Michael Dean :: Blog :: Gordon Brown and that RBS pension

Now might be the last time that I can remind Gordon Brown about the action he still needs to take over the 'excessive' pension of  Sir Fred Goodwin, the retiring RBS chairman.

Gordon  Brown was very upset about this 'payment for failure'.

Harriet Harman, the deputy Labour leader, described the pension settlement - agreed by the RBS board - as "money for nothing".  She said 'the former Royal Bank of Scotland  chief Sir Fred Goodwin should not "count on" keeping his full £650,000 a year pension.'

She could not have been more clear when she said 'The sum was unacceptable in "the court of public opinion," and the government "would step in".

Ms Harman declined to say how the government would achieve this but made it clear it would not tolerate the award as it stands.

"The prime minister has said that it is not acceptable and therefore it will not be accepted," she added.

Even in political double-speak this intervention by the Labour government was unprecedented. They echoed the feelings of many people in the UK.

There may not be very much time left for Gordon Brown to actually fulfil his promise, (and I would certainly call it a promise) to the people of the UK. However my personal view is that Labour were just trying to look as though they empathised with the UK voters and did not intend to do anything. 

To be kind to Brown, perhaps he did not understand that he was powerless to act when he promised that Sir Fred would not keep the pension!

It could also be argued that Brown misunderstood the feelings of the majority of people in the UK over this matter. I think that most people were genuinely upset by the size of the payoff for what was seen as failure.

These feelings boiled over in the issue over MPs expenses. Brown had promised that he would deal with this pension payment  that upset so many people. He failed to do so and the public got their own back when the MPs were seen to be getting too much money for what was also seen as failure - the recession!