No one should earn more than the Prime Minister

Whilst we are busy attacking bankers for their ridiculous bonuses, maybe it's time we took a look at some of the ridiculous public sector pay awards. Can somebody tell me, why council chiefs are earning more than the Prime Minister? In the current economic climate and with the government strapped for cash, are £200,000 public sector salaries really appropriate?

In the United States there is a principle that no public servant should earn more than the President. Maybe it's time that principle was applied here.

Banks, the way they used to be....

There was a time when trying to get a loan out of your bank manager was like trying to get blood out of a stone. Those days are fast returning. Charles Moore tells the following story about times gone by:

When I got my first job (after leaving university in 1979, I had £14 left in the bank, so I wrote to the manager and asked for an overdraft of £400 to have a couple of suits made. He telephoned me, very concerned: ‘If you will excuse me being humorous, Mr Moore, I think you should cut your coat according to your cloth. You can buy a perfectly acceptable suit from Burton’s for a fraction of the price.’ Conscious that he had never met me, I put on a hurt tone of voice, and said that I was ‘a very strange shape’, and therefore could not get a suit off the peg. Embarrassed, he granted me the loan. But I feel that the poor man was doing his job, and that it is partly because his sort were stamped out by more thrusting, business-grabbing types that the banks now have no money left.