Monday 5 December 2011

The Ghost of Christmas Past.


The current  issue of CaRT News, the organ of the BW quango that will soon to be seen wearing its Emperors new disguise clothes.

The Canal and River Trust may now have a handsome swan logo, but it has yet to make any announcement on the important question of directors' pay. I have touched on this before  here.

British Waterways' chief executive Robin Evans took home a £15,000 bonus on top of his £222,000 annual salary this year, making him once again one of the highest-paid quangocrats around. Despite a pay freeze for waterways workers and cutbacks to maintenance work.

In a bout of Scrooge like conscience Evans said that after being visited by the ghost of Christmas past he was unable to function as the BW CEO any longer and immediately resigned his position and (in a promise made to Bob Cratchet) to hand back his pension pot.

The very first progress report from Jacob Marley one of the trustees notes: "We do see there is a need for a more rapid statement of policy in respect of remuneration – and particularly directors' remuneration."

There are already fears that the charity simply won't have enough money to pay that kind of salary (or indeed, to do its job properly). "There is no point setting up the charity with inadequate resources," say the trustees. "We know what we need from government and we need to persuade them to increase their current offer of £39m per annum for ten years to a level that ensures CRT is viable."

On another tack....

One of the richest men in the world had so much money he did not know what to do with it all. He would often shower his wife and his three kids with wonderful presents. When it was his twin boys birthday. He asked the first. "What would you like for your Birthday Son" The boy thought for a while and then answered "I would love a vintage train set" The proud father went out and bought him the Worth Valley Railway.

When he asked the other twin "what would you like son? " The boy thought about it for a while before declaring "I would love to have my own aircraft" So he went out and bought him Virgin airlines.

A couple of months later it was the very much younger sons birthday He bent down slowly and softly said. "What would you like for your Birthday son?" The little boy looked up at his dad and answered shyly. "Daddy, I would love to have a cowboy outfit." So his daddy is going to buy him the Canal and Rivers Trust.

Later...

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