The loss of a "K"
Feb. 1st, 2012 01:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chrishansenhomeThe British honours system is quite amazingly complex. The Cross of St. Michael and St. George (given to people who have done sterling work in the Foreign Service or in other ways touching upon the Commonwealth) is abbreviated "CMG". There is a Knight Cross of St. M. and St. G., and a Grand Cross of St. M. and St. G.
From Wikipedia:
In the satirical British television programme Yes Minister, Jim Hacker MP is told an old joke by his Private Secretary Bernard Woolley about what the various post-nominals stand for.
Woolley: In the service, CMG stands for "Call Me God". And KCMG for "Kindly Call Me God".
Hacker: What does GCMG stand for?
Woolley: "God Calls Me God".
There is, however, not much hilarity today in the household of Fred Goodwin, erstwhile CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Up until last night he was Sir Fred Goodwin, Kt. He was knighted a while back for services to banking, which up until then he undoubtedly had performed. As CEO of RBS, he masterminded the hostile takeover of NatWest, which made bundles of money for RBS. Their investment bank was coining the pounds hand over fist. So, of course the Labour Government, which was relaxed about wealth (according to Peter Mandelson), gave Goodman a knighthood.
Two things then happened: RBS bid for the Dutch bank ABN-AMRO, competing against Barclays, and the banking crisis hit. All of a sudden, banks worldwide found that their mortgage-backed securities were pretty well worthless and we, the people, had to bail the banks out with wodges of public money. RBS ended up being around 80% government-owned.
Sir Fred had to fall on his sword, but he took a large pension entitlement with him and refused to be contrite in the face of public fury at the bungling that had landed the economy in such a mess. Some of the pension money was clawed back, but only about half of it.
More than a year passes. Bankers are now the new lepers of society. Fat cats are generally objects of hate. Sir Fred was regularly vilified in the media as the unacceptable public face of incompetent and venal banking.
So a committee of which most people have never heard gathers in the Cabinet Office and decides to petition the Queen to yank away Sir Fred's knighthood. Last night, when the Queen roused herself from shooting grouse at Sandringham or whatever the heck she does there, she signed the order to make "Sir Fred" just plain "Mr Fred".
Mr. Goodwin has turned off his mobile phone (according to his friend Sir Jackie Stewart, the race car driver) and is not commenting publicly. Just as well. The papers and the media have been running the story since 5 pm yesterday and show no sign of letting up.
Well.
I have no sympathy with Mr. Goodwin. His avarice and blindness led a Scottish bank (and of all types of bank a Scottish bank would be expected to be prudent with money, I would have thought) up to the brink. However, if all foolish, silly, ignorant, and bumbling recipients of knighthoods were stripped of the honour simply because of their foolishness, silliness, ignorance, and bumbling the number of knighthoods would be mightily reduced. The Chairman of RBS at the time, Sir Tom McKillop, retains his knighthood, even though he was just as big a booster of the ABN-AMRO deal as Goodwin. The only reason for his keeping it is that his gong was awarded for services to the pharmaceutical industry (he worked for a pharmaceutical firm before his stint at RBS) rather than to the banking industry.
Goodwin also made few friends in the banking industry during his time at Clydesdale Bank and RBS. Thus there was little goodwill when the Mail began the campaign to strip him of the knighthood.
Fred Goodwin joins an illustrious rogues' gallery including Benito Mussolini, Robert Mugabe, Nicolae Ceaucescu, and Antony Blunt (Keeper of the Queen's Pictures, who had been a Soviet spy).
The formal grounds for removing an honour are: being convicted of a crime and sentenced to more than 3 months custody, or censure by one's professional body for misconduct. I was not aware that pressure from the Daily Mail was a criterion. I would have preferred that the government let Fred keep his gong, and continue getting heaps of abuse in the press. It would have made the title bittersweet, at the least.
From Wikipedia:
In the satirical British television programme Yes Minister, Jim Hacker MP is told an old joke by his Private Secretary Bernard Woolley about what the various post-nominals stand for.
Woolley: In the service, CMG stands for "Call Me God". And KCMG for "Kindly Call Me God".
Hacker: What does GCMG stand for?
Woolley: "God Calls Me God".
There is, however, not much hilarity today in the household of Fred Goodwin, erstwhile CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Up until last night he was Sir Fred Goodwin, Kt. He was knighted a while back for services to banking, which up until then he undoubtedly had performed. As CEO of RBS, he masterminded the hostile takeover of NatWest, which made bundles of money for RBS. Their investment bank was coining the pounds hand over fist. So, of course the Labour Government, which was relaxed about wealth (according to Peter Mandelson), gave Goodman a knighthood.
Two things then happened: RBS bid for the Dutch bank ABN-AMRO, competing against Barclays, and the banking crisis hit. All of a sudden, banks worldwide found that their mortgage-backed securities were pretty well worthless and we, the people, had to bail the banks out with wodges of public money. RBS ended up being around 80% government-owned.
Sir Fred had to fall on his sword, but he took a large pension entitlement with him and refused to be contrite in the face of public fury at the bungling that had landed the economy in such a mess. Some of the pension money was clawed back, but only about half of it.
More than a year passes. Bankers are now the new lepers of society. Fat cats are generally objects of hate. Sir Fred was regularly vilified in the media as the unacceptable public face of incompetent and venal banking.
So a committee of which most people have never heard gathers in the Cabinet Office and decides to petition the Queen to yank away Sir Fred's knighthood. Last night, when the Queen roused herself from shooting grouse at Sandringham or whatever the heck she does there, she signed the order to make "Sir Fred" just plain "Mr Fred".
Mr. Goodwin has turned off his mobile phone (according to his friend Sir Jackie Stewart, the race car driver) and is not commenting publicly. Just as well. The papers and the media have been running the story since 5 pm yesterday and show no sign of letting up.
Well.
I have no sympathy with Mr. Goodwin. His avarice and blindness led a Scottish bank (and of all types of bank a Scottish bank would be expected to be prudent with money, I would have thought) up to the brink. However, if all foolish, silly, ignorant, and bumbling recipients of knighthoods were stripped of the honour simply because of their foolishness, silliness, ignorance, and bumbling the number of knighthoods would be mightily reduced. The Chairman of RBS at the time, Sir Tom McKillop, retains his knighthood, even though he was just as big a booster of the ABN-AMRO deal as Goodwin. The only reason for his keeping it is that his gong was awarded for services to the pharmaceutical industry (he worked for a pharmaceutical firm before his stint at RBS) rather than to the banking industry.
Goodwin also made few friends in the banking industry during his time at Clydesdale Bank and RBS. Thus there was little goodwill when the Mail began the campaign to strip him of the knighthood.
Fred Goodwin joins an illustrious rogues' gallery including Benito Mussolini, Robert Mugabe, Nicolae Ceaucescu, and Antony Blunt (Keeper of the Queen's Pictures, who had been a Soviet spy).
The formal grounds for removing an honour are: being convicted of a crime and sentenced to more than 3 months custody, or censure by one's professional body for misconduct. I was not aware that pressure from the Daily Mail was a criterion. I would have preferred that the government let Fred keep his gong, and continue getting heaps of abuse in the press. It would have made the title bittersweet, at the least.
