Mutually exclusive

My wife and I have some savings with a mutual building society, which means that we are members of the company and receive invitations to attend and vote at the AGM.

The papers we have just received tell us that the CEO has received a total pay package for the year to 4 April, 2018, of £2,317,000. Three other executive directors have each received around £1.5 m.

Now, I first heard what a mutual company was when I joined the Standard Life Assurance Company some decades ago: the members of the company were the policyholders and all the profits of the company were distributed to them as policy bonuses.

The managers then were all qualified actuaries and over some 12 years “in the ranks” I never heard one complaint about the higher salaries paid to them.

Moreover, when attending my first AGM, I learned that the distinguished non-executive members of the board were content to receive what were recognised as token payments, “because this is a mutual company and the profits belong to the policyholders”(mind you, nearly all such in Edinburgh then were elders of the Kirk and no doubt knew well the New Testament teaching that the love of money is the root of all evil!).

Is there any chance of one of today’s political leaders following Ted Heath’s example and calling out “the unacceptable face of capitalism”?

(REV) JACK KELLET Dyers Close, Innerleithen