"Arise Mr. Fred Shred"

[DTCwordfan]

Public opinion or Political Pressure?

The Forfeiture Committee has ruled and the Queen has accepted.

Yep Mr Fred down the local tonight..... Why was this not done sooner?

[weecalf]

Could get his title back if he subbed as teacher I suppose

[lynbrown]

I would rather they had come up with a way of getting some of his pension returned.

[askyourgran]

A lot of those knighthoods etc are ten a penny now. Look at Lord Prescot, fgs he was knighted for his services to bonking, non of his ministerial ideas came to anything, a sheer waste of space. Fred the Shred was greedy, but it was Gordon who backed him for that, what a disgrace being un-knighted? de-knighted? be-knighted?

[FredPuli43]

He's been igknighted ( Old English :from ignominy +knighted Cf. fired, ignite)

[Quizmonster]

I totally agree with your first comment here, Fred. At the time the honour was awarded, he HAD performed substantial services to banking. The fact that his later activities were harmful to banking - and the wider British economy - is neither here nor there.
Surely Cameron ought to be popping round to Jeffrey Archer's place to collect his ermine robes any day now! At least The Shred is not one of our legislators.
If someone does something cowardly long after he got a medal for outstanding bravery, should he have to hand it back?

[kia cat]

For me it's not a case of taking his knighthood, he can call himself whatever. He has a substantial income £½m + a year pension, from a bank that I put my taxes into. Isn't all this to divert the flak from what else is going on? other banking bonuses coming up?
He hasn't been convicted of anything either. Too many double standards here, Archer goes inside, yet keeps his Lordship … etc and Lady Porter of Westminster fame; where's she?

[Dodger666]

Nice bit of biased TV this morning on BBC Breakfast IMO.

One guest was supporting Fred Goodwin and the other was biased towards him. I'm sure they could have found someone who wholly supported him losing his knighthood if they'd wanted to.

[emmie]

i was wondering why so many people have expressed the opinion that it was an empty gesture, and yet not so long ago, same people calling for his head, can they not make up their minds.

[andy-hughes]

The reason why those listed had their knighthgoods recinded is because they received censure from an appropriate official body - in Fred's case, the FSA.

The rule has been in place for some years, and is applied fairly - as it was in this case, so it is not simply a knee-jerk reaction against an unpopular individual, it is the obeyance of a rule as laid down by Parliament.

So although FG is by no means the only knighted banker who is responsible for the finnancial meltdown, he is the only one thus far to receive official censure, and that means his knighthood is removed.

[Ankou]

a boff from the institute of directors was on radio this morning complaining that this politicises the honours structure.

i thought it was already a political exercise anyway. if not, then her maj could have rejected the rescindment ?

[sp1814]

I may be the only person in the UK who is able to say this...

I feel sorry for Fred.

I really do.

I mean - he mashed up the country good and proper, but it's not like he did it deliberately.

I'm not weeping tears for him...I just feel kinda sorry for him because the way we're reacting is like it was him and him alone who is responsible for the whole banking crisis.

And that's not true.

Then I think of his pension, and my sympathy begins to dissipate a little.

[andy-hughes]

sp1814 - the perceived wisdom is that Fred is sufficiently hard-nosed and unpleasant not to need your sympathy, so why not shift it to some other poor deserving soul who quivers beneath the dislike of the nation - Lord Sugar perhaps????

[DTCwordfan]

or thst criminal Baroness U of the Labour Party, still sitting in the Lords like that fellow sinner, Lord ArchieBalls.

[Old_Geezer]

The honours system is busted anyway. It's a case of gongs & advantage for the favoured few regardless, for as long as I can recall. Whilst I don't think it should exist, at least in its present form, I still don't accept that once you have been privileged with such "honour" then it has to be yours for life.

If you spectacularly fail to live up to the claimed level of achievement the "honour" required then it should be lost to you. And all this talk about the removal of an honour being hysteria; it is more like hysteria to criticize the decision in the fear that you too may lose something if you screw up. That seemed to have got some of the privileged few in a panic didn't it.

Anyway I say that all involved in the utter stupidity that was our recent banking disaster should have no honour given by the country whose economy those risk takers almost ruined (and who knows may have achieved, give it enough time to be sure).

Sure Fred isn't the only culprit but one has to start the bonfire of the privileges somewhere.