George Osborne defends Stephen Hester's bonus

What a pathetic argument, Cogito - that it's OK for bankers because it's OK for footballers. No it isn't OK for anyone - one group of people behaving in an incredibly greedy way just because they can does not make it morally acceptable for them or anyone else. There are no double standards here, except in your mind - they are all greedy and selfish people who behave badly and set a very bad example of how to lead your life for everyone.

mob-envy? Eh? The same incredible talent existed years ago when the ratio of lowest earner to top dog wasn't so imbalanced. It's disgraceful.

"just goes to show they don't think they would be bothered to do a really good job for long unless they got extra treats on top of a perfectly obscene salary"

You could say exactly the same thing about premiership footballers. If you want to win the cup you have to stump up for a Rooney or a Ferdinand. I'm sure either of them would be quite happy kicking a football around all day for free - might even do a really good job of it - but why would anyone in their right mind do it for a few thousand if someone's prepared to pay them a few million? And if an ad agency wants to pay another few million for them to endorse a product, or a personal appearance, or an after dinner speech... Should they turn down those extras on top of their 'perfectly obscene salaries?'

A lot of mob-envy about high salaries at the moment but also a lot of double standards.

He did not defend if, he just has no control over it and cannot say that because it makes him look weak. They have a board that control it. I would be the first to kick fucking cunt Gideon in the balls given a chance but it just isn't that simple is it.

Actually the man's earned over £35 million since 2008....the bonus for this year is actually £3.3 million.

RBS should not be paying large salaries or bonuses whilst other public sector employees are on long term pay freezes and experiencing redundancies.

The result should be that the ConDems retain 1 vote for next election from Hester and lose the rest of the public sector employee vote of 6 million.

I hope this happens.

Stephen Hester is legally entitled to his bonus. I don't think Stephen Hester actually deserves his bonus because NO banker deserves their bonus, not because he works for a virtually state owned bank. And it's ridiculous to even argue that ANY government could have negotiated a deal for RBS to be run by a banker with sufficient sense of justice that he would agree to do the job for a civil servant's salary and pension - because the whole fact of bankers ever thinking they actually deserve bonuses just goes to show they don't think they would be bothered to do a really good job for long unless they got extra treats on top of a perfectly obscene salary (ie there isn't a single banker out there who would have agreed to do it). And if you think your contractual rights are sufficient justification for your behaviour, then you've replaced your moral compass with a contract (and negotiated the contract after you'd stamped on the compass - if you're one of the lucky sort who gets to negotiate his contracts, rather than get told what is in them...).

Govt & Labour Clash over bonus

Interesting article. It seems that the contract was agreed in 2009 so the govt is saying their hands were tied.

Labour are saying the RBS board sets their bonus each year. I bet they do....but not for the same year! So for example if I were given an incentive bonus, it would be paid next year for work done this year.

So in this case it sounds like Hester's T&C's were agreed in 2009 by Labour, the Tories have had to stick to it and Labour are twisting words.

Reminds me of when they villified the coalition for Barclay's paying low taxes based on earnings they earned during Labour's reign.

RBS is run by its own board, not the government, despite the tax-payer having an 80% share in it. The rules about remuneration were set out by the Labour government and they clearly did a sloppy job to allow this kind of situation. Hester is not a civil servant. He has a negotiated package and a contractual agreement with a private company. If that isn't honoured he'd presumably have a good case to sue for breach of contract.