We're All In This Together (part 44 or is it 45)

[rhondda rudie]

Royal Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester has received a bonus in shares worth £963,000 on top of his £1.2m salary.He received a similar bonus of £2m last year.You could argue that government has no place in interfering with private sector pay.Except RBS isn't in the private sector,it's 81% taxpayer owned.

And there's me thinking we're in the middle of a public sector pay freeze.

[JB40]

an emergency meeting of the politburo, good idea comrade.

and the examples of tory duplicity come thick and fast.

even boris [the stephen lawrence murder was not racially motivated, and murdochs phone hacking was all a left-wing conspiracy] johnson is having a hard time defending his pals in the city. Not that anyone will do anything about it, even though cameron has the power to veto it, as a representative of the tax-payers who bailed them out, he hasn't shown any willingness to act.

even though the tax-payers own over 80% of RBS shares, apparently the 'shareholders' have voted this bonus through. so much for any kind of shareholder revolt. it ain't gonna happen.

so, if nobody is defending the bonus, and there is a mechanism for the tax-payers to veto the bonus, why then haven't we seen anybody act on our behalf.???

Are the tories rolling out that old chestnut that 'government should not interfere with commercial decisions'.

could it be that behind that is the old tory myth that, somehow, commercial decisions are best left up to private companies, with no interference from government. This is because commercial business decisions are best left to company executives able to act without regulation.

the old discredited idea that unregulated capitalism will make the best decisions. It also includes the discredited idea of 'trickle down'. if the corporations are free to make as much money as possible, that, somehow, that wealth will find itself filtering down to those at the bottom. thirty years of de-regulation has proved that money actually trickles UP.

the other side of the coin in the argument is that state run institutions are inefficient.

but that's a lie too.

in the few years before the tories started to run down the railways ready to sell them off to private companies, british rail decided to carry out safety upgrades. the last two times they did it, the upgrades were brought in on time and on budget.

since that time, the private companies running the railways have failed to equal the efficiency of the the BR upgrades.

since the companies took over safety has suffered a decline, and costs have skyrocketed.

this puts a lie to the efficiency of 'open markets'.

it's all a big con. and not a very subtle one.

and all cameron can do is bleat about how damaging it is to these companies to have to pay a decent wage and provide secure conditions for workers. like thats the big problem.

[rhondda rudie]

Yes comrade,well said.

It's also worth pointing out that RBS is still in existence because of government interference.

And as a shareholder nobody asked for my vote.

[Dean M]

how is he going to cope with only £900 grand bonus?

they better get some collection buckets out for him