I thought this article from The Times may be of interest to other NR shareholders who have also lost some or all of their savings or had their pension funds devalued over the past few months as a consequence of the widespread greed and the use of creative self-interested accounting practices by those in responsible highly paid positions.
Of course all sorts of reasons are already being trotted out for not giving the public the full story behind their life savings becoming virtually worthless. However this article more than adequately demonstrates that under this and previous Governments, in the grossly overpaid Financial Services Industry entrusted with the care of the life savings of the general public and within the highly paid Government Agencies supposedly appointed to regulate this industry, that crass incompetence and abject failure are hugely and unnecessarily rewarded at the further expense of the taxpayer.
Some of those who are our elected representatives appointed to legislate, have by default enabled this to happen whilst apparently accessing and helping themselves as a matter of course to large sums of public funds as "legitimate and necessary expenses," without sufficient records being kept to enable the Crown Prosecution Service to have any sort of an auditable trail to investigate and prosecute the possibility of isolated or even widespread abuse, but the same old condescending platitudes are trotted out to the public!
Do we have to stomach this sort of sickening regime as a consequence of being one of the wealthiest countries in the world; a country we are told is the home of democracy?
"Nero fiddles whilst Rome burns" and the elderly on fixed incomes who are today's investors rather than borrowers, whose life savings are earmarked by government and industry alike to feed obscene levels of bonus and financial reward to the few, are powerless to do much if anything about it other than put their money under the mattress.
Back in autumn 2007 the Daily Telegraph carried an article questioning what the FSA as Regulator had been doing over the previous 12 months to identify and pre-empt the Northern Rock crisis.
It has taken until late March 2008 for this question to be tentatively answered, the FSA at last admitting that it had done almost nothing, not having carrying out an in depth review for over 18 months, spending more effort on the more visible but relatively less important consumer issues. However the individual responsible for this dereliction has walked away with nearly £400,000 cash and a pension fund over twice that figure as his personal reward for failure provided by the taxpayer, whilst as he is dismissed the authorities heap praise on him for his contribution. It really is a nonsense!
With all this going on in and around the City, around Government Agencies and Government itself; despite being one of the wealthier nations of Europe it is little wonder that the UK has one of the smallest per capita savings records, and large sections of the public are now showing their general disgust, distaste, and disenchantment with their elected representatives' grip on things, by refraining from involvement in politics and refraining from exercising their vote altogether.
It's ironic that against the background of MPs being allowed to abstain or even not turn up to vote at all on contentious issues, these same MPs, now apparently concerned at the public apathy their behaviour and example has encouraged, are discussing the possibility (in a democracy?) of making voting by the public compulsory.
Some of us devote substantial parts of what reduced time we have left drawing Regulators' attention to major errors being made by household name companies all in their favour in the Financial Services Industry, but those appointed to regulate are far too close to those whom they are supposed to be regulating, with the result that cover up or flawed legislation is used to bury without trace perfectly legitimate and sustainable complaints, in the process rewarding failure and wrongdoing and creating an apparently clean slate and a remit for those responsible to continue with inappropriate and unlawful practices.
Without proper control and some degree of integrity to impose perfectly sound existing legislation amongst those in authority, the rot in the barrel of apples and the greed at the top is encouraged to spread, and will spread further.
Is this really the fair society the Labour Party regard as a major part of their mission?
The most outspoken and informed of our elected representatives over the last few months concerning our dysfunctional Financial Services Industry has been Vince Cable in his temporary capacity as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, whilst those heavyweights in high places in government have refrained from any meaningful analytical comment, for fear of standing up and being counted over contentious but very real issues.
My own experience of trying to report wrongdoing to Government Regulators suggests to me that Northern Rock and its' fall out is just the symptom of a deeply serious and widespread cancer within elements of the Financial Services Industry and some of the Govt Regulators, to cover over the traces of wrongdoing, and in doing so maintain investor confidence and the pay and bonus bonanza for the few in control unchanged.
I'm sure I'm not alone in believing that wrongdoing, sharp practices, and self-interest in financial circles has become so widespread it is condoned and seen as as being quite normal, and treated as such by those involved and by Government Regulators.
I'm sorry for this outburst on my part, but the combination of Northern Rock, my earlier experience at the hands of Friends Provident over a four year period of complaint and the Pension Ombudsman's reaction to wrongdoing when reported, is more than sufficient reason for me to pass such adverse comment on the behaviour of those supposedly in authority.
Robert S Hunter
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