Sunday 4 December 2011

IT WILL BE LIKE TAKING CANDY FROM A ....VERY ANGRY SWARM OF KILLER BEES

Nick Clegg has said the government is going to get tough on executives who take home ridiculous sums of money often for failing miserably to do their job properly.


He and his government may well be reacting to the news that, word from last Wednesday's marches was that was most commonly complained about injustice was the fact that the average increases in pay at the top was 49% in comparison with the 0%-3% average of everyone else.  


To add to the insult, many of the people who managed to increase their pay by that amount had led the companies they managed into debt with bad decisions, disastrous take overs, and lack of management control on sections of the company. 


The perfect example, of course, is the CEO of Lloyd's bank, Eric Daniels, who agreed to Gordon Brown's proposal to take over HBOS without "due diligence". In short he didn't check how insolvent the bank was. He was also at the helm when all the dodgy insurance policies were sold, ripping off customers like old wallpaper in order to make a quick buck. He left the company with a loss of nearly £4 billion but took £1.4 million bonus. The company hopes to recover some of that now the full extent of his incompetence is known, but that may prove impossible!


Of course the government can't directly set the salaries of people in the private sector. I believe that was tried by way of a Prices and Incomes policy back in the 70s, and it failed, possibly because people found ways round it.


I seriously doubt that any Tory dominated cabinet would accept setting some sort of maximum payment based on multiples of, say, the minimum wage or lowest salary in the company. Not with well over 60% of party funding coming from the City and much more from rich individuals who gain from the free for all.



At the moment pay is set by committees comprising non executive directors, who usually rely on the people whose salaries they are setting to set their own salaries, as members of the remuneration committees of the companies where they are employed. So it's a you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours kind of situation. Chaps just help other chaps out. 



However, in many other European countries the committee that sets salaries for the people at the top must include a quota of shop floor workers. 


This is one idea that Clegg said the government was looking at. Labour has apparently been supportive of it (although you have to question what stopped them doing it during the 13 years they had the power to do so).


If the government is beginning to understand that constantly saying "we are all in this together" without actually meaning it or it being remotely true, is simply not enough to quell the anger of "ordinary hard working British families up and down the country", then that's a step in the right direction. Praise where it is due.


I  genuinely wish Clegg good luck with this policy. It will be an uphill struggle all the way, against the companies and his Tory backbenchers, many of whom are members of boards themselves!


Rather than 2 pics of Clegg, I though that pandas would be a more attractive alternative.

35 comments:

  1. I genuinely wish Clegg hell and damnation! he is just waffling the waffle to con the voters that he is for the little guy against the big guy.

    The fact is Cameron has already laughed in face at his proposal and called him a silly litte knobhead.
    Osborne said if Clegg could get it through Parliament he would pay for it himself and then laughed his pants off.

    Perhaps Clegg may say to the torys if they dont put this into law he Cleggy will walk out of the Coalition ...........Err! dont think so.

    Ya! see Cameron and Cleggy have a deal in which each makes a unachievable proposal.
    Goes around the TV etc giving it large already knowing the other will not support it.But each gains some Kudos(they imagine) from making out they are trying to do something for their core support but are unable due the others intransigence.

    Apparently when they come with this wizzo idea they and Osborne fell abhat laughing at the British electorate or as they call them in private.......the dozy wankers.

    I know this as i have bugged their respective underpants the things you hear(dont ask)

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  2. Well, you may have a point there Niko.

    I guess.

    How did you bug their underpants?

    No. On second thoughts don't tell me. Tell Brownlie. You and he seem to have a thing about underpants.

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  3. An ex PM has gone to work for 3 days in the last 18 months when is that recall bill getting started. £69.9 billion in tax avoidance every year x 7 as HRMC can go back 7 years that is where all the wealth of this country is going into offshore accounts.

    I wouldn't give Clegg credit for anything tris as his party is as Tory as the red and blue rosette wearers.

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  4. Yes the avoidance would probably go a long way to pay off our deficit.

    And interestingly, I've heard criticism here that the Greeks just don't pay their taxes. Ho Ho.

    Still when the chancellor of the exchequer* hides his money in the British Virgin Islands (over which the UK government retains some power) you know that you are in trouble.

    *This was alleged in a "Despatches" a year or so ago and has, to the best of my knowledge, never been challenged.

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  5. As for Clegg... I'm incl;ined to agree with you, but hope springs eternal CH

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  6. The rich and well off Greeks just ignored paying tax and the poorer in society just followed suit.

    Greeks Balk at Paying Steep New Property Tax

    But in its latest push to raise cash, the Greek government sent him a new $372 real estate tax bill, incorporated into his October electric statement.

    Mr. Chatzis says he is being asked to choose between lights and paying for his wife’s medicines, since he cannot afford both on his $720-a-month pension.


    The only way is default which will hit us all now but to continue down the path we have been stumbling on since 07,08 is only going to make matters far far worse allowing the wealthy time to protect themselves and come back later to carry on as if nothing had happened.

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  7. Osborne is non dom and his money is in an offshore family trust.

    Blair is non dom too and his fragrant wife Cherie (as well his kids) have taken Irish nationality.

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  8. Yes CH.

