Hester’s bonus and Goodwin’s knighthood – hue and cry conceals the real scandal

1st February 2012 Socialist Action 0

By Jane West

While it is welcome that Stephen Hester, CEO of the publicly-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has been forced to forego his grotesquely inflated bonus – and that his predecessor Fred ‘the Shred’ Goodwin has been stripped of his knighthood – the truth is the whole furore has been used to divert attention from the most central issue and real scandal relating to the banks.