Prime Minister Gordon Brown today voiced his anger at “irresponsible” bankers who, he says, should be “punished” for their actions. He also criticised the banking world’s big bonuses.
Mr Brown said the days of “big bonuses” for banking bosses were over as London’s leading share exchange held steady following the announcement of yesterday’s £50 billion rescue package.
Banks who signed up to the rescue plan would have to accept that there could be no more huge bonus pay-outs for top executives, he added.
“One of the conditions of us helping the banks is that we will have to reach an agreement about their executive remuneration,” he said.
The Prime Minister attacked the way that the operations of some of the banks had left them dangerously exposed following the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market in the United States.
“Where these guys have taken irresponsible risks, that is completely unacceptable. I am angry at irresponsible behaviour.r Brown was speaking as the Footsie opened more than 1.5 per cent higher following a five per cent fall on Wednesday, despite the Government’s bail-out of the banking industry and a 0.5 per cent cut in the Bank of England base rate to 4.5 per cent. HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland shares were up 16 per cent and 19 per cent respectively.
17 Comments
Quite right - we should a maximum wage in this country of 30K for EVERYONE regardless of whetehr you run a bank, play football, or your part of the royal family and the min wage should be set at 28K that way we would have a fair and just society with no greed
What a hypocrite! This is the same Gordon Brown who’s spent the last eleven years praising these parasites, while letting manufacturing industry and small businesses go down the pan.
Will GB be leading by example and take a pay cut and stop claiming unnecessary expenses? I doubt it because he aint gona be getting many more PM Pay-cheques!
Y Mab: Interesting proposal, but I assume that benefits would be like a minimum of £15k pa under your scheme?
Quite agree Rob, the man and his party are hypocrits, when it suits them they are anti banks and big business and are all for the poor little “man in the street” and the unions, fighting against the oppressors etc. Underneath their benign, humane facade however are the greedy, grasping, corrupt Shylocks who are more into financial and economic shenanigans than ever the Tories were. The Tories are so “inexpert” at corrupt and questionable practices that they are easily found out and problems are invariably nipped in the bud before things get out of hand. The Labourites however, are so calculating, so devious, so proffessional at matters of skullduggery that things go on and on without being found out until all of a sudden the world collapses about our ears in one almighty catastrophe, as we are now experiencing. When we lived on borrowed money for 11 years without having to pay it back, Brown was the best thing since sliced bread, when the wheel comes off due to his maniacal policies and irresponsibility however, what cry goes up, “not me guv, I didn’t do it, it was those Conservatives who left office and who I took over from 11 years ago, they did it”. No more “boom and bust” did he say, what have we experienced then, some “boom”, all on borrowed money, some “bust”, now the bailiffs have come to call and they want their money back. The cupboard is bare.
Y Mab Darogan, your comment would be this country would become a communist state which will never happen. Renumeration should be based on individual merits. However, the banking profession should sign a code of conduct, all banking professionals should pass finance exams, not just have a degree in geography! and all bonuses should be outlawed. This would hopefully remove the selfish mavericks who are only interested in their own gain and not that of their customers. Everything should be transparent and all bank CEO’s appraised by the Bank of England on a yearly basis.
Lucy W - In my systems with a max wage of 30K and a min wage just under. People would not be paid benefits.
people on benefits would get the minimum vouchers required to exchange for food and energy. They would not be entitled to cash for luxuries ie alcohol, tobacco, dvd’s, cd’s etc this would encourage people on benefits to actively seek work.
Woody - My system may sound very similar to the communist but I think we can all agree that the events of the past 18 months have shown that the capitalist system has FAILED bigtime. Many people are now going to be faced with reduced council amenities - due to the Iceland fiasco.
Surely a modified communist sytem would be good for our country instead of the greedy country we live in at the moment
Y Mab & Woody: Re Communism, I have a friend from East Germany and when someone asked if she was pleased the wall was down she that before “at least everyone had a job.” To be honest we fear communism because we associate it with tyranny, but communism itself isn’t so bad.
Can anyone tell me why anyone would put all their money in a Bank that was really a frozen food retailer - honestly, didn’t people realise they would go bust by keeping all the cash in the cold store?
Front page of today’s daily telegraph
What crises? City lines up £3.5 bn in bonuses.
a typical lurch to the left from this commie PM, sack the MP’s and give the money to the poor bankers who deserve a pay rise to see them through the tough time (which is not their fault its Labours!)
A good messge that the MPs should lead by example and take a pay cut
and our local councillors who get 50p a mile and 100 quid a meeting too!!
These poor bankers have major decisions to make itseither a 14 day Holiday in the Bahamas or a silver putter!! sheer hell for them! all Tory boys
Yeah right –
So Brown is going to stop Banks giving large bonuses?
I don’t think so. - Is he going to act as “headmaster” to all the Banks - and sit on every board meeting discussing salary / bonuses? - so how does he propose to do it?
The only thing this government is good at is persecuting ordinary people (and penguins with leaflets) with cameras, ID cards etc , and Little Hitlers disguised as Rubbish Bin collection operatives / parking wardens.
The greedy, and the wealthy will never really suffer in this country unless there is a fundamental change in government attitude that favours the general populace, and recognition of who actually creates true wealth*
(* Creation of true wealth is acheived by “changing the state of physical raw material” i.e maunfacturing)
in the 1970’s high earners faced a 98% tax band, (under a then Socialist government).
we had 3 day weeks. Constant power cuts.
I guess Y Mab sees that as the good old days.
Any limit on wages (either caused by a £30k limit or massive tax rises) will immediately see an exodus of talented people from the UK.
I guess Y Mab would then be the first to complain that public and private services deteriorated as a consequence.
Strikes me as the typical politics of envy, “if I can’t have it, no one else should”
R P-B: Well I’m all for a three day week, as long as the shops are open seven days.
RPB - There would also be a block on people leaving the UK - If your born in the UK you STAY in the UK….
Y Mab: You can forget that. I’m waiting for the world to get in a real mess then buying up a nice piece of New Zealand at rock bottom.