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Loading...Queen Strips Sir Fred Goodwin Of His Knighthood
The former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Fred Goodwin, was awarded a knighthood for services to banking in 2004, when Tony Blair was the British Prime Minister. Now, eight years later, he has been stripped of his knighthood by the Queen for his role in the creation of the biggest recession since the second world war.
Normally such an honor is only taken away if someone has been guilty of a criminal offense punishable by longer than three months in jail, or has been stripped of their professional status by their regulator. The authority to rescind an honor rests with the Queen, who is of course advised by her Prime Minister.
So What Did The Ex-Knight Do To Take Such A Fall?
From the BBC:
Mr Goodwin oversaw the multi-billion-pound deal to buy Dutch rival ABN Amro at the height of the financial crisis in 2007, which led to RBS having to be bailed out to the tune of £45bn by taxpayers.
There had been a growing clamour for him to be stripped of his honour following thousands of job losses at RBS and in the banking industry, and the impact on the wider economy.
The BBC’s business editor Robert Peston said Mr Goodwin was in a “class of his own” in terms of the risks that he took at RBS – reflected in the size of the bailout required to rescue the company.
Goodwin Joins Robert Mugabe, Anthony Blunt As An Ex-Knight
He now joins an ignominious list of individuals stripped of their honors, including Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, and Anthony Blunt, who spied for Russia. Goodwin has no right of appeal, and was not allowed to defend himself before the forfeiture committee.
From The Guardian:
The chancellor, George Osborne, welcoming the move, said: “RBS came to symbolise everything that went wrong in the British economy over the past decade.”
The move provoked a cacophony of calls for honours to be stripped from other miscreant bankers, politicians and regulators. The campaign to humble Goodwin was reignited by the Daily Mail a fortnight ago and then hastily backed in a highly political move by David Cameron as he sought to show he will side with the public against crony capitalists and bonus-seeking bankers.
Read more: alistair darling, bank bailouts, david cameron, fred goodwin, government bailouts of banks, recession, royal bank of scotland, the queen of england, tony blair
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83 comments
+ add your ownNot only should he be stripped of his Knighthood but he should also be jailed, along with everyone else in the banks and governments that contributed to it :-(
Well, its a start... we need to get started on this side of the Atlantic, too!
cool its a start.
He deserve the punishment no one should be allowed to play around with the money of the people
He should have gotten more than just a slap on the wrist. But, they should also go after all the others as a show to demonstrate they won't put up with this anymore.
Thanks
He does deserve more of a punishment.
He should do some jail time.
We should turn her loose on our own banking scamsters.
And as for 'God save the Queen'? Please, we hate her here in Australia.
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