Bankers bonus's a symptom not the cause

The recent 'Hesteria' has been revealing. The Tories, majority funded by the City, went on about 'fairness' and bankers' bonuses but failed to challenge RBS boss Stephen Hester's £1 million bung.
The huge anger about Hester's bonus was reflected in the over 80,000 signatures collected in 48 hours demanding its non-payment. In the end Hester rescued a flailing Cameron by saying he wouldn't take the cash. Undoubtedly, securing his less well-advertised £3.3 million payment figured in his calculations.


The anger out there towards bankers is certainly growing I’d say but many including the labour party feel that just challenging bankers bonus’s this will create a more responsible capitalism and we can all go back to before the crash of 2008. Wrong very wrong the bonus system is a symptom of the system of capitalism and finance capitalism in particular. Labour seem to forget they allowed all these bonus’s to go on during their watch, now they are railing against it all. Hypocrisy much ?


The reality is that Hester is not unique in being offered a multi-million bonus. Barclay's Bob 'no more remorse' Diamond is in line for £10 million! And obscene pay does not just exist in banking - average FTSE executive pay is £4.2 million.
Would-be pension thief and Unilever chief exec Paul Polman receives £3.5 million a year, including £300,000 into his own pension. Last year, the man who earns 285 times more than his workers, said: "What I want is a sustainable and equitable capitalism."
"Pious baloney!" Although this is reactionary US Republican Newt Gingrich's phrase, it does sums up the politicians' current fashion for fulminating on inequality while, in reality, carrying through the impoverishment of millions.
Why this fixation? While planning no deviation from staggeringly savage austerity, the bosses and politicians fear our rage. The tip of the enormous iceberg of this rage made itself known in 2011 in the ever-expanding Occupy movement but especially in massive general strikes.
They fear these movements will pose a threat to their profit system and hope that showing some concern will stave off the oncoming challenges. But they're wrong.
Labour leader Ed Miliband's talk of 'good' and 'bad' capitalism is baloney - capitalism is a system based on exploitation and profiteering. The TUC has revealed that workers have lost an unbelievable £1.3 trillion in wages over the last 30 years as the bosses grab an ever greater share of the wealth in profits.
We need to build a mass movement to fight for genuine socialist nationalisation of the entire banking system and the big corporations, putting the levers of the economy in our hands - not those of the super-rich.

That has to be part of a democratic plan, coordinated with workers internationally.

You can run, you can hide, but we know waht you are

News today of Sir Fred Godwin to take out a super injunction to keep his name out of the public eye will not go unoticed as one of the culprits of teh banking crisis in the last few years. the guardians article below explains all:

Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, who became popularly know n as Fred the Shred.

The controversial former bank chief Sir Fred Goodwin is the latest high profile figure to obtain a superinjunction, it has emerged.

The existence of the measure – which bans the press from reporting that an injunction has been obtained – can be revealed after a backbench Liberal Democrat, John Hemming, raised the issue in the Commons.

"In a secret hearing this week Fred Goodwin has obtained a superinjunction preventing him being identified as a banker," said Hemming, the MP for Birmingham Yardley.

Hemming, who used parliamentary privilege to avoid the legal ban on reporting the use of superinjunctions, asked: "Will the government have a debate or a statement on freedom of speech and whether there's one rule for the rich like Fred Goodwin and one rule for the poor?"

Goodwin, who presided over the near collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland, was reported to have been angered by press coverage after he became popularly known as "Fred the Shred".

He attracted widespread media attention after he was forced to step down in 2008 as a non-negotiable condition of the bank's £20bn bailout by the taxpayer. Goodwin initially left RBS with a pension of £700,000 a year and a lump sum of nearly £3m. He agreed to reduce the payout following public outcry.

News that Goodwin has obtained a superinjunction – over issues that cannot be reported – has raised further questions about the use of the measures.

Last year an outcry prompted the judiciary to establish a committee – chaired by the master of the rolls, Lord Neuberger – to investigate superinjunctions. The committee, which includes judges, lawyers and experts from the press, is expected to deliver its findings before Easter.

Hemming's decision to use parliamentary privilege follows increasing frustration amongst MPs at the willingness of the courts to continue granting superinjunctions.


I find this absolutely shameful that he cant even face up to his mistakes and has to take out a injunction to stop the press finding out what he really is. What a low life coward. I really hope people like this get their comupance one day when the revolution comes. Horrible people who have only their own interests at heart. Not other people who have been suffering due to his sectors failings.

If i was fred i'd hang my head in shame the shame he has brought on his industry and class. But waht gets me is how he is allowed to do this, how is this a transparant democractic country when people like him can do this ? its not on in myopinion and i for one wont be forgetting his mess and other bankers mess they created for us. Which the working class are now having to pay up for their mistakes.