Sir Fred Goodwin's Home Attacked

Spektor said:
Boring. A century ago we would have happily formed an angry mob and murdered him and his family + a bunch of other rich people for good measure, our society has gone down the pan.
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I'm surprised the bank paying his pension hasn't hired a hitman to save money! :p
 
I'm not saying what he did is right or wrong but love how he is portrayed as the villain here when 99.9% of people wouldn't hesitate one bit to do the same as him.
 
NathanE said:
Fred Goodwin was just doing what all the other bankers have been doing for the past 12 years ever since Labour took power. The *first* thing Labour (and specifically Gordon Brown as chancellor) did was deregulate the banks. He basically said "don't worry, give loans to anyone, even dodgy looking Russians, we won't stop you!".
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Fair enough it accelerated greatly, but irresponsible lending and furiously hard debt selling was in action by the banks etc well before Labour came in. British, well, western banks were ripping the public as well as dishing out loans and plastic well before that wave of deregulation. This is much longer term than 12 years.

Also, I struggle to reconcile the constant calls from the Tories and their supporters during the same period, insisting that the entire economy was weighed down by red tape and their stance about regulation now which is the opposite but claiming they said that all along.

I doubt Goodwin is gonna be the last case to uncover like this. What's important is that this doesn't happen again in the future.

eXor said:
Why didn't he release the hounds? :confused:
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check the picture the fence is too high :D
 
Werewolf said:
Very true.

From where I sit (too tired to stand:p) it looks like he's been made a scapegoat by the Government and media, because he's shock horror getting a pension deal that his contract called for, a contract that the shareholders and government were more than happy with when it was negotiated, and that the government knew about when they took over the bank.

I believe he actually gave up some of the things his contract legally entitled him to prior to his retirement in return for the rest of the package being honoured, which isn't something we've heard much about...

Not to mention whilst the mindless mob is busy going after him, the government can look better by calling for contracts/the law to be ignored in his case, whilst at the same time it keeps the papers from looking too closely at how they've mishandled the whole situation.
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what gilly said...oh and this

Von Smallhausen said:
I wonder how many people here would hand back such a pension pot ?

Not many I wager.

The Government knew about his pension and I dont care what they say to the contary. He is being used as a scapegoat by them to deflect tensions over the current economic plight and I hope they fall flat on their arse over it.

If this is about not rewarding failure then perhaps several ministers whose expenses are under question could hand back extortionate claims for second homes that they pop into every week for a cup of tea, given the shower that the government is and the country is as a result.
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I am still of the opinion this guy did nothing wrong, the people handing out the contracts and pensions are the ones who should be held responsible so attacking his home is just daft.
 
Chimerical said:
These kinds of justifications used to rationalise the irresponsibility of bankers are getting really annoying.
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the point is, he didn't barge in going "AHAHA give me lots of monies for a pension" he was OFFERED it. Yes it's huge, yes it's wrong, but everyone inc the goverment knew about it.

Whilst I agree he could end the matter by cutting it down somewhat, whilst still living well. Due to the media spin on it all, some people won't rest until he's begging for 1p chew bars on the streets, homeless and all.
 
Chimerical said:
These kinds of justifications used to rationalise the irresponsibility of bankers are getting really annoying.
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The truth hurts some might say.

I find his deal leaves a bitter taste given that the bank was bailed out by the taxpayer but what irks me more are the masses of the self-righteous who would cling to that sort of deal as if their lives depended on it.
 
da_mic_1530 said:
the point is, he didn't barge in going "AHAHA give me lots of monies for a pension" he was OFFERED it. Yes it's huge, yes it's wrong, but everyone inc the goverment knew about it.

Whilst I agree he could end the matter by cutting it down somewhat, whilst still living well. Due to the media spin on it all, some people won't rest until he's begging for 1p chew bars on the streets, homeless and all.
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Yes, I'm not saying he wasn't offered it. I don't even care that he is getting it in all honesty. But the same old "well you would do the same thing in that or that situation" argument is getting tiresome. And this doesn't just apply to pensions; people are using this justification for all the mistakes made and the greed of the banking industry as a whole.

I don't pretend to understand the economy but there is such a thing as personal responsibility.

Von Smallhausen said:
The truth hurts some might say.

I find his deal leaves a bitter taste given that the bank was bailed out by the taxpayer but what irks me more are the masses of the self-righteous who would cling to that sort of deal as if their lives depended on it.
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You could use that same justification for anything. Yes people do get self-righteous over it but its hardly suprising that someone like Fred Goodwin is getting so much publicity. To look at an unrelated incident I imagine people got self-righteous over Steve Mclaren getting paid £2m(?) for failing to quality for Euro 2008. That doesn't mean that he shouldn't take the money but at the same time it means he isn't immune from judgement.
 
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The government could have stopped his pension or done a number of things but instead they did very little. Their excuse was that "we didn't think that we could do anything about it". Well how about making sure of that, its quite an important amount of money to the public. The government are to blame on this one yet seem to have come out of it the victims.
 
Whilst I find Sir Freds attitude towards him keeping his pension in poor taste, the fact remains that he negotiated this and it was agreed, in law.

Now that the Likes of Brown are shown to be the morons that they are, somehow Sir Fred is the scapegoat....

I'm sure when Sir fred see's the likes of Brown & Blair handing back the piles of cash they have made from steering this country onto the rocks, he will consider his position, a position thats probably not under any kind of threat, mindless vandals or not.
 
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