    They are they same as us, but the poor didn't follow suit, probably because, inefficient and inaccurate though the IR is, it does have a system whereby it put the onus of tax collection on companies, so those of us who just have a salary to worry about, or a few pounds in the building society, have our taxes collected before we see any of the money.

    That's what the Greeks need.

    Although what they need much more is what Iceland has. The Cornish Republican in the bloglist has a couple of good articles on Iceland and its people's revolution. No messing with them.

    I didn't know that that filthy murder Blair had taken Irish citizenship? How did that happen?

    Do they have a better system than the brits for overlooking rich people's taxes?

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  9. Sorry, Wolfie, the latter part of that was intended as a response to your comment on the Blairs.

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  10. Not Tony, although I think he could technically speaking do so, if his wife is Irish

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  11. Cherie becomes non dom and can funnel consultancy etc money through Eire.

    Maybe she works for a family trust set up through Ireland?

    Remember Osborne is also "Irish".

    I'll put a bag of sweeties that Haughy, the Glasgow Fridge Magnate and mate of Steven Purcell is non dom, having his main home in The Caymans.

    The IR don't comment on deals they do with companies or individuals.

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  12. Yes I read the Iceland links earlier but the UK is protecting the on the run from interpol bankers in the city of Westminster which is a tax haven in the middle of London. The Irish government is no different from the vast number of rulers around the world who take their orders from the money men.

    SURVIVING PROGRESS

    It will take a couple of hours to listen to the video clips but I guarantee it will get people to rethink in how we can move forward, I think Dean and Niko will only get off their arses after everybody else has moved on.

    Everyone's problem is the MSM as they just parrot politicians rhetoric as their jobs depend on them.

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  13. Ho ho, Wolfie. He must have got the idea from Philip Green and his Monegasque wife.

    Is there anyone from "up the top" that isn't corrupt?

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  14. Lupus why the Silverback pic? Just being nosy as, if my memory serves me right, that fruit he's eating pongs to high heaven I believe.

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  15. CH


    Yes it is what you think and I changed it just for fun.

    and yes it is genuine as I took at London Zoo.

    Why is he doing it?

    He cannot make a particular vitamin which is produced by some bacteria in the gut so, somehow he knows to eat a little bit now and again.

    I've never verified it but it was told to me by an animal nutritionist. Hos expertise is pigs but it makes a good story.

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  16. Thanks for the links CH.

    My feeling is that we are all being mightily conned. The money is still there, the skills are still there, the people are still there. So why is there a crisis? Because the markets say so.

    We've hear "the markets" all our lives, so we just accept them. But who or what are the markets?

    Well, they are the banks and financial institutions of course, and they are the ones who are gambling on the Greeks, Italians, Spanish, and will on the Brits, although it will be harder to wreck the Pound because, outside of the € there are actions that the BoE can take.

    So we give them money to sort out their mess; they use it to pay shareholders, bonuses and support for the Tories; they refuse to lend to people and businesses, forcing the government to do so, and they put pressure on other countries in the €, hoping to profit from destabilising them... all on our money.

    Sheesh... the hard-working families up and down the country are just plain thick.


    There's another good article from Sturdy Blog (also on the bloglist) about "the markets". He puts it far more eloquently than I do. I reckon he's got much more of a handle on economics than I. (Not hard, some would say!)

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  17. It is vit B12 which is important for red cell formation and oxygenation

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  18. Woolfie: They sell it at Boots. And you get 4p in the pound off if you have a card!!!!!!

    :)

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  19. Just thinking a bit more about Osborne and Blair.

    Osborne is an Irish Peer.

    Blair is non dom because he works abroad and spends less than a certain number of days a year in the UK.

    One was HM Rev has of defining whether you are non dom is that you don't have your principle home in the UK (easy by way of offshore cover companies) and have not significant tie to the UK, such as a wife and weans. So if his wife is an Irish citizen, it all gets very complicated.

    Most of the online betting organisations, 365, Paddy Power, BetWin etc are run out of Gibraltar. The owners are Gib residents but can fly up on Tuesday and fly back Friday evening. 365/2 = 182 days

    `182/4 = 45 weeks a year. Take off holidays and bingo.

    The nerds are however based in Gib and they have a special tax bracket for them HEPPS

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  20. I have to take Vit B12 on prescription.

    I don't prefer the alternative.

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  21. Hmmmm... the things you learn when you have a blog.

    Imagine O'Gideon is a milord, and you're on Vit B12!!! LOL

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  22. Cheers Lupus.
    Saw this and being generous.

    Someone has stolen my doormat..#justsayin” < you could always borrow Clegg when Cameron is not using him!

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  23. I think Charlie Brooker had an intriguing idea on how to deall with politicians on TV tonight

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  24. And what was that Anon?

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  25. Is it true that there are more pandas in Scotland than Tory MPs' ?

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  26. Monty: There's more of just about anything than there is of Tory MPs in Scotland!

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  27. Put in an entry myself CH.

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  28. That is one beautiful bear....

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  29. Looks like Alistair Darling :)

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  30. But much more handsome.

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  31. Oh theyre 'really' Pandas tris? I thought for a moment that the electorate had caught up with the two C's and blacked both their eyes for them in a gesture of solidarity during this time of financial 'difficulty'...

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  32. Your funny Nonmine :)

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