Leaders: Humiliation deserved but we, too, must learn the lessons

Published on Wednesday 1 February 2012 00:00

HOW are the once all-mighty fallen. Sir Fred Goodwin is now plain Fred. A career in which he rose from modest beginnings in Paisley to bestride the world of banking has ended in ignominy, as an establishment which embraced the former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland at the height of his power and influence stripped him of the honour it had bestowed on him.

The announcement the Queen had formally annulled Sir Fred’s title had been expected ever since it was revealed it was to be considered by the forfeiture committee made up of senior civil servants. Given that Mr Goodwin, as he is once again, had received the honour for services to banking, his defenestration was inevitable.

As the Cabinet Office spelled out, Mr Goodwin was at the helm of RBS when the disastrous decision to buy Dutch bank ABN Amro was made, an action which contributed to the global banking crisis which ended with the taxpayer pumping billions into the once hugely profitable Edinburgh-based institution. After his bank’s downfall Sir Fred, as he still was, became a hate figure, the focus of the public and the politicians’ fury over the near collapse of capitalism, something the former chief executive did little to counter. He only half-heartedly apologised, fought a move to half his pension to a mere £342,500 a year and instead of humbly finding charitable causes to support, worked for architecture firm RMJM. Following his cavalier business style, such behaviour made a quick rehabilitation difficult to say the least. The removal of the knighthood is therefore fully justified.

Having said that, however, the humiliation of Mr Goodwin has another deeply unsavoury side to it. There is, about this affair, more than a hint of the barbaric mentality of the lynch mob mixed with a palpable stench of hypocrisy as politicians, often the same people who courted a once-powerful banker, sought cheap publicity by demanding his head and then gleefully welcomed his downfall. The danger now is that we rest easy, satisfied by an act of revenge and do not consider the lessons to be learned.

Should others who were responsible for RBS’s demise not be stripped of their honours? Former chairman Sir Tom McKillop can consider himself fortunate he was knighted for services to the pharmaceutical industry rather than banking. But there are those others who retain titles despite criminal convictions. It cannot be right that fire-raiser Mike Watson can still style himself a lord. And what of senior civil servants, including those who passed judgment on Mr Goodwin, who receive knighthoods as a matter of course when their contribution to the country is, in many cases, no greater than thousands of others? If any good is to come of this affair it must be that we finally take a hard look at the relationship between business, politicians and civil servants and change an honours system which is, at best, deeply flawed and, at worst, close to corrupt.

Salmond’s castle in the air

HIS opponents will seek to draw a particular conclusion from the First Minister’s move from the enlightenment-inspired Georgian splendour of Bute House in Edinburgh’s New Town to Governor’s House, a castellated tower which used to form part of a jail on Calton Hill. They will claim he is swapping a building which owes its existence to order and rationality for somewhere built to contain ne’er-do-wells. A metaphor for the political course Alex Salmond wants to set for Scotland?

The First Minister will put a different slant on the flit, claiming that creating a new official residence will be done to save public money, a refurbishment of Bute House to turn it into Scotland’s 10 Downing Street costing more than up-grading the Governor’s House. He might be unable to resist pointing out that, as a prison, the place held figures of the Left like James Maxton – arrested for protesting against the Great War – and hope people draw their own parallels.

What will the voters make of it? Well, in moving from the New Town to his very own castle, they might ponder on the fact Mr Salmond can look down from those turrets across Edinburgh, a real capital city at last, he hopes. And he can see trains bringing people north from England. Or flooding back south as the case may be.

Fringe fighting Olympic gravitational pull

THE closer we get to the Olympics the clearer it is the event is coming increasingly to resemble a black hole, sucking money, people, and attention inexorably towards London with the rest of the United Kingdom unable to resist such a powerful force of galactic proportions. It is in this context we must view the Edinburgh Festival Fringe decision to break with tradition and start selling tickets months in advance of the normal launch month of May.

Fans of the likes of Rhod Gilbert, Alan Davies, and Jason Byrne might be pleased they can book tickets almost five months earlier than normal though most Festival purists – if such people still exist – will think planning so far ahead does not really accord with the spirit of the Fringe. The fact the Fringe feels it has to take this step undermines claims the arts would benefit from the great sporting event, with a so-called cultural Olympiad north of the Border attracting some people to Scotland who came to the United Kingdom for the Olympics itself. These hopes were always over-optimistic.

Such is the attraction of the Olympics that the Fringe, and the other festivals, need to do more than just put some tickets on sale early if they are to receive any attention come August. As the Festivals are more artistically and commercially important to Scotland than the Olympics, we hope they continue to come up with new promotional ideas. However, we fear Edinburgh’s great artistic endeavour will struggle to grab even a little of the attention from London. Light cannot resist the gravitational pull of a black hole, so let’s hope the Olympic draw proves not quite as powerful.

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WJohn

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 10:54 AM

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