Whilst a majority of business leaders agree that Stephen Hester of RBS should not have waived his bonus (see my straw poll here http://linkd.in/AqaAiq), many will agree with the decision to annul Fred Goodwin's knighthood is right. However, there are still a few people who believe that by doing so the current Government is waging a war on business, with both these unrelated matters coming to the forefront of the news within days of one another.
So, just in case people misunderstand the annulment of the knighthood, I thought that a reasonable analogy would be to compare it with an Olympic medal winner...
The honour, bestowed in 2004 was for "services to banking", the near collapse of RBS and the subsequent bailout by the British taxpayer proves that this award was truly unjust and unwarranted. Remember it was for services to banking and not anything else.
If a competitor in this year's Olympics Games were to win a medal and later is found to have cheated then they will stripped of their medal - to my mind there is no difference here.
So, just in case people misunderstand the annulment of the knighthood, I thought that a reasonable analogy would be to compare it with an Olympic medal winner...
The honour, bestowed in 2004 was for "services to banking", the near collapse of RBS and the subsequent bailout by the British taxpayer proves that this award was truly unjust and unwarranted. Remember it was for services to banking and not anything else.
If a competitor in this year's Olympics Games were to win a medal and later is found to have cheated then they will stripped of their medal - to my mind there is no difference here.
Mike - the "Court of Public Opinion" may have a point but, like Hester, Goodwin has become a scapegoat for all manner of perceived crimes. Whatever his personal attributes he wasn't the only one on the RBS board, and I suspect one or two of them had gongs. And where does this stop? Novelists or playwrights with gongs who subsequently produce a flop?
ReplyDelete