While the Chairman of RBS, Sir Philip Hampton, has refused his bonus today, there has not been a peep out of Stephen Hester who seems determined to hang onto his. David Cameron, however, does have something to say, though his answers seem to vary according to who is doing the asking. First he told us all that he had no control over bonuses because of contractural obligations entered into by the previous Labour government. This, unfortunately for him, is now widely known to be an outright lie so he changed his tale and is now claiming that if he blocks bonuses the management team might resign en masse. "That would be even more expensive for tax payers," he warns us sternly, hinting that a new team might well demand even more money from the Tory party, who, he seems to suggest, would be even worse at negotiating an executive renumeration package than Labour. Since this won't wash he then lamely concludes that whether Mr.Hester takes his bonus or not is "up to him." No Mr.Cameron it's up to you and no amount of bobbing and weaving can hide the fact that you are dodging the issue. So, is David Cameron as two-faced and cowardly as he appears? You betcha. The only real question is why he is more afraid of Mr.Hester than the electorate? Surely it can't be that he's now completely convinced that he can get away with any lie and that the electorate are too stupid or uninterested to care?
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