At some point in October 2008, likely between the time when the afflictions began but before specific names were mentioned, a neighbor of Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, instructed John Kingman, one of the minister’s slaves, to make a “witch cake”, using traditional English white magic to discover the identity of the banker who was afflicting the system. The cake, made from rye meal and urine from the afflicted assets, was fed to a dog.
According to English and Scottish folk understanding of how bankers accomplished affliction, when the dog ate the cake, the banker himself would be hurt because invisible particles he had sent to afflict the assets remained in the bankers urine, and his cries of pain when the dog ate the cake would identify him as the banker. This superstition was based on the Santsian “Doctrine of Remuneration Policies”, which posited that bankers afflicted by the use of “venomous and malignant particles, that were ejected from the eye”, according to the October 8, 2008 letter of The Epicurean Dealmaker, a contemporary critic of the trials.
Historical text doctored from Wikipedia, etc
Before Shredded Fred Goodwin has his body hung and crushed with stones and then discarded in a shallow grave, or whatever punishment the Daily Mail recommends, in the case of the crash of the Royal Bank of Scotland there is a need to properly apportion blame.
There is widespread outrage that Sir Fred saw his pension pot doubled when he was forced to retire last autumn, at the tender age of 50, giving the RBS man a payment of £650,000 a year. A treasury spokesman responded to Pestowire thus:
Since they became aware of this issue UKFI have been vigorously pursuing with the new Chairman whether there is any scope for clawing back some or all of this pension entitlement and whether the Board took the decision in the full knowledge of the facts.
UKFI has agreed with RBS that the bank will review all aspects of Sir Fred’s tenure in office with a view to testing to the full any potential for legal redress, including the potential for recouping pension provision.
This is another example of the culture of rewards for failure that we are determined to sweep away for the future. We are committed to cleaning up the banking system – both the financial balance sheets of the banks and behaviour of those who lead them.
We assume no one is seriously suggesting that Sir Fred secretly raided the RBS safe before fleeing the Edinburgh HQ. His pension, along with the rest of his remuneration, was set by a committee of board members. Here are the people UKFI should be pursuing – members of the RBS board remuneration committee: Peter Sutherland, Bob Scott, Janis Kong, Jim Currie, Colin Buchan and Sir Tom McKillop.
It will be interesting to see how the case develops. Perhaps it could be extended to pension clawbacks being imposed on failed politicians?
Related links:
RBS 2007 accounts
The remuneration model – FT Alphaville