Sir Fred Goodwin Was My Chauffeur !
Spare a thought for the young Sir Fred Goodwin.
I went to school with him – Paisley Grammar in the early 1970s, and then onto Glasgow University where I developed a peculiar bond with him.
I enrolled at uni aged 16 - a year earlier than most. For the previous year Fred, a same age Paisley Grammar classmate of my brother Ian, and Paisley Grammar’s lone Trot, John "Paddy" Adams, were in Fred’s car pool from Paisley. I was a new class of ‘76 back seat recruit. It was a smart gold Rover 200 – quite a set of wheels for a student.
These were the days of the Pistols and, yes, The Eagles, Hotel California being THE album!
And in the dispute over what radio station (Radio 1 or Clyde) played in Sir Fred's Rover as we crawled along Paisley Road West, Fred was for commercial Clyde and The Eagles. It might surprise you to learn that, as a young radical, I was on Fred’s side, loving the Eagles more than he did, as opposed to the noisy “trash” of the punks, favoured by Paddy, the staple of Radio 1 - God Save The Queen aside, banned for just being too right on
Indeed at 16, with most of my own classmates still a school doing a sixth year, Sir Fred was a bit of a mentor, almost father figure to me. Whilst I was political enough - a party member since the age of 12 - I was never too keen on the ideological debate which raged between the 3rd ( Paddy) and 2nd ( bro) Internationals in the car, and then into the Men’s Union smoking room ( surrounded by a bunch of public schoolboy neo- fascists, plotting Maggie and Michael Forsyth’s soon to be launched counter revolution)
Me and Fred had ambitious plans of our own, and together we became the unofficial pinball champions of the Union basement, my mentor Fred being both proud and disappointed when I took his crown sometime mid 2nd term.
And all closely watched by The Union’s "Eddie the handyman", who in the juvenile homophobic mind of Sir Fred, was "a poof" eyeing him, me and everyone else up ready to whisk us away to his workshop if one dropped one’s guard
Of such stuff is the most successful and then most spectacularly disastrous banker in world history made.
And if he losses that £650k a year pension, who knows he might once more be my chauffeur
But I did like Fred, was proud of his success whilst it lasted. Maybe he will do a John Profumo and use a personal disaster to tun his life around, serving the poor rather than livimg off the backs of them.
I went to school with him – Paisley Grammar in the early 1970s, and then onto Glasgow University where I developed a peculiar bond with him.
I enrolled at uni aged 16 - a year earlier than most. For the previous year Fred, a same age Paisley Grammar classmate of my brother Ian, and Paisley Grammar’s lone Trot, John "Paddy" Adams, were in Fred’s car pool from Paisley. I was a new class of ‘76 back seat recruit. It was a smart gold Rover 200 – quite a set of wheels for a student.
These were the days of the Pistols and, yes, The Eagles, Hotel California being THE album!
And in the dispute over what radio station (Radio 1 or Clyde) played in Sir Fred's Rover as we crawled along Paisley Road West, Fred was for commercial Clyde and The Eagles. It might surprise you to learn that, as a young radical, I was on Fred’s side, loving the Eagles more than he did, as opposed to the noisy “trash” of the punks, favoured by Paddy, the staple of Radio 1 - God Save The Queen aside, banned for just being too right on
Indeed at 16, with most of my own classmates still a school doing a sixth year, Sir Fred was a bit of a mentor, almost father figure to me. Whilst I was political enough - a party member since the age of 12 - I was never too keen on the ideological debate which raged between the 3rd ( Paddy) and 2nd ( bro) Internationals in the car, and then into the Men’s Union smoking room ( surrounded by a bunch of public schoolboy neo- fascists, plotting Maggie and Michael Forsyth’s soon to be launched counter revolution)
Me and Fred had ambitious plans of our own, and together we became the unofficial pinball champions of the Union basement, my mentor Fred being both proud and disappointed when I took his crown sometime mid 2nd term.
And all closely watched by The Union’s "Eddie the handyman", who in the juvenile homophobic mind of Sir Fred, was "a poof" eyeing him, me and everyone else up ready to whisk us away to his workshop if one dropped one’s guard
Of such stuff is the most successful and then most spectacularly disastrous banker in world history made.
And if he losses that £650k a year pension, who knows he might once more be my chauffeur
But I did like Fred, was proud of his success whilst it lasted. Maybe he will do a John Profumo and use a personal disaster to tun his life around, serving the poor rather than livimg off the backs of them.
I hope so. Fred has a better side. I can vouch for that.
12 comments:
What a lovely tribute AWC. I heard Fred was thinking Formula One. Also I admire him for hanging onto the pension he negotiated with these fools Brown and Darling. Some bloggers are saying Brown will bring in a piece of legislation to block it. Personally it's obscene but they signed it off.
