The original idea behind this article burst from my head in a torrent of frustration. After calming down a little the question still needs to be answered but the thrust of the question needs to directed at some of the people that have raised their heads above the parapets of the CBI Annual Conference. I like capatalism and I’m all for making some money. I qualify that statement by ensuring that delivery of satisfaction is key and I understand that during these tough times everyone needs to be conscious of how what we do and earn can affect others not only now but in the future. I would have thought that this would have been apparent to anyone in businesses small or large.
Not so.
Let’s begin with the President of the CBI and Chair of Centrica, Sir Roger Carr saying that we should all now stop demonising banks. Really? Is it time to let them of the hook or do we make sure the hook is still in and that they are aware of it. Last time I looked banks were not lending to small businesses and mortgages were rarer than a pot of leprechaun gold. To win back trust the banks need to take the foot of the jugular of the UK economy and relax lending to a sensible sustainable level. Sir Roger, we expect more informed comments.
Then we had Richard Evans, President of Pepsico UK telling us that unless we pay every CEO a huge salary the UK talent pool will empty itself and that we will not have the talent to run our corporations. Pull the other one. That is oldest trick in the book and goes back to our pocket money days when we would tell our parents that all our friends were having more pocket money than we were! The crux of the matter is, at least for me, is I do not care how much a CEO gets paid. What bothers me is the scrutiny that everyone is under and that our top people seem oblivious to this before opening their mouths. We have had the bankers and politicians on the ropes and now its the turn of our top executives. Do not be surprised if the Public turn up with their pitchforks and torches looking for fight or that the Occupy movement has run its course. Richard, you do not need to appologise for huge pay but you may need to mindful of how resentment can twist fortune. History is littered with corpses of people that lost the vote, Nero, Louis XVI, Thatcher, Berlusconi were all heads of state but Gerald Ratner was not…
To cap it all, didn’t they know that the High Pay Commission was releasing a report?
We expect better than naive from the big pay lads.