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.