'Language that stirs the lynch mob'

Mar 9 2009 By David Wilshire, MP for Spelthorne

The saga of Sir Fred Godwin’s pension from the Royal Bank of Scotland ought to alarm every one of us – not only because of the size of annual payment to a person who presided over the catastrophic collapse of a major bank but because of the government’s reaction.

Let me start by making it clear I consider Sir Fred’s pension deal obscene. If he now wants to show that he understands public outrage he could announce he will donate a few hundred thousand pounds a year to various charities.

Let me also explain I applaud Parliament’s decision to investigate the role of government ministers and civil servants in agreeing the pay off. If the minister who appears to have signed off the deal on behalf of taxpayers really is in receipt of a six figure pension from a subsiduary of RBS he ought to resign.

But the worst aspect of this appalling affair is the response of the deputy leader of the Labour party. A politician who says it doesn’t matter what a court of law decides because she will over-rule decisions she doesn’t like ought to scare us all. This is the language of totalitarian dictators.

Democracy depends on the rule of law. If certain individuals and institutions are above the law, democracy is dead. When individuals and institutions start to question the rule of law they confirm they see democracy as a threat to their privileged position.

Harriet Harman justified her call for Sir Fred’s legal agreement to be torn up by claiming it was not acceptable in the ‘Court of Public Opinion’. That’s a call for the return of the lynch mob.