I noted that whilst we are all in this (by "this" I mean bankrupt Britian) together, the directors of the awful Railtrack... you know the company whose shoddy work makes millions of train journeys on the worst railways system in Western Europe into a living hell, announced their bonuses today.
They of course, bless them, have reacted to the advice of the government not to be ostentatious about them, by....er being ostentatious about them, and they are even bigger than their massive six figure salaries.
Network Rail’s top directors are getting bonuses totalling more than £2.25 million, including £641,000 for chief executive Iain Coucher whose annual salary is £613,000 and who drives an Aston Martin DB9. (Hmmm, I’m always suspicious of someone whose name translates as “to sleep”.)
Unbelievably NR chairman Rick Haythornthwaite said the bonuses "had been earned". Clearly this is a man who speaks a different version of English from the one I call my maternal tongue and used up his talent for English trying to learn his over-long name.
Everyone it seems, who has anything to do with the railways has warned the company not to pay massive bonuses, but when it comes to greed, this lot appear to be practising for seats in the House of Lords, such is their monumental cheek. Philip Hammond the Transport Minister in England said he was "very disappointed that NR
executives have accepted bonuses of this scale in the current climate". Bob Crow of the RMT union said that they had "got away with daylight robbery", and the Office of Rail Regulation also criticized the size of the bonuses.
Like the banks, who do exactly the same kind of thing, this company is subsidized by the taxpayer, and to pay bonuses of this size for a frankly shoddy service is kicking us in the teeth over and over and over again.
It shows that they hold the people who pay for their subsidies in utter contempt. And there is nothing anyone can do about it. They have it all sorted so why would they care?
It's a lovely feeling, this being all in it together... comradely and warm knowing that life is equally miserable for all and some of the top brass may suffer too... After all, have you tried to live without an under butler, and an upstairs maid?
More seriously government will have to try to get a grip on the flouting of the “all in this together”.
Garden parties, massive bonuses, private jets a
nd helicopters, ministerial cars, despite Cameron’s ban on their use for non essential journeys, etc, etc, are really rankling with people who are being told that for the third year their £150 a week can’t be increased, and in fact their hours may have to be reduced, or they may be made redundant...
....And God help them if they are because there will be someone from the Dept of Work and Pensions at their door within the first half hour telling them that unless they get a job within 2 days their benefit will be stopped.
Photographs: Aston Martin driver Iain Coucher; and pictures associate with Railways and Stations in Britian.
They of course, bless them, have reacted to the advice of the government not to be ostentatious about them, by....er being ostentatious about them, and they are even bigger than their massive six figure salaries.
Network Rail’s top directors are getting bonuses totalling more than £2.25 million, including £641,000 for chief executive Iain Coucher whose annual salary is £613,000 and who drives an Aston Martin DB9. (Hmmm, I’m always suspicious of someone whose name translates as “to sleep”.)
Unbelievably NR chairman Rick Haythornthwaite said the bonuses "had been earned". Clearly this is a man who speaks a different version of English from the one I call my maternal tongue and used up his talent for English trying to learn his over-long name.
Everyone it seems, who has anything to do with the railways has warned the company not to pay massive bonuses, but when it comes to greed, this lot appear to be practising for seats in the House of Lords, such is their monumental cheek. Philip Hammond the Transport Minister in England said he was "very disappointed that NR
executives have accepted bonuses of this scale in the current climate". Bob Crow of the RMT union said that they had "got away with daylight robbery", and the Office of Rail Regulation also criticized the size of the bonuses.Like the banks, who do exactly the same kind of thing, this company is subsidized by the taxpayer, and to pay bonuses of this size for a frankly shoddy service is kicking us in the teeth over and over and over again.
It shows that they hold the people who pay for their subsidies in utter contempt. And there is nothing anyone can do about it. They have it all sorted so why would they care?
It's a lovely feeling, this being all in it together... comradely and warm knowing that life is equally miserable for all and some of the top brass may suffer too... After all, have you tried to live without an under butler, and an upstairs maid?
More seriously government will have to try to get a grip on the flouting of the “all in this together”.
Garden parties, massive bonuses, private jets a
nd helicopters, ministerial cars, despite Cameron’s ban on their use for non essential journeys, etc, etc, are really rankling with people who are being told that for the third year their £150 a week can’t be increased, and in fact their hours may have to be reduced, or they may be made redundant.......And God help them if they are because there will be someone from the Dept of Work and Pensions at their door within the first half hour telling them that unless they get a job within 2 days their benefit will be stopped.
Photographs: Aston Martin driver Iain Coucher; and pictures associate with Railways and Stations in Britian.
