Wednesday, 18 March 2009

If we think we've got problems with Fred the Shred!!

In the United States there is the ticklish $165m problem of retention bonuses for AIG, we have the smaller problem of the pension pot of Fred the Shred, who built and then destroyed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) with the help of a few others on the way. I am not that interested in the size of the pension pot but in the fact that business mogul and now new Labour minister Lord Myners ending up holding the pension pot baby.
I have read many an article extolling the gifts of Lord Myners and I remember seeing him in the City of London holding two enormous briefcases followed by a PA holding more stuff. That is how important he was. Now, Lord Myners has been left holding the baby and that is something British civil servants are there to prevent. However, in these rarified circles, everyone has amazing pensions, Fred the Shred, Lord Myners and especially the civil servants.
Lord Myners has found out the hard way about politics. He has to take the can for a relatively minor detail in the scheme of things while his political bosses can escape more major indiscretions. Lord Myners will have found he has a raft of political enemies and quite a few are probably located in the Treasury.

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