The knights of old had their knighthood stripped from them for matters of treason. The offender would kneel before the monarch, have their sword broken over their head and would be left to wander the land, penniless and in disgrace.

There is a marked similarity between these disgraced armour-clad defenders of the realm and the banker today now known simply as Fred. The former head of Royal Bank of Scotland has been condemned to the life of an outcast, much as the legendary sword-wielding knights were.

Fred Goodwin should take responsibility and apologise for his part in creating the financial crisis that hit RBS due to the failed consortium purchase of ABN AMRO. Ordinary people are now paying for this £45bn mistake, and others like it, with their jobs. It is now they, and the hard working banking staff, who have had to take the punishment for the failure of RBS rather than those at the top.

It is appropriate that Fred should be stripped of an honour that was awarded for services to banking that is now clearly undeserved – but therein lies the problem – the honour was bestowed far too soon.

In singling out Fred Goodwin ACFA believes the government has not acted out of justice and with consistency, but instead has hit out at an easy target – a single scapegoat – in order to satisfy a vindictiveness stirred up by the media.

This single act of revenge might give us all a little satisfaction, but what does it really achieve beyond allowing party leaders to score political points? What is needed here is fairness, justice and reform.

What the government should be doing is ensuring that awards should be given for long-term, rather than short-term, service and performance. This would encourage longevity of employment and a greater culture of responsibility.

Rewarding performance appropriately upon this basis would go some way to ending the short-termism that currently rules the City, from investment objectives and pay awards, to the distribution of honours.



Arwyn Bailey is an Independent Financial Adviser for Justamo Financial Planning based in Harrow. He is a member of ACFA, the Association of Christian Financial Advisers