The decision by RBS to pay its new Chief Executive £9.6million is nothing short of a disgrace. This is a company that is in the process of sacking 9000 members of staff and it is a bank owned 70% by the taxpayer.

It appears that Gordon Brown and his cabinet are still be-dazzled by the so-called shining lights of industry and finance. Yet these people are the ones who brought us the credit crunch in the first place and have been responsible for billions in tax-payers money being thrown away clearing up the mess they made.

As the chief shareholder in RBS the government should be dragging down corporate pay not boosting it. The new RBS Chief Executive, Simon Hester will be getting ‘basic pay' of £1.2 million. What's basic about that?

Hester will then get massive bonuses if the share price of RBS rises - even if boosting bank profits is not necessarily in the interest of the economy a whole.

Of course Brown could have held down the pay of these bankers – and used their own words to justify it. Back in February, Hester told Parliament's Treasury Committee, "I do think banking pay in some areas of the industry is way too high and needs to come down and I intend us to lead that process."

At the height of the banking crisis it became fashionable for bankers to apologise for the mess they had made. Politicians suggested that the worship of the free market, and the bonus culture that went with it, had gone too far.

A few months later, despite the job crisis deepening by the day, it is back to business as usual – they pay themselves bonuses while ordinary working people pay the price.

22/06/2009 9.6 million reasons why Brown still doesn't get it.

22/06/2009
9.6 million reasons why Brown still doesn't get it.