David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg have passed various, one might say disparaging, comments about the remuneration of top executives, with Cameron on record as saying:
"I think everyone, whether they’re in public life, whether they’re in private enterprise, they’ve got to be able to justify the decisions they make about pay."
Needless to say Will Straw is to the fore, bleating that as top pay soars the 99% are left behind. Just what Cameron wants, calling for transparency, accountability and responsbility in respect of boardroom pay is anyone's guess.
What the executives of the FTSE 100 companies earn is a matter for their shareholders and not politicians. It would be an interesting exercise to compare those executive's pay with that of senior politicians who receive free (or subsidised second) homes, subsidised meals and alcohol, free travel to and from Westminster, free trips abroad, free staff, free office equipment - and until recently, free tvs, free furniture, in fact free everything.
As far as Cameron, Miliband and the Little Boy are concerned, in my view their pronouncements sound very much like 'sour grapes' and, in keeping with political principles, assertions made on incomplete evidence. Of course, David Cameron may well have been basing his comment on that of principle, however on that point it is worth recalling a quote by Fraser Nelson:
"David (& George) can't see why MPs would sacrifice career for principle - for them, career has been their principle."
3 comments:
What the executives of the FTSE 100 companies earn is a matter for their shareholders and not politicians.
May I remind you that the Shareholder Vote on Remuneration is ADVISORY only ......the Remuneration Committee and Hay Consultants has much more power than Shareholders
Their is much justified criticism of these high powered board members. They claim to follow the code of big rewards for big success, but they claim big rewards regardless of success, indeed the biggest rewards go to the incompetents just to get rid of them.
I have no problem with competent managers getting big salaries provided they also get big kicks in the arse for failure, if they don't, you get the kind of money roundabout that British industry has become where failure and incompetence are not just rewarded but actively encouraged.
TT: C'mon, allow me a little poetic licence..... No?
Accept what you say and you are of course quite correct, however my main point stands: what those in private enterprise earn is not the business of politicians.
PC: Gotcha! 'Their' and 'There'? Sorry, it's not often I get the opportunity to pick you up......
Other than that, yup you are of course correct - but I still come back to the point I made to TT.
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