Britain's bankers are planning to reward themselves with billions in bonuses out of their bail-out funds. Should they be allowed to get away with this? Jyoti Banerjee says most emphatically not.
Let me say this as plainly as I can: Britain’s bailed-out bankers should not get a bonus.
It must be a morally-corrosive atmosphere in Britain’s banks if their senior management are prepared to pay out bonuses in the billions of pounds a few short weeks after these banks have been bailed out by the public purse. Their argument is two-fold – they need to reward those who did a good job, and they need to hang on to the talent needed to rebuild Britain’s banks.
Their PR message seems to be getting across to some quarters since even Chancellor Alastair Darling, arguably the closest thing we have to an owner of the near-nationalised banks, is parroting the same worn spiel.
Both arguments are a nonsense.
