Thursday 14 May 2009

Select committee deputy chair looks a bit daft

Good bit from Nil Pratley again (scroll down to the bottom) on Tory deputy chair of the Treasury select committee Michael Fallon's role as critic and facilitator of mega-bonuses:
Just rewards

"Conservatives have to think more deeply about the nature of reward." No, that's not David Cameron on expenses. It's Michael Fallon, prominent member of the Treasury select committee, writing on our Comment is Free site last September.

It was a lively piece with a powerful pay-off: "Mega-bonuses, out of all proportion to ordinary earnings, destroy the social consensus on which a free economy depends."

So it will be fascinating to hear at tomorrow's annual meeting how Fallon squares this statement with the policies of the remuneration committee of Tullett Prebon. Fallon is chairman of this committee, which handed Tullett chief executive, Terry Smith, a £2m cash bonus and the same again in shares.

The argument seems to be that because other inter-dealer brokers pay big bucks, so must Tullett. It's a point of view – but would you call it deep thinking?

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