Quote:
Originally Posted by Team Brian GB
I agree Colin, it is no more than simplistic populism.
As one respondent to the question said rather well, we saved the bank so it could return to health and be commercially viable, and to be commercially viable it must operate under the rules and norms of the world it is living in.
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Is it not? I'll admit that calls to scrap all forms of bonuses, to aim all kind of restrictions and recriminations against the banking sector are. But your statement seems to include all the reasonable protests against bonuses as well.
Both pre and post crash we have had people being paid bonuses despite missing targets or reporting poor performances (and not just as a result of market conditions). When scores of people are losing their jobs, despite being perfectly good at them in many cases, it is completely understandable that this provokes extreme frustration. You're right to say that bonuses have to reflect the market to some extent, and therefore we can't eradicate them without inflicting severe damage to our financial services economy.
But I think you're doing a huge disservice to many people by writing them off as victims of 'populism' when they point out the flaws in the bonus system. Poor performance shouldn't be rewarded (as your Party agrees) and bonuses paid should be reflective of the work done. People are going to be particularly annoyed by this when it's public money paying to facilitate this.