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alp227

(31,961 posts)
Thu Jan 19, 2012, 09:20 PM Jan 2012

Government asks honours committee to strip Fred Goodwin of knighthood (Goodwin=banker)

David Cameron breached Whitehall confidentiality rules when he revealed that the government had asked the honours committee, and ultimately the Queen, to strip the former head of RBS Sir Fred Goodwin of his knighthood.

Cameron also saidon Thursday that the bank's chief executive, Stephen Hester, will have to take a lower bonus than the £2m he received last year, although an RBS spokeswoman said the board's remuneration committee had yet to discuss the issue.

The prime minister made the two headline-grabbing announcements after his speech on popular capitalism, in which he said that the system was in crisis and the link between hard work and pay broken. He also said he would consolidate existing laws to make it easier to set up co-operatives, but said the route to popular capitalism lay through competition, deregulation and enterprise.

Referring to calls in the Daily Mail for Goodwin's knighthood to be withdrawn, Cameron said: "I think it is right that there is a proper process that is followed for something of this order. There is a forfeiture committee in terms of honours that exists, and it will now examine this issue. I think it is right that it does so.

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/19/government-asks-strip-fred-goodwin-knighthood

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