Robbing Hood

I wonder if you own shares in this company? You probably do in a fund or pension.

I did and lost 29%. You might think it’s time to drop the pilot and that’s what has happened.

The pilot in this instance is the CEO. Note Bismarck walks down the ladder (what’s the right word – gang plank?) empty-handed. Your CEO takes away a cool £2.6 million and has been invited to come back for lunch as a consultant on circa £800,000 a year, says The Guardian, a newspaper that likes to point out these things.

Prima facie I thought here is a chancer prepared to roll the dice punting the shareholders’ money and with a good remuneration package if luck isn’t a lady. I’m not a gambler but placing a bet that wins maybe £10 million if it wins or £2.6 million if it loses seems a good plan. To slightly digress, the Bridge Theatre has an upcoming production of Guys and Dolls; I hope to snag a cheap seat at a matinee. On reflection, your CEO worked at the company for forty years and just when he got to the top of the greasy pole his ship ran into heavy weather. Really difficult conditions and he battened down the hatches with some success, by which I mean the ship didn’t founder.

The stock market has also run out of steam – particularly badly if you are, like me, exposed to tech stocks. To make matters worse the cost of living crisis has come home to roost, even at Number 56. The  Direct Debit gas bill has gone up by 95%. I hope British Gas are a Robin Hood robbing me to give to the poor but I suspect I’m contributing to the bosses’ pay packages.

I know, Nicky Haslam would say it’s common to talk about money.

I think tea towels are common – drying-up cloth is the right description.