For the Knights and Lords, Dames and Ladies of British Industry

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December 2012 saw a former chief of the Financial Services Authority (Hector Sants) and December 2013 a former deputy governor of the Bank of England (Paul Tucker) knighted. Men whose responsibilities included regulating the banks during the banking crash. They joined the array of lords and knights in the well padded seats of the City of London's financial district.

Every bank, insurance company and investment firm covets a noble or two to adorn its board. What could possibly go wrong if a peer of the realm is at the helm?

It is not just financial services. Lords and ladies, