![]() ![]() "We petition the Prime Minister to petition Her Majesty to have this honour removed." "Tony Blair is the least deserving person of any public honour, particularly anything awarded by Her Majesty the Queen. For this alone he should be held accountable for war crimes. He adds: "He was personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent, civilian lives and servicement in various conflicts. But their honours are like fashions – the crinoline, the New Look, the mini-skirt – and need to be studied in the same way.Angus Scott, who started the petition, accused Tony of causing "irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation’s society". Like the masters of the credit crunch, they sincerely believed in what they were doing. Think of the lords and knights of nationalization or prices and incomes policy. Morally, it is like those Stalin-era photographs in which leading comrades on the Kremlin balcony were airbrushed out once they had fallen from favour … We need to keep the honours we have handed out so that we can carbon-date the folly of each age. ince when have honours been a favour to be granted one day and withdrawn the next? For the powers that be to be able to erase what they themselves have done is not a bracing corrective, but hypocrisy. Hester a £963,000 bonus for 2011, but on Sunday night, following an escalation of political pressure, particularly from opposition leader Ed Milliband, Mr Hester told the board he would waive the award.Ĭharles Moore, former editor of The Daily Telegraph, says Cameron is pandering to the mob and his own backbenchers (the award was made by the previous Labour government). he move was widely seen as a smokescreen to cover the government’s growing embarrassment at its inability to control bonuses at the bank, which is now 83% owned by the taxpayer. Now he, and others, will look at Goodwin’s fate and wonder if a knighthood that can be annulled on a whim is really worth so much.Īt the Financial Times, George Parker and Patrick Jenkins believe the timing is the giveaway. The government could have used the promise of a future title to compensate for Hester’s lost bonus. ![]() For many British executives, securing a knighthood trumps almost any financial reward. Britain’s elaborate honours system is a cheap and surprisingly effective way for the government to encourage good behaviour among its corporate chieftains. Domineering and vainglorious, he led RBS on an acquisition spree of colossal recklessness, triggering a £50-billion bailout when the crisis struck in 2008… In the absence of sterner censure, stripping Goodwin of his knighthood – a punishment previously reserved for frauds, traitors and murderous dictators – may look an appropriate sacrifice … removing Goodwin’s knighthood undermines the value of such titles. ![]() In an opinion piece for Reuters, Peter Thai Larsen suggests the move may blow up in Cameron’s face. Indeed, this improvident gambler, who stuffed his own pockets as he staked billions on bad risks, bears a heavy personal responsibility for blighting the jobs and living standards of millions … Can a man who has done such immense disservice to his industry and his country really be allowed to retain a knighthood for services to banking? In so doing, he marched the bank off a cliff edge, landing taxpayers with a £45-billion bailout and helping precipitate the worst recession since the 1930s, before leaving with a £342,000 a year pension. As the dominant figure in RBS, he oversaw the bank’s breakneck expansion, buying up businesses with barely a thought to their viability and splashing out other people’s money to borrowers who could never repay. In an recent editorial, the paper thundered, More than any other individual, Sir Fred Goodwin personifies the greed and recklessness that caused the banking crisis of 2008, from which every family will be suffering for at least a generation. Opinion writers at the Daily Mail have been baying for Goodwin’s blood for some time. News of the £963,000 ($1.4-million) payout came just days after Cameron urged shareholders to rein in chief executives’ pay. Some commentators believe the move is a smokescreen, coming as it does only days after David Cameron, the Prime Minister, was caught wrongfooted, approving a bonus to the current RBS head, Stephen Hester. This found Goodwin “was the dominant decision maker at RBS” when it had to be bailed out by the government to the tune of an eye-watering £45-billion to £50-billion ($70-billion to $78-billion). The monarch personally approved the decision, following the recommendations of a secretive committee of civil servants. ![]() Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt. ![]()
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