We like to consider that the generous spirit of Dickens presides over every record at this time of year. Not this oneThe record of the housebuilding company Persimmon has a beautiful,Christmassy spirit. Its chair, Nicholas Wrigley, or has quit over his role in awarding its chief executive,Jeff Fairburn, an obscene bonus of £110m. I was about to put quote marks round obscene, and since thats the judgment of assorted charities and politicians,but really it needs no attribution – it is objectively obscene.
Before you’ve even read any statistics on housing; before you’ve heard the record about the family of four in one bedroom of a bed and breakfast infested with cockroaches; before you’ve considered that Persimmon’s success can be traced in portion to benefits reaped from the government’s wait on-to-buy scheme, which itself has done nothing for the millions who need the wait on: one look at that amount of money, and showered upon one man for his contribution to an industry in which so much inequality crystallises,and various words irresistibly propose themselves, of which the least obscene is “obscene”.
Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk