Snouts in the Trough

12.00.00am GMT Thu 26th Feb 2009

£693,00 a year Fred!

The employees of Ferodo in Chapel-en-le-Frith, along with many others in the High Peak, must be staggered at the news Sir Fred Goodwin has retired from the RBS at the age of 50 on a £693,000 a year pension.

What an insult to people in the High Peak and across Britain. 'Sir Fred' has completely destroyed the Royal Bank of Scotland and instigated a situation which has brought our banking system to its knees. Given the sheer scale of the disaster they caused, we the taxpayers have had no practical option but to bail the organisations out .

Gordon Brown now says the government is considering legal action to get some of this pension money back. More of the taxpayer's cash being wasted. The government approved it in the first instance: they must be world beaters at total incompetence.

This is in the same week that postal workers are being told by Lord Peter Mandleson that if they don't accept privatisation their pension is gone. Not bad for someone who had to resign from the cabinet twice in disgrace and now is on easy street in the House of Lords.

Sleaze started under the Tories with cash for questions. It's continued on a gargantuan scale under so-called New Labour. It's not a case of getting your 'snout in the trough' it's a case of how deep is the trough and how far in the trough can they get.

The facts are plain for all to see: New Labour is just Old Tory.