current policy is that both are deserving - the rich deserve to be rich and the poor deserve to be poor.

 

[tek-monkey]

Especially Mr cameron's response that the contract was made under the Labour gvt so they could do nothing about it.

Can you imagine the election campaign with that reasoning? Vote for me, I can't do **** all about your actual problems but I can screw over your pensions!

 

[Withnail]

Very good editorial in the Guardian today about the "deserving" and "undeserving poor".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/27/rich-poor-deserving-undeserving?INTCMP=SRCH

Just read it - i have thought for a while now that we appear to be heading backwards, philosophically for the moment, but actually if we allow it.

First stop neo-Victorian but ultimately all the way back to the Middle Ages and neo-serfdom. A lot of it will be out of our hands, but the attitudes must be in place to make it possible, and the seeds are being sown now.

 

[johnny come lately]

Especially Mr cameron's response that the contract was made under the Labour gvt so they could do nothing about it.

Can you imagine the election campaign with that reasoning? Vote for me, I can't do **** all about your actual problems but I can screw over your pensions!

It is one of those quotes that could be used over and over again. They did it so there is nothing we can do about it. But you are right, not really a vote winner is it.
Although the opposition shouting for it to be taken away doesn't do it for me either

 

[henryscat]

Very good editorial in the Guardian today about the "deserving" and "undeserving poor". While Cameron divides the poor, the rich get richer and the public sector gets privatised.

The Grauniad also made the comparison between RBS and the Bank of England executives who are paid significantly less. They also compared with an assortment of other occupations, one being with Premiersh*t footballers like Wayne Rooney who is paid a lot more than the git Hester. I don't for a minute think Hester deserves his bonus, but the likes of Rooney do precisely nothing useful for their obscene "wages".

 

[Withnail]

Also a good letter on the letters page

As a shareholder in RBS (like the rest of us), I would like to see how the CEO's £1m bonus is justified, given the consequences of his actions on the profitability of the parent company, UK plc (RBS hands chief £1m bonus and fuels political storm, 25 January).

He has made redundant 33,000 members of staff. Suppose half of these stay unemployed for a year (an optimistic estimate) – 16,500 people. Then UK plc foots the bill for their benefits and for the lost tax revenue. Suppose the average salary of those made redundant is £25,000 – with a typical tax loss of £3,400 each. This equals £56m. To which we must add jobseeker's allowance payments of on average £67 a week for six months and any other possible benefits – maybe an average of another £3,000 a year, which equals another £54m.

So Mr Hester's actions for the RBS branch of UK plc have cost the parent company about £110m. I propose that his bonus is not awarded and his salary is urgently reviewed.

 

[Gramaisc]

Apparently, some people are just so fantastically talented that we should pay them almost anything in order to retain their services - what would happen should they die in their sleep tonight doesn't bear thinking about. It would all just stop, I presume, because nobody else would know what to do.....

 

[henryscat]

Absolutely and of course when you have such talent it also means you can evade tax without penalty.

 

[Gramaisc]

Absolutely and of course when you have such talent it also means you can evade tax without penalty.

We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.

 

[Withnail]

The evasion of tax liability is a prerequisite for our return to serfdom.

Cunningly, the little people who do pay their taxes are just as averse to doing so as the Bigger Fish who disproportionately don't. In this respect we really are 'all in this together'.

 

[Gramaisc]

The evasion of tax liability is a prerequisite for our return to serfdom.

Cunningly, the little people who do pay their taxes are just as averse to doing so as the Bigger Fish who disproportionately don't. In this respect we really are 'all in this together'.

Send Mrs Withnail to Monaco - simple.

 

[Withnail]

Non-Dom con?

 

[Gramaisc]

Non-Dom con?

Non-Res. Non-Dom when she pops back to do your washing..

 

[Withnail]

 

[Gramaisc]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Philip_Green.jpg/200px-Philip_Green.jpg

Blimey! She's gone off a bit..

 

[Withnail]

But Emily loved her.

(sniff)

 

[Miss Red]

I think you will find its one of brown labours boo boos..........they drew up the contract with him for this eye watering sum...............as its a contract we now have to honour it, but he decided not to take the full amount.