Select committee snippet

From the chair Andy Tyrie (via FT blog):

12.00: The ever-spiky Andrew Tyrie, committee chairman, says Barclays shareholders are “interested, clever and uninformed” – given they don’t know what bonuses are being proposed until after the event.

“They are half-asleep,” he suggests.

Not the first time Tyrie has accused shareholders of not being on the ball. I think he gets it slightly wrong though. When we FOIed the letters asset managers wrote back to Lord Myners detailing what action they were taking, many of them simply parroted the banks' own argument - don't push too hard on pay or the talent will move overseas. The mindset needs to change if shareholders are going to be a restraining influence.

PS - Great TUC line on today: Ministers have unconditionally surrendered to the banks