Tuesday 10 June 2008

Two missing words

Here's an interesting little snippet. The version of Kitty Ussher's speech to the BBA available on the Treasury website is slightly different from the version in the FT.

Treasury version:

But I’m clear that executive pay is a matter for Boards and shareholders – not for Governments.


FT version:

I'm clear that executive pay is a matter for boards and shareholders, not for governments and regulators.


The key difference being, of course, the missing "and regulators". Hector Sants has of course said that the FSA will consider pay as part of their assessment of financial institutions. So the implication could be that the Government has told the FSA to back off.

So why two versions? Did the speechwriter not realise the implications of "and regulators" in this context, hence it was subsequently dropped? Was it a shot across the bows that it was decided needed to be dropped? Or was it just a minor tweak to the final version of the speech? Insert your own conspiracy theory in the comments section below...

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