Monopolies of the Dishonourable……
A kangaroo court……?
I suppose that it was all but inevitable that Sir Fred Goodwin would be stripped of his honour by those that have none; he may have made a mess of RBS, but he was not acting alone, and he certainly did less damage than the Right Honourable Gordon Brown. Whatever the rights and wrongs in this particular case, there needs to a recognised procedure rather than a kangaroo court. Or restrict honours to sports stars, and those engaged in voluntary work.
The new mood of mob rule…….
Even that could have its problems, in a week when the English football captain was fired, again, and the favourite to become the next England manager ended up having a very public row with HMRC. Critical to the prosecution case was evidence that poor Harry had once lied to a News of the World journalist, which one would hardly consider a hanging offence, but in this new mood of mob rule, who knows?
Taking the points of others……
And what are we to do with the estimated 300,000 people who have taking speeding points that were not rightfully theirs? I imagine that most did not appreciate the gravity of the offence, but it seems to carry an automatic custodial sentence, which would create some logistical problems. We still have the Ark Royal, of course, so we could bung a few thousand in there.
Anyway, I am sure they will find some space for the Right Honourable Chris Huhne, should he be found guilty; be fascinating to see how he and his ex wife plead; surely if one admits guilt, the other does not have a leg to stand on?
A snip at £680 (+vat)……?
For the moment, it does remove one of the few big beasts in the Liberal Democrat party, although that does not mean that the remaining ones become more valuable; the laws of economic survivorship do not work here. Thus, I found it all too easy to decline an invitation to a seminar on Regenerating the British Economy at which the keynote speaker is to be none other than The Right Honourable Dr. Vince Cable MP, helped by some other worthies. If you would like to go, the rate for the day is £680, on which vat is to be charged, although for the life of me, I cannot work that bit out.
Facebook valuation……
In a week when so many treasures have fallen from their pedestals, it is good to have something to replace them with. Step forward Facebook, which is to float in the Spring, on a valuation of more than twenty times revenues, and up to a hundred times profits. These are very heady numbers for something that doesn’t really seem to do anything, but the skill lies in taking the personal information that people have volunteered to them, and sending targeted advertisements in return.
Preference for Apples…….
Which is both brilliantly simple, and highly effective, and probably knows no bounds. Why not a Facebook phone, for instance? I think I still prefer Apple, which generates $100m of cash every eight hours, and trades on three times estimated earnings for 2014. Whatever, if they get the float away, there are going to be some very rich people around, especially the longer serving members of staff. Whether they can retain their enthusiasm thereafter is one of the key risks.
Monopolies of the dishonourable……
And, as ever, there are plenty interested in the outcome who have not contributed to the success. One of the reasons it has to float is that the founder, Mark Zuckerberg, triggers a tax bill once his stock options are struck, amounting to $1.5bn. You will not be surprised to learn that politicians in his native California are already arguing about how to spend this windfall. So, clearly, we do not have a monopoly of the dishonourable.
CDO
5th February, 2012.
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