Fat-cat bosses will pay a price for their greed
...and so will university chiefs
So-called captains of industry would be well advised to keep your editorial last week (‘Crack down on fat cats – or face disaster’) on their desks for frequent future reference. It summarises succinctly the unacceptable corporate culture of many businesses.
The enormous salaries and bonuses paid to executives are beyond the wildest dreams of most people and give the impression that business is a cosy clique of mutual back-scratchers.
Your newspaper is quite correct to highlight the fact that the disgraced boss of Provident Financial, Peter Crook, built his fortune on the extremely high interest rates paid by Provident borrowers, many of whom were desperately poor and had no other access to credit. Businesses should beware of a backlash, which may lead to borrowers refusing to repay their debt. Instead of the Government interfering in salaries being paid to executives in the private sector, what about the salaries being paid in the public sector – university lecturers, NHS executives, top police officers, or charity bosses receiving government subsidies? After reading your report last week about Bedfordshire University vice-chancellor Bill Rammell’s luxury flights to Miami – and also learning about how well university bosses are treated thanks to lavish perks and grace-and-favour homes – I am surprised that students These people bleed the country dry as they produce nothing but only take, take, take. Theresa May is said to be launching an outspoken war on ‘fat cat’ bosses? Pull the other one, Prime Minister. The Tories, under her leadership, were quite happy to take £24.8million in donations in the run-up to the last Election from so-called ‘fat-cat’ businessmen.
If the Conservative leader is genuinely concerned about social injustice in our society, perhaps she should set an example by stopping greedy, self-serving MPs taking second jobs – some even have five or more well-paid do not ask to take a course in becoming a vice-chancellor. Unfortunately, ‘Miami vicechancellor’ Bill Rammell is no Don Johnson. If he were, I’d be filling in my UCAS form right now! ones. Then there’s the former Ministers trousering massive sums for speaking tours.
These are the very people who told public-sector workers they could have only a small pay rise due to austerity, yet MPs have taken large pay hikes themselves. Many of the PM’s party have little interest in social injustice. She should stop treating us like fools. In your Fat Cat Files investigation you stated that Peter Crook ‘earned more than £40million in just ten years’. By the use of the word ‘earn’, you perpetuate the myth that such people actually deserve the vast sums they are paid.