to not understand how Philip Green and his wife live with themselves?

[MaMaLa321]

Tina Green received millions from Arcadia, as did Philip Green. Now the company has gone down, with a big hole in the pension pot. How do they live with themselves?

[VladmirsPoutine]

He has personal responsibility.

And yet he gives not a single shit. What now?

[derxa]

@Ukholidaysaregreat

The person who voted YABU must be Phil/Tina. Fess up!

I voted YABU because people love to virtue signal on here. PG may be repellant but I don't see that he is any worse than any other rich entitled person. Rita Ora for a kick off. We are the 'little people' and they can do as they like.

[IHeartNiles]

He’s an asset stripper and tax avoider. The governments past and present have turned a blind eye to it, on the alter of trickle down economics. The problem with trickle down philosophy is that what often happens is one person at the top gorges themselves while a great many more at the bottom stand there for hours just to catch a drop.

[Thewithesarehere]

Retail's gone to hell. For years Green's empire provided jobs and careers - it's not his fault personally his industry is crumbling.
You say this as if he was running a charity show! Exactly how much and what proportion of the loss is his responsibility? Do you know the answer? If not, I suggest you do not take the attention away from the problem. He amassed huge wealth while paying peanuts in comparison to the workers who he supposedly provided for and whose jobs are lost now. Take both good or bad or don’t take anything at all.

[derxa]

@TwitterTwatterofTinyMinds

Caitlin Moran wrote a column fairly recently about how those who are super rich may well be 'missing' a part of them, emotionally or psychologically which allows them to accumulate huge personal wealth and for it not to even occur to them to do anything different to share this or ease the plight of others (I have paraphrased what was a much better article than my summary suggests!). The more I see of how the super wealthy live, the more inclined I am to agree.

Does Caitlin Moran share her wealth?

[DynamoKev]

@justanotherneighinparadise

Because they exist in an affluent bubble. Their world is so far beyond the realms of the every day folk they wouldn’t have the first clue what a normal lifestyle looks like. Imagine the queen trying to fathom shopping at Lidl followed by the school run in a Fiat500. She’d be floundering around trying to find the right hat and gloves for two hours.

Unfair to Queen actually who has a lot of practical skills, but the overall point is well made.

[toconclude]

@DynamoKev

Happened under Wilson too. All the "Tory Lite" shit is more refusal to take responsibility. The idea that socialism = political purity is nonsense.

[toconclude]

@derxa

'course she doesn't. And she's worth more than 99% of us.

[toconclude]

To all the Corbyinistas here : when will he give away his estimated £3M plus?

Green is a vile, greedy bastard, but the idea that ones political persuasion will dictate what you do with money - hahahahahaha. How naive.

[AntiHop]

It is obscene that anyone could be allowed to accumulate that amount of personal wealth whilst staff are being paid low wages.

[Chailatte20]

Time for the Sir title to go and the government needs to give the HMRC the green light to go after the tax avoiders. The tax payers of this country can no longer afford to subsidise the rich, tax avoiders. Enough is enough, they're taking the piss now. They've created a climate where the vulnerable and those on benefits are demonised whilst the super wealthy tax avoiders get away with it.

[Tamingofthehamster]

justanotherneighinparadise
Because they exist in an affluent bubble. Their world is so far beyond the realms of the every day folk they wouldn’t have the first clue what a normal lifestyle looks like. Imagine the queen trying to fathom shopping at Lidl followed by the school run in a Fiat500. She’d be floundering around trying to find the right hat and gloves for two hours.

The Queen trained as a mechanic in the war, and apparently makes people walks along the sides of corridors rather than the middle so it lasts twice as long. I don’t think she’s a vacuous rich idiot.

[BLToutanowhere]

You may hate the guy but he's done nothing illegal.

Companies pay out dividends every year and quite often have pension fund deficits (saw an article from a couple of years ago where FTSE 100 companies paid out dividends of £48 billion compare to total pension fund deficits of £52 billion) especially when markets are low.

Pension scheme funding assume that people will keep paying into it and are extremely forecast based.

But the dividend people are harping on about was taken out of the company LEGALLY 15 years ago. So, just because you don't like the guy, you really want politicians to have the power to make people repay legally paid out monies on a whim?

[Circusoflove]

The same way we all live with ourselves despite knowing that the world is full of suffering.

[Londonmummy66]

I'm just surprised its taken this long for MN to have a thread on this topic.

I think he has to make good the pension fund deficit or lose the K. Hard to see how someone can deserve that honour for services to retail when all he has done is run companies into the ground by asset stripping, under investment and a total inability to read the changing retail landscape though.

[Florafog]

I used to work for someone who it was later discovered that he never paid our pension contributions into a pension fund, even though the deductions were made on our payslips. He did it to us all for years. Does he give a shit? No, because he's been doing it for years before, and after and somehow continues to evade any repercussions. All the while leaving 100s of people without a private pension fund.

I doubt Mr Green will be losing any sleep. He has made a career out of screwing people over and his punishment? A life of riley and a peerage from the rest of the back scratchers.

[Meraas]

This is the kind of situation that stops me putting more in my workplace pension.

[grassisjeweled]

Don't get me started on Chloé

[helloxhristmas]

@SebastianTheCrab

Retail's gone to hell. For years Green's empire provided jobs and careers - it's not his fault personally his industry is crumbling. And aren't we all meant to be buying ethically now anyway?

I'm no fan btw - I've spoken to him twice and both times he was horribly rude, much as he is to everyone.

But turning him into this bogeyman pinup for obscene wealth - when most of the ones you ought to worry about are the ones who keep themselves under the radar - is tiresome. He is but one of many.

Totally agree.

[Lepetitpiggy]

Many people are rich beyond our imaginations but not that many leave bloody great pension holes for people. That's what makes him so repellent

[Didyousaynutella]

What has it got to do with being Tory. They we fleecing the country whole the Labour government was in charge too.

[carlaCox]

People like this think they're brilliant, wealth generating geniuses who deserve their money and that everyone working for a low wage is a feckless lazy idiot. That's how they justify it to themselves.

[TheQueef]

Don't judge him by your own standards.
There are plenty more, less flamboyant, asset stripping vultures.
Greed has flourished in capitalist society and politics is the only way it will change.
So...
hard hat
YABU

[ReturntoSpamfritters]

@Chailatte20

Time for the Sir title to go and the government needs to give the HMRC the green light to go after the tax avoiders. The tax payers of this country can no longer afford to subsidise the rich, tax avoiders. Enough is enough, they're taking the piss now. They've created a climate where the vulnerable and those on benefits are demonised whilst the super wealthy tax avoiders get away with it.

Completely agree with this.
However it won't be this government as they are also a bunch of thieves.

[BLToutanowhere]

@Didyousaynutella

What has it got to do with being Tory. They we fleecing the country whole the Labour government was in charge too.

The dividend was taken out in 2005. When Labour were in charge. Damn those Tories helping their chums.