View Full Version : Fred Goodwin
Fred Goodwin. Gooders. Mr. Fred Goodwin. Mr. Goodwin. Doesn't it have a lovely ring about it? (I appreciate it will not resonate with burly highlanders who cannae stand for such uppity fripperies) but for a person like Mr. Goodwin, that gong clearly meant a lot in terms of status in society, a mark of acceptance from the establishment, a tap on the shoulders of greatness. A wee bawbie which meant a reputation, an honour, a standing in the community.
Now that cup has been dashed from his lips. He will have to order new stationery. His Coat of Arms is not only withdrawn, but, archaically and exquisitely "annulled". He won't be going to any Royal Garden Parties any more.
Sure, he's got a huge pension. But he'll like the man on the desert island, willing to swap the 200 bars of gold he's sitting on for a decent pie and a pint, and finding no takers.
He's up there with Ceausescu, Mugabe, and Blunt. All of them lower than a snake's bottom in the estimation of most of humanity.
Yes, of course there are others, some of whom will be fearing the wheels of the tumbril of popular opinion.
And there will be us tricoteuses,, grinning toothlessly as more and more of the "Grating Good" fall ( Norwegian Blue like) from their perches.
Bye bye, "Sir" Fred. Welcome to the rest of the grubby, common world you couldn't see outside the windows of your grandiose Global Headquarters.
My friends, let us just pause in a moment of unabashed Schadenfreude as we say goodbye to a man who put us in recession and obliterated many thousands of pensions.
So long, Mr. Goodwin.
tonkatojo
31-Jan-12, 20:49
Give me a 10th of what he reaped and I would not even sue for damages for anything you called me, in fact make that 1% and I 'll make the same promise, The chap is still laughing all the way to his offshore account.
billmoseley
01-Feb-12, 13:51
he has been made a scape goat. i don't agree with that way he ran things but he wasn't the only one and never broke any laws
weezer 316
01-Feb-12, 14:17
Hysteria like this helps no one and nothing. Hes a moron who over reached, but dont put him the same boat as Mugabe for god sake! That man ruined an entire country with his economic policy. Our economy ain Zimbabwe, or even remotely close and no amount of hysterical nonsense will change that.
He's obviously not Mugabe that kind of hyperbole helps no one, I would question why he was awarded a knighthood in the first place though. I do have problems with the entire honours system in its current incarnation but that's a different discussion.
Still poor little scapegoat guess he'll have to comfort himself with his massive pile of cash.
I had a giggle yesterday when watching the news, one glaswegian remarked, " Why is no one attacking Gordon Brown, he was as much responsible."
Yes Fred did make some monumental errors that any one with a basic knowledge of economics could see would lead to a heavy fall, but all the powers to be waved the take over through with out doing the necessary checks so they should also be held to account, but the likely hood of that happening is zero.
So in some ways he has become the fall guy for the whole fiasco but then again for a man who refused for so long to even say sorry and walked away with a huge pension, it does not make for sympathy.
I suppose hindsight is an exact science?
First Minister Alex Salmond has told BBC Scotland he regretted his previous support for the former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin. Mr Salmond wrote to him when he was the bank's chief executive offering the Scottish government's assistance in the takeover of Dutch bank ABN-Amro.
That takeover contributed to the bank's massive losses and the need to bail it out with £45bn in taxpayers' money.
Mr Salmond was speaking after Mr Goodwin was stripped of his knighthood.
The SNP leader said that with hindsight he would have done things differently...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-16835023
Sorry folks, it appears I've been a bit previous with my remarks about Fred Goodwin. You see, I didn't see the victim of a system dreamed up by others, but a very forthright and demanding CEO who bullied his staff and his board into the eventual destruction of a mighty asset, and with that the careers, dreams, livelihoods and pensions of many people. Now that he has finally been extinguished - by whatever means - I reserve the right to engage in "hysteria" and "hyperbole". In this case, the usual panacea of "society is to blame" won't wash. The man's hubris extended to engaging lawyers to reduce damaging references to his personal role in RBS's collapse in the FSA report. And please, yes, I AM aware he's kept his pension. But what profits it a man who gains the whole world and loses his soul? (Cue loud gunfire from the Provisional Wing of The FAB - Fundamental Atheist Brigade!)
Anyway, it doesn't really matter. Give it another 24 hours, and the blame for all of this will shift from Ozymandias Goodwin to the Auld Enemy - those caviar-eating, champagne guzzling Tory public school boys whose only joy is to snatch the bread from out of the mouths of the halt and lame whilst dancing on the grave of the working man singing the Eton Boating Song and hurling bread rolls at all the other diners in the snobby restaurants and talking all posh deliberately to upset those whose education was terminated at 7 to go up chimneys and scrape lard from kitchen pans, only to be kicked out of Scotland forever by the Brigadoon (non nuclear) Armed Forces.
Onwards!
Actually, I'm enjoying the hyberbole and hysteria now I'm really into it. Let's hear it for all those apologists for things that go wrong: falling standards which we are told are now better than ever (MRSA, multi-choice questions in exams, call centres, global organisations who've lost their customer focus, priests who don't believe, union leaders in mansions paid for by their membership, and, topically - economists, who rarely get anything right. Let us never ascribe blame, sanction, censure, responsibility, but concentrate on rights, self, and "respect".)
And even for me, whose heart often rules his head, but likes to see good people do well, and bad people realise that being bad isn't a very nice option. And I AM sorry about comparing the upstanding Mr Goodwin with all those nasty dictators and a traitor. It comes from a simplistic duochrome moral education (that's PC for B**** & W****). As Speculus, the Roman philosopher, so beautifully put it (and split an infinitive along the way) "Gallia divisa est in partes tres" - or some such.
I'll have had my tea.
John Little
01-Feb-12, 20:23
he has been made a scape goat. i don't agree with that way he ran things but he wasn't the only one and never broke any laws
I agree.
If he had been put on trial instead of being shot, then we might have found a lot out that is now hidden. But his family, or some of them, are enjoying the millions he salted away.
I suppose hindsight is an exact science?
First Minister Alex Salmond has told BBC Scotland he regretted his previous support for the former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin. Mr Salmond wrote to him when he was the bank's chief executive offering the Scottish government's assistance in the takeover of Dutch bank ABN-Amro.
That takeover contributed to the bank's massive losses and the need to bail it out with £45bn in taxpayers' money.
Mr Salmond was speaking after Mr Goodwin was stripped of his knighthood.
The SNP leader said that with hindsight he would have done things differently...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-16835023
Seriously? can we have a discussion without someone trying to turn it into an independence/unionist/attack thing. Surely there are plenty of threads for that already.
Well it has been a classic episode of media manipulation just recently. They've been manipulating public opinion of Fred Goodwin as the baddie and calling for his knighthood to be revoked. Now that they've got what they want they are now making him out as being badly-done-to. It is pathetic really.
Yup, I agree the whole episode was intended to fill newspaper pages to the max. There's probably going to be some mileage now in getting an angle from the deposed and former Lady Fred. I've always thought at least one third of most paper's contents is either made up or inaccurate!
I've always thought at least one third of most paper's contents is either made up or inaccurate!Why let the truth ruin a good story?!
Shabbychic
02-Feb-12, 01:46
I've always thought at least one third of most paper's contents is either made up or inaccurate!
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