Fred The Shred

The pack now turns on Sir Fred Goodwin. It is not hard to see why: he was the CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland during the time it made the business moves that have now unravelled, leading to tens of billions in losses and effective nationalisation.

Now it turns out that Goodwin will not be returning his £693,000 a year pension, despite the revelations regarding the appalling shape he left the bank in.

And I don't blame him.

I don't like him. I despise the casino capitalism he embodied. I even had the misfortune to glimpse the man one day when I was out at the sinister post-fascist headquarters RBS has out at Gogarburn. He was striding along some Roman consul while lesser beings were expected to - literally - move to the side of the path to allow the great man through.

But the fact is that a Government Minister signed off on Goodwin's deal. They knew. So why should he give it back?

When Goodwin was winning at the mortgage-backed securities roulette wheel, Brown, Salmond, the Tories, all of them were queueing up, desperate to be associated with him. Worse than that, they were like those footy slappers who hang around in clubs hoping for some big name star to ream them every which way in a casually abusive fashion then discard them, all so they can tell their mates they were with Big Fred from the RBS Rangers last night.

This whole campaign to pin the blame for EVERYTHING on Goodwin and demand he give back his pension is nothing more than an attempt to disguise the fact that the entire British political establishment is utterly complicit in this financial disaster.

In the greater scheme of things, while I could certainly deal with £693,000 a year for doing sweet fanny adams, I'm a bit more concerned with about the hundreds of billions that seem to be produced every few weeks to chuck at yet another failing bank.

The bottom line is this all happened on Gordon Brown's watch, first as Chancellor, now as Prime Minister.

No matter how much Labour spin, no matter how much they shriek and point the finger at everyone else, that is the simple fact and the voting public knows it.