An ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph reveals that 73 per cent of respondents believe that City bonuses are excessive. Also, 43 per cent believe that Britain has become more selfish under Labour.
Ian Gibson, a Labour MP, is furious. Here are his words, as reported by that newspaper:
“I don’t think people should have bonuses at all. They are unacceptable. I think it’s got worse. If the Labour Party recognised this problem then they would have more support today.”
No bonuses at all? Really? So he sees incentives for productivity as an ‘unacceptable’ thing? Interesting. It feels me with dread that people like this have been given the mandate to legislate on our behalf.
February 18th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
I wonder if he realises that many people are paid commission as part of our pay structure. It would be unacceptable for people not to be paid their agreed shares of transactions they themselves initiate- otherwise why should they bother?
February 18th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Perhaps a system of uniform pay and uniform mediocrity would be just right for him. Typical Labour, levelling downwards all the time. They’ve done it to our schools and hospitals, why not introduce it to the workforce as well?
February 18th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Well then you end uo with the old soviet saying ‘We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us’.
I’m puzzled by what the remarks aim to achieve. I’m not saying that I don’t think that there isn’t some appalling greed in the city, but not all bonuses can be seen in the same light. Some are genuinely performance related- it is those in privatised industries that are more cause for concern.
Most city bonuses are genuine entitlements for those who have generated the wealth.
Surely an unwise thing to say for a Labour politician right now?
February 18th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Some of these Labour politicians have no understanding of real life and work. How many of them have ever worked outside of politics? Even for the few who have worked outside politics, you will find that many of them worked as union officials or in the public sector. Very few of them have worked in the private sector. Very few of them have any idea how wealth is generated.
Some companies have been threatening to move their head offices from the UK to other countries with a more favourable tax and economic climate. Such talk like this will only add to their disquiet. Labour had better remind itself of the tax revenue it stands to lose if companies start decamping from this country.
February 18th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
And Brown isn’t even PM yet…
But where to emigrate too?
And what about Cherie’s numerous sources of income?
They’re OK, I take it?
Anyway, how can people save up to buy a decent peerage if no one gets a decent bonus any more?
Maybe Carole Caplin can tell us.
February 18th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I agree with the general gist of your commenters, Bel. Some people are paid on this sort of basis and everyone needs an incentive. A lot of people don’t earn very much and Xmas bonuses, in particular, are a godsend to them. And how miserable not to want to allow even these! Your point about a lot of Labour politicians never having worked outside the TU movement or other types of politics is a good one but it could also be argued that a lot of Tory MPs do not know what it is like to have no private wealth or to work for a fixed wage. I agree totally with Joe’s last comment here.
February 18th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Welshcakes, I agree with your point about the Tory MPs. Take, for example, David Cameron’s refusal to commit to more grammar schools. Only a politician who knows his children need not suffer the full effects of a comprehensive education would come up with such crap. He is ignorant of the fact that many parents who cannot afford private school education are relying on the grammar school system.
February 19th, 2007 at 12:29 am
You make the point well Bel about the lack of business experience in this Government. They are not interested in merit either. It worries me that an administration so collossal is run by people who have no knowledge of process analysis or organisational design. It shows when you look at our Home Office of course. I do wonder whether the best way to sort out the Home Office is to get a private sector consultant in to help redesign it.
February 19th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Huge bonuses are only ‘excessive’ and ‘greedy’ to those who wish it was they who received them. Labour provoke the jealousy of those too lazy to think.
And don’t such bonuses come out of the profits of the companies paying them? Isn’t that then some kind of redistribution of wealth?
Are people really so shallow that they can be fulfilled by depriving others of enormous wealth? How terribly sad.
Offer me an ‘obscene’ bonus - or even just a fairly smutty one - and I’ll grab it with both hands…
February 20th, 2007 at 2:10 am
I am sure the Treasury think there is a Money Fairy that appears and deposits cash in our pay packets that can then be fleeced by government.
You are absolutely right Bel. Most Nu Labour MPs have no idea about creating wealth and have spent their working lives simply spending money other people have generated. It can be no surprise that they have continued this profligacy when in administration.
The state of the nation’s finances with government debt soaring and cut backs in essential services tell their own story. Socialism does not work and Labour cannot be trusted with the economy. Ever.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Is it just the bosses who have the bonus? Why not all the staff? It can be a great incentive, but should be evenly shared out.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
The staff get the bonuses too, but not as high as the bosses. I agree that staff should get something, but not ‘evenly shared out’. If shared out evenly, there would be not much incentive, I think.
I agree with your wider point, Ellee. No quicker way to demotivate a workforce than for the bosses to receive large bonuses while the staff go without.
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:33 am
No mention of the bonus given to Prezza’s office, to enable him to do nothing better.
Those people earning huge bonuses in the city, make their employers huge sums of money. Is it fair, of course not, but didn’t Ian Gibson’s mother tell him “life’s not fair” when he was a child?
February 26th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
(Tongue firmly in cheek)
I feel the right honourable Ian Gibson MP has things right. Bonuses are an out-dated mode of pay.
Instead we should be allowed (with our fellow employees) to vote for how much we should pay ourselves.
We would all also be entitled to perks such as our mortgage payed in the area we live, plus a mortgage paid for a dwelling in London, also our personal secretaries, etc. would also not be at our own expense and all lunches and alcohol we could consume whilst on work premisis should be free too.
Such a job would also allow us to turn up to work as and when we felt like it and only be removed from our position once every four to five years.
Pot, Kettle, Bah!