Wednesday 12 December 2012

[Beyond satire] "We're all in this together"

From the BBC:

Hector Sants, the former chief executive of the Financial Services Authority, is joining Barclays bank.

He has been given a new top job to improve the bank's reputation with governments and regulators internationally. His salary is not being disclosed, as he will not be a board director.

Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins said Mr Sants would ensure that all staff met the spirit and letter of the law and regulators' expectations.

"Relationships with our regulators and governments around the world are obviously also of critical importance to us," Mr Jenkins said. "With a huge wealth of private and public sector experience, and having most recently led one of the world's pre-eminent regulatory authorities, I can think of no more suitably qualified person than Hector Sants to take on these challenges."


Words fai

13 comments:

Bayard said...

Isn't someone who is nominally working for one side, but actually working for the other usually called a traitor?

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, I thought this heartening news would cheer you up, good will to all men and that.

B, yes. Also referred to as "double agent" or "inside job".

Ian Hills said...

Just like the HMRC Sata Claus who went over to Vodaphone...

Mark Wadsworth said...

IH, here's the smoking gun, HMRC tax deal with Vodafone 'may have been illegal', but who was the HMRC bod who went to "work for" Vodafone? For the life of me I can't track it down.

Lola said...

MW hahahhaha

Lola said...

Having calmed down, this really shows just how corrupt the whole Government/Bank of England/Treasury/FSA/Commercial Banks nexus really is.

Graeme said...

is there no escape from these people? I thought Deben, Yeo and the windmill owners were bad...How do i assess whichh is the least corrupt branch of government?

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, yes.

G, no.

UPDATE: the HMRC man who went to Vodafone is John Connors

Thanks to Tristam D for emailing me that one.

Bayard said...

What depresses me is that it is all so blatant: they know nothing will happen, the electorate is too stupid and the government too corrupt.

Anonymous said...

MW

I'm surprised that you give the Guardian any credence in respect of Avoidancegate - or much else for that matter.

Apropos of whistle blowing, the Guardian and Private Eye: I wouldn't call the Guardian's agit-prop piece as evidence of a "smoking gun". It's just reporting with approval that another turd has been thrown at random by Lady Hodge and the rest of the know-nothings on the Public Accounts Committee. The genuine "smoking gun" has been fired by Tim Worstall who has shot down, among others, Private Eye, Connor and the Tax "Justice" parasites in flames.

Vodaphone was relieved of the tax liability in question - and wrote back its provision accordingly - when the European Court found in favour of a taxpayer in an analogous case. It strikes me that (for once) HMRC did the sensible thing and stopped pursuing a taxpayer who never owed it money in the first place.

Mark Wadsworth said...

U, this has nothing to do with "The Guardian" and everything to do with "regulators who suddenly get a job with the people they were supposed to be regulating".

I've no grudge against Vodafone whatsoever, they paid for their radio spectrum and that is the end of that AFAIAC.

And does it not occur to you that certain EU personages might also be getting handsomely paid "jobs" in the "private sector" when they "retire"?

Anonymous said...

MW

Sorry about that: I went "off-piste" concerning both the post and the comment thread. However, I was responding to my (surprised) perception that you had taken a bit of agit-prop from the Guardian and Lady Hodge at face value.

Mark Wadsworth said...

U1, nobody takes the G seriously, or any UK newspaper for that matter. I just googled Vodafone and tax and linked to the first article that came up. The Telegraph ran similar articles, I could have linked to those, it would make the story no more or less true.

And Hodge is world champion at hypocrisy and she can f- off. Apart from owning a tax avoiding company, she spends all her time slagging off the Tories for overspend on projects which her own Labour government set up and on which overspending was pre-programmed and intended from the start.