Money for Something

Bankers are in the news again. In case you missed it, amongst all the really important stuff about Katie & Peter's Christmas plans and Tiger's motor, senior executives at RBS have threatened to resign if they don't get the Christmas bonus (from us that is, the taxpayer) they feel they deserve.

More than 5,000 investment bankers expect a Christmas bonus of around £1 million each. They say if they don't get it, they'll resign and go to a bank that will pay them this kind of money. We as taxpayers will, they claim, lose out even more if we don't give them the money, as without their talents, RBS will have no way of ever paying back the £20,000,000,000 the Government lent the bank when it squandered its, er, investments, making daft purchases and lending money to people who couldn't pay it back.

The reality is that RBS hasn't paid back its loan and is after even more money from the Government. If this happened to you or me and we didn't pay the bank our loan for our house the bank would put us out in the street. If the bank doesn't pay back its loan to us, the bankers want a bonus! Yes, you couldn't make it up.

There are two common responses. The first is to support these guys, on the basis that they have a decent case, or you are one of them, or you're the Duke of York. You actually believe that RBS investment bankers have such rare talents we'd all be worse off without them.

The second response, one I have a bit of time for, I'll admit, is to call their bluff and say, sorry boys, you just haven't earned it yet baby. But, I think there's another option, a third way, if you like. Give the bonuses to the people in the public sector who really do deserve it.

The Government owns 84% of RBS. So, its employees are public sector workers in the same way state school teachers, NHS doctors and nurses are. Let's say for example that the Government/RBS has £5,000,000,000 (sorry for all the zeros but we rarely see billions spelt out like this. £5bn just doesn't have the same effect) to give out.

Is it really so crazy to take that sum, and the many others that have been given out in MPs homes etc to the people we really couldn't do without? Let's say there are around 6 million people who work in the public sector. These are the June 2005 National Statistics figures. They are a wee bit out of date, but they give us something to work from.

If we gave this £5,000,000,000 to every public sector worker (including RBS bankers), that would be £833 each for Christmas. Now, I'm not arguing that we should. Not all of them deserve it. There are public sector workers, like private sector workers, who just bad at their job and they don't deserve any bonus. So, for the majority who do do their jobs well, often highly stressful ones, there could easily be £1,000 up for grabs, if their performance merits a bonus.

Would it be too much for the Government to come up with some kind of incentive scheme whereby public sector workers could earn this bonus? Would £1000 at Christmas for public sector workers not be good for the economy? Surely it would be better for lots of £1000s to be spent, or saved, all over the country rather than being spent in car dealers and jewellers in London? Would £1000 not be very, very welcome for millions of families? Would this not be a massive vote winner for the Government?

Is it me that's mad or this idea just too sensible for the Government ever to carry out?

And, before private sector workers get all shirty, going on about public sector holidays, job security and pensions, if being a teacher, a social worker or a nurse is such a cushy job, why don't you do it?