Comments on: Osborne lets public bank bonuses rip, despite right’s obsession with public sector pay

By: Ed's Talking Balls

Ed's Talking Balls — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:27:49 +0000

True enough, I can’t disagree with any of that. I was merely concerned that you were trying to make this a left-right issue, when quite clearly both parties were and are unwilling to address a rampant bonus culture. There’s no point pretending.

And you are absolutely right, we are not “all in this together”. What a nonsense slogan.

By: Mr. Sensible

Mr. Sensible — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 07:30:49 +0000

Ed, look, I have said several times on here that the previous government should have done more to regulate the financial system, along with every other major industrial economy.

But what exactly is this one doing about it? No bonus restraint under Project Paper Bag (that name is more appropriate given what Lord Oakeshott said), no agreement on pay transparrency, and grose, not net, lending targets which are not being met. Osborne can give us all the rhetoric in the world about us all being in this together, but I, for one, simply don’t believe it.

By: mark

mark — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 07:23:16 +0000

RT @leftfootfwd: Osborne lets public bank bonuses rip, despite right's obsession with public sector pay http://t.co/OyEGj2p

By: Yancey Thomas

Yancey Thomas — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:23:59 +0000

Osborne lets public bank bonuses rip, despite right's obsession with public … http://bit.ly/n3onVc

By: Ed's Talking Balls

Ed's Talking Balls — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:31:24 +0000

‘double standards on the right’

Please tell us all of the left’s courageous actions on banking excesses over the last decade or so, Mr. Sensible. We’re all ears…

By: Mr. Sensible

Mr. Sensible — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:30:03 +0000

So the outcome of project paper bag is complete double standards on the right…

By: Leon Wolfson

Leon Wolfson — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:59:20 +0000

One good concept I heard proposed today is a bonus tax, with a rate based on the multiple over the lowest salary worker in the company.

By: Dave Citizen

Dave Citizen — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:51:44 +0000

Jonathan, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head: there is no way of legitimating this blatant greed. It’s impossible for a person to work so much better or take so much bigger risks than say a soldier, that they ‘deserve’ such rewards.

About all one can say is that, at the moment, we let them get away with it so they grab it while they can.

By: jonathan

jonathan — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:21:04 +0000

It seems as if there is an insane obsession amongst bankers where their worth and status are measured by how much bonus they can give themselves. I may be wrong here but there seems to be no social contribution measure such as the banks contribution to GDP, that could balance this blatant greed.

By: Ed's Talking Balls

Ed's Talking Balls — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:03:55 +0000

Come off it Dave – as I read it, Robert was simply providing a proper context.

Yes, of course people should be free to criticise a government when it is acting (or failing to act) in a certain way. But to do so from a party political stance when your own house is anything but in order is a bit off.

Exasperation at the coalition for soaring bank bonuses is fair enough, but not if you fail to acknowledge that the Labour Party did the same and, had it won the election, would no doubt be doing the same now (i.e. precisely nothing).