He's be better off moving to Switzerland right now.
This guy was part of the "me" generation. He didn't, and doesn't, give a a fuck about the devastation he leaves behind him.
Militant tendency would have ate him for breakfast.
Sunrosa
Thanks. And I agree on the pension issue. An obscene sum for most if us, but modest for a guy who was grossing 4 million plus a year for the best part of a decade. And he voluntarilly gave up any severance, people forget. And he has a family, used to a rich lifestyle. He is looking after them, no more no less than most folks would, abeit at a much lower level.
But Formula 1 needs Fred and vice versa like a hole in the head. Now The Big Issue or a new social enterprise fondation, part funded by Sir Fred's own pension and benefiting from his imense talents plus the humility of his fall, that woud be truy inspiring - Carnegieesque
The new foundation could even help fund pinball casses (mechanical only machines !) A heathly alternatve to Playstation 14
scunnert
He dont give a fuck about the devastation he has eft behing - that i doubt. But it dont make him innocent either.
And "the Miitant Tendancy eat him for breakfast" - they did, "paddy" in particuar on many occassions. Why Fred prefered pinball - and banking!
Excellent article Alan. To be honest my venom is not really for him, he acted true to his nature as a banker, greed. Gordon Brown however , knowing what we all no about bankers, Let the dog of the leash and proffited from them attacking the markets in the short term. He benifited from the easy lending, he chose to surround himself with hedgfund managers, he chose PFI as a Shiney building now leave the cost for someother muppet project, He crawed about the boom when the mending was easy. He was in charge.
Fred as he should be called, is just a bit player , the director and producer needs the bullet.
They move on, and we get to discuss the "good old days" and how it was...That'll help us in the food queues, whilst they're in their mansions.
Lloyds Profit - Comment
etc
Reality Info
Get connected. We can sort this out folks:)
Peace.
Freddy was a young boy, he played with the cities baws he got into alegiance with a man with only one eye ball, he didnt see it coming he thought he'd be too rich and forget, He was a pin baw wizzard......Found dead under a political banking blizzard.....
I've included this in my Subrosa's Super Seven this weekhttp://tinyurl.com/czrfpr
many thanks bonnie dundee
i see your favorite party is invading your city next weekend. any plans to greet them?
There you go, an actual dinosaur has raised his gaping maw and bellowed...and he's a buddy!
Call to strip title from Sir Fred.
A Scottish MP is calling for the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Sir Fred Goodwin, to be stripped of his knighthood.
Jim Sheridan, Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, has asked the Metropolitan Police to investigate the activities of senior bankers.
His call comes as the row continues over Sir Fred's £16m pension fund.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has launched a stinging attack on the role of the banks in sparking a recession.
Sir Fred was given his knighthood for services to banking in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in June 2004.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7916521.stm
I take it Jim ain’t Tommy's big brother!
I think this just another new Labour smokescreen, Mandleson approved phoney outrage. Pick some working class backbench nomark to generate some headlines and let the real culprits sneak out of town ( To Washington DC to meet Obama on Tuesday to be precise)
Because Jim Sheridan would not take a shit without asking for Government approval - and hes been put up to this by fellow Paisley prostitutes the Alexander sisters - as this just would not sound remotely credible coming from either of them ( And titles are for life or longer in their eyes - part of their pact with the ruling class they are trying to worm their way into.)
So put up Jimbo - and as he is called Sheridan it even sounds vaguely socialist - without having to actually utter the word
But who recommended "arise Sir Fred" t the Queen in 2002 - it aunt as though she’s an RBS saver account holder, or got a good deal from Direct Line. So who recommend SIR Fred? - I think we have the right to know.
I do know - Gordy
So cut all this crap, let's call a spade a spade here - Jim Sheridan and co, who have sat on their hands on every outrage from Iraq to new Trident, now leading the class war against sir Freddie! ( he probably out lefts them, in terms of his overall outlook)
But Jim, if you are concerned with undeserved honours, why not start with that drunken arsonist Lord Watson that is still sitting in the Lords working "non party" back channels for Gordy and a couple of dozen CEOs, as unethical as Sir Freddie if the truth got out there
We it is out there - start running Jim, Wendo Dougie and Gordie - maybe Sir Fred will put you up in his hideout - as long as he can keep his knighthood and that pension you specifically approved for him as poor folks were terrified they might lose their life savings as a result of Fred's, but above al your recklessness
GO now - don’t embarrass us in front of Barrack. He's already had to shake hands with a war criminal - your predecessor.
Actually it was a Rover 3500. Otherwise not a bad blog. Shows you what happens when you play with the big boys. Having your lilfe destroyed by Brown and his sycophants must be horrendous.
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