For the first time that I can remember a Conservative Prime Minister has attacked excessive executive pay in what Cameron called €crony capitalism€ and a €merry-go-round€ that allowed people at the top to €fill their boots€. At last, we have recognition that there may actually be such a thing as "enough" pay. A recent study by the High Pay Commission cited the example of former Barclays chief executive, John Varley, who earned 4,365,636, which was 169 times more than the average worker in Britain today. It equates to an increase of 4,899% since 1980, when the top pay at Barclays was 87,323 and just 13 times the UK average, the report says.
David Cameron had a number of ideas about how excessive wage awards could be denied. He said €let's empower the shareholders by having a straight, shareholder vote on top pay packages. We've got to deal with the merry-go-round where there's too many cases of remuneration committee members, sitting on each other's boards, patting each other's backs, and handing out each other's pay rises. We need to get to grips with that.€
Critics claim such high pay awards are necessary to compete for the very "best" people to lead our top companies. Really? Surely such excessive salaries and bonuses are more likely to attract the greediest candidates and those with the lowest moral judgement. How could anyone in a key leadership position be comfortable accepting a 50% increase in pay, particularly at a time when so many are being made redundant. Let's get Director's pay back to a reasonable level, then perhaps we shall attract the kind of people who are interested in the compassionate capitalism we hear so much about.
The Bad
"it's like having someone with Tourette's permanently sitting opposite you."
This was how David Cameron described Ed Ball's performance in parliament. Naturally, there was an immediate outcry from disability campaigners who claimed it showed a lack of understanding of the inherited neurological condition. No doubt it does but what upset me was the clear indication that nothing has changed. Our politicians are still behaving like naughty boys, calling each other names at every opportunity. I thought such destructive behaviour was going to be a thing of the past with this government. Those in power certainly need to be held to account but childish point scoring achieves nothing. Some people think the Lib-Dems were wrong to enter into partnership with the Tories after the last election but I disagree. I think we need more cooperation like this and less rubbishing of the opposition for the sake of it. We cannot measure what influence the Lib-Dems are having in government but as I point out above, no Tory leader has ever before shown concern about unbridled capitalism. Progress indeed!
The Ugly
The Ugly doesn't come from the Daily Telegraph interview because no question was asked about the role that Britain plays through its arms trade in upholding oppressive regimes like Bahrain, Kuwait and, previously, Libya and Egypt. However, earlier last year Cameron led a trade mission to the Middle East, along with six of our biggest arms manufacturers. At the time he said:"It is important, as Britain wants to link itself with some of the fastest growing parts of the world and to improve our trade relations, that we take such delegations of business people."
So our own prosperity is used to justify this shameful trade. This is probably the only line the public will accept in defence of such a pernicious trade but is it true that without it our economy would suffer? Not according to Campaign Against the Arms Trade, who claim that arms export jobs are subsidised by at least 9,000 per job per year. They point out that the Government could choose to support other sectors that will provide long-term benefit and are urgently needed. Even the Vice President-Defence of the arms industry's trade association made this very point when he told the parliamentary Defence Committee that "€¦ the skills that might be divested of a reducing defence industry do not just sit there waiting to come back. They will be mopped up by other industries that need such skills." Excellent. Let's start dismantling the arms industry right away.
David Cameron had a number of ideas about how excessive wage awards could be denied. He said €let's empower the shareholders by having a straight, shareholder vote on top pay packages. We've got to deal with the merry-go-round where there's too many cases of remuneration committee members, sitting on each other's boards, patting each other's backs, and handing out each other's pay rises. We need to get to grips with that.€
Critics claim such high pay awards are necessary to compete for the very "best" people to lead our top companies. Really? Surely such excessive salaries and bonuses are more likely to attract the greediest candidates and those with the lowest moral judgement. How could anyone in a key leadership position be comfortable accepting a 50% increase in pay, particularly at a time when so many are being made redundant. Let's get Director's pay back to a reasonable level, then perhaps we shall attract the kind of people who are interested in the compassionate capitalism we hear so much about.
The Bad
"it's like having someone with Tourette's permanently sitting opposite you."
This was how David Cameron described Ed Ball's performance in parliament. Naturally, there was an immediate outcry from disability campaigners who claimed it showed a lack of understanding of the inherited neurological condition. No doubt it does but what upset me was the clear indication that nothing has changed. Our politicians are still behaving like naughty boys, calling each other names at every opportunity. I thought such destructive behaviour was going to be a thing of the past with this government. Those in power certainly need to be held to account but childish point scoring achieves nothing. Some people think the Lib-Dems were wrong to enter into partnership with the Tories after the last election but I disagree. I think we need more cooperation like this and less rubbishing of the opposition for the sake of it. We cannot measure what influence the Lib-Dems are having in government but as I point out above, no Tory leader has ever before shown concern about unbridled capitalism. Progress indeed!
The Ugly
The Ugly doesn't come from the Daily Telegraph interview because no question was asked about the role that Britain plays through its arms trade in upholding oppressive regimes like Bahrain, Kuwait and, previously, Libya and Egypt. However, earlier last year Cameron led a trade mission to the Middle East, along with six of our biggest arms manufacturers. At the time he said:"It is important, as Britain wants to link itself with some of the fastest growing parts of the world and to improve our trade relations, that we take such delegations of business people."
So our own prosperity is used to justify this shameful trade. This is probably the only line the public will accept in defence of such a pernicious trade but is it true that without it our economy would suffer? Not according to Campaign Against the Arms Trade, who claim that arms export jobs are subsidised by at least 9,000 per job per year. They point out that the Government could choose to support other sectors that will provide long-term benefit and are urgently needed. Even the Vice President-Defence of the arms industry's trade association made this very point when he told the parliamentary Defence Committee that "€¦ the skills that might be divested of a reducing defence industry do not just sit there waiting to come back. They will be mopped up by other industries that need such skills." Excellent. Let's start dismantling the arms industry right away.
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