RBS, Donald Trump and the Dreaded Wind Farms
The more I read about Donald Trump and the wind farms, I just think how funny it would be if either the golf course or the wind farms had been all or part funded by the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers.
After all something Sir Fred did is going to jump up and bite us, so when it does, it might be something with a good laugh in it.
RBS Six Nations Trophy
A quite elaborate trophy is presented to the winner of the Six Nations Rugby Championship. Here’s some details.
The idea of a Trophy for the Six Nations Championship was first thought of by the Earl of Westmorland, and was first presented in 1993 to France (the winners that season). It is held in trust by the Six Nations Championship Trophy Trust.
The Trophy is made of 200 ounces of sterling silver and is insured for £55,000. It was designed by James Brent-Ward, a silversmith designer, and made by eight craftsmen at the London silversmith firm William Comyns. The inside of the Trophy was originally silver, but it became so tarnished from repeated fillings with champagne that it has been lined with 22 carat gold to protect it.
There are fifteen sides to the Trophy, representing each player, and three handles representing each official ie the referee and two touch judges. Around the wooden base of the Trophy is the emblem of each of the six national unions.
The handle, or finial, on the lid is interchangeable and represents the current champions. The finials of the five challenging teams are kept in a hidden drawer in the plinth throughout the Championship.
According to this piece it pre-dates the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers sponsorship of the Championship. So this is one thing, where Sir Fred isn’t guilty.
RBS
Surely, if we paid no bonuses at the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers, then these people would walk and we’d save their salary as well.
But would that also mean they’d be able to sue for constructive dismissal, as bonuses are expected?
Do We Get A Bonus for Losing?
The caption is on a cartoon in the Sunday Times, showing two Scottish rugby players, leaving the field in their RBS jerseys, with a banner saying RBS 6 Nations in the background.
Fred must be laughing into his Shreddies.
Bob Diamond Has Kept Quiet
In all the pontifications about Stephen Hester of RBS, I can’t find anything that Bob Diamond of Barclays has said.
Perhaps he’s just being sensible or he has not responded to any journalist, who’s asked what he thinks!
could it be a pointer to something? Or if he says nothing, then he won’t have to refute what he said or change his mind.
Peston on RBS Bonuses
Robert Peston at the BBC is a financial commentator I respect. His post today, in response to the news that the Chairman of RBS, Sir Philip Hampton, has turned down his bonus, should be read by all. According to Peston, Sir Philip didn’t actually request a bonus in his contract.
Well, the additional reward for Sir Philip was always something slightly unusual, which – as it happens – he didn’t request when he took the job three years ago. This shares incentive had already been agreed in negotiations with another candidate to chair RBS (Lord Davies, the former Standard Chartered chief executive, who ultimately turned the job down), and Sir Philip just attached his moniker to a contract drafted for someone else.
That sounds like a cock-up by the previous government to me.
Peston goes on to have a dig at the lack of talent available and also headhunters, whose interest is best served by high salaries. The first point is proven by looking at how many banks the world are in trouble and the second is well-known to anybody who’s ever hired anybody through a headhunter or an agency.
I think we’ll only know how good Hester and his co-directors are, when RBS is sold off.
More on Stehen Hester and That Bonus
He is a rich man in his own right. If I was him, I’d tell the stupid politicians I didn’t want the bonus, resign and tell them, where to put their job. I would know that I’d done a good job and could take my pick of a lot of well-paid jobs out there.
If that happened, it would cost all the UK Taxpayers even more and who would most politicians blame. David Cameron and the Tory members of this current government, who have nothing to do with this mess. RBS was such a state in 2010, that it should have been liquidated. But Gordon Brown needed the votes! Especially in Scotland!
RBS Charges 2190% for Unauthorised Overdraft
The Sunday Times is reporting that RBS, or as I think it should be called, the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers, is charging this rate for an unauthorised overdraft.
So the message is don’t go overdrawn if you bank with this wunch of bankers. But as a taxpayer, surely it is not a bad thing if a few idiots do, as they will help to make the bank profitable, so we can pass it on to another set of mugs.
On the other hand, we could bleed it dry, so it didn’t make any profits and then it might go bankrupt after which the liquidator could have their share and then pass two-fifths of five-eighths of fuck all to the government. After all Gordon Brown got us into this position by saving the bank in the first place, so that Scotland might vote for him. It was a good idea, as it looks like more voters north of the border preferred the SNP to Nulabor.
As an aside why is it always two-fifths of five-eighths of fuck all? A quarter would be simpler.
Is Sir Fred Going to be an Unfellow
This comes from an article in the Scotsman.
The Royal Society of Edinburgh may now strip Goodwin of his fellowship. Amid the baying mob there are those prepared to take a more conciliatory view. Lord McConnell rightly says that what happened at the banks was a result of more than one man’s failings. The failure of RBS was systemic.
So will he be de kilted or whatever they do north of the border?
RBS Is In A Downward Spiral
This morning RBS has announced another 3,500 job losses on top of 2,000 announced, just a few months ago.
I’ve always felt that RBS should have been allowed to go bust. I think now, that some of the employees who are still left, wish it had happened, as at least they’d now know where they stand. I suspect too, if they’d been put out of work at the time, they might have been able to have rebuilt their lives and careers since.
Now they are just in an awful state of limbo.
The country might be in a better state too, if the money used to prop up RBS had been used for more important purposes.
But saving RBS was just a bribe to Scotland, by Britain’s worst-ever Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. As he got voted out in 2010, it didn’t even work!
The Anonymous Widower 