Spiralling Pensions Scandal

Posted by Strangely Freedom Add comments

Feb 262009

It Goes From Bad to Worse!

RBS

In a completely passive demonstration of non-government and how toothless our government’s words are, it’s now been shown that not only does former RBS gaffer, Fred Goodwin get a massive pension of ~£33k monthly take-home, but the pot from which it’s being taken is already £2 billion under-funded!!

The staggering gauze of deceit that’s been drifted across all our eyes for the last decade is now settling like the odious juices emanating from a rotting corpse.

Not content with bringing his company down by his gambling habit, Goodwin has emptied the pension pot to boot! Funnily enough, he omitted to mention any of this when he was recently questioned … And No. The bank he was boss of was not one of the world’s top five banks – it only seemed that way for a few years and was actually completely bankrupt because the continual fraudulent gambling activities at his instigation. And he doesn’t deserve any of his pay because of these actions. (e.g. profit one year, ~£20bn; profit next year, -£27bn and a reduction in assets of £325bn. If a chip shop was run like this it’s comparable to selling one portion and then losing the shop. Idiot!). He in fact deserves a big kick up the arse and chucking in the River Tyne with the tide going out. Certainly, a minimal pension is the most he should get as none of his actions from sacking staff (Fred the Shred indeed!) to bankrupting secure businesses are worthy of any recognition apart from sanction.

Royal(!) Mail & Government

In a similar process of subterfuge, the Royal Mail workers have been told that the only way to save the company (because it’s short of cash), is by ditching their pensions, flogging their cream business to leeches and flogging the rest of themselves off, making the “service” even less relevant and thus slowly to die …

The reasons for the Royal Mail money shortage are not rooted in today’s events. They are because of the actions, starting with the 90s Tory government, of having a “pensions holiday”. Because Royal Mail didn’t contribute for years at this time, the pot got smaller.

Q. So what happened to the “spare” money?
A. It was used to stoke up the general finances of the country because we were in a … ahem … recession, housing slump, deja vu …

Check out This Google Search for the term “pensions holiday”. There are >4600 results! This action is used (legally, but not morally) to allow companies to excuse themselves from their financial obligations.

Suggestions for H.M. Government:

DON’T ask Fred Goodwin for the money back. Take it! He has absolutely no right to it. If the company had collapsed as it should’ve done because of his gambling fits, he’d be entitled to a pension of ~£20k
STRIP Fred Goodwin of his knighthood. The honoured term does not apply to him. Dunce’s cap, more like.
Put the money owed to the Royal Mail Pension Fund back and then redo the calculations to see if it’s a profitable business.
Demand Royal Mail competitors charge fairly for a demonstrably comparable service to Royal Mail i.e. door-to-door, last mile, a proper network of easily accessible offices country-wide all within walking distance of 90% of the UK population. Then redo the sums as above…
Retrospectively apply all new charges and limitations to action for the financial institutions that have brought the country to it’s knees. Sanctions to be applied similarly. (e.g. Consider what the Chinese, our great business partners now, would do?)
Get anyone who was in charge during the recent meltdown and fraud debacle out. Make them sweep streets if necessary but in no way let them anywhere near a bank! (see Chinese comment above)
And now, MOST IMPORTANTLY, get all the stolen, fraudulent, sequestered, scammed money from offshore banking and put it into general circulation where it came from in the first place! As I’ve said previously, USE our military strength, VISIT Jersey, The Caymans, Bermuda, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Belize etc and GET OUR MONEY BACK!
- If anyone complains – tough. Try and be a government for once. We don’t need toothless whitewashing inquiries. We don’t need words. We need action. They took it all from us – so take it back!
Don’t make Goodwin the only scapegoat. There are plenty more like him, all cosily keeping quiet until the storm blows over..
Finally, don’t expect us taxpayers, the public, to pick up the tab without a decent amount of heads on the chopping block. In the same way that Goodwin refuses to hand over his ill-gotten dosh, don’t expect me to pay for his pension and his failures. You can only push the public so far. Eventually, right will out, no matter how many weasely words and pledges for fairness are made. The people aren’t blind and they’re not as stupid as they sometimes appear. This week we’ve seen mutiny and deaths against unfairness and corruption in Pakistan. In 1979 the Shah of Iran was overthrown in a popular uprising. In 1789, the people had had enough in France. To think that in 2009 this society is in some way sacred and immune to internal strife is ignorant in the extreme.

One Response to “Spiralling Pensions Scandal”

Strangely says:

February 28, 2009 at 11:57 pm

It’s now dawning on people the full magnitude of these events.

PENSIONS & BANKERS
Fair play to Jim Sheridan MP who’s asked for a proper police enquiry into the dodgy gamblers (sorry, failed bankers) and their years of bolstering profits against diminished equity. He’s also asked for the dishonourable gentleman to be stripped of his honour. EXACTLY what I’ve said above, so I’m not the only one thinking this in the country.

PENSIONS & ROYAL MAIL
Mandelson, who I always used to have time for, has written himself right into my little black book (a Jack Charlton from Ashington quote) in the recent puffs flowing from government. Apparently the Royal Mail can’t survive without private cash;

PM: Royal Mail needs private cash

Read the article and then check the holes in the Brown/Mandelson argument. Their ‘plan’ is to give half the RM business to private companies and get the taxpayer to foot the bill for the pension hole.
Er… this is almost what I said above. I actually said;
- Pay back the pension money that was siphoned off in the 90′s to put the company to rights,
- Make all companies who wish to do the business compete to provide the same service,
- Give the cream business back to the RM and let everyone fight for the whole actual service and make it a service.
If RM had all the money owed to them by central government and there was a level playing field where they could keep their cash cows instead of having this business creamed off, I’m sure, even with the current management, RM would not have any difficulties.
The difficulties are purely a creation of government actions and the continuing mindset that’s brought us to where we are now. In the Observer, Mandelson also warned Labour MPs that;

“they must not duck difficult questions and choices”.

As well as his other “warnings” that RM might have to be privatised, the real difficulty is realising that this choice, in combination with sound management, maintaining investment, repaying lost investment and pension cash; -- that all these things are necessary for maintaining an actual service, that because of, not in spite of, it’s network of thousands of local offices, is the cheapest and greenest option in these carbon sensitive, global warming times, and is one of the most socially cohesive forces in the land.

The Royal Mail and The Post Office do much more than deliver letters … and if given proper support could do much, much more still.
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