How ironic that the chair of the
Business,Innovation and Skills select committee thinks that handing over more
fees to the banks, which set the sale price of Royal Mail far too low, would
"reward bankers at the expense of the taxpayer". This is what
successive governments have been doing for years, and continue to do so, even
after the financial disaster their greed caused in 2008. £375bn of quantitative
easing was not enough for the banks, even though there was no requirement
imposed on them to lend to small businesses in order to kickstart the economy.
Rich bankers were given huge amounts of money by the chancellor`s reduction of
the top rate of income tax, and when the EU at last decided to cap bankers`
bonuses, it was the same chancellor who flew to Brussells on their behalf,
claiming the cap`s illegality. Despite their fraudulent behaviour, with the
mis-selling of PPI, Libor fixing and manipulation of currency markets, with even
some laundering of Mexican drug money as well, bankers face few, if any,
criminal charges, and their CEOs whose astronomical pay is always justified by
their huge responsibilities, never actually take the responsibility for their
underlings` abject behaviour.
Of course they should not be paid the extra
millions; as their incompetence cost the Treasury possibly billions, they should
be returning the money already paid. However, as the Tory-led coalition was so
willing to accept the low valuation, it is likely they considered possible extra
votes gained in the 2015 election as good value. However, value for the taxpayer
was never a consideration; they would never have sold a business bringing in
£200m profit a year if it was!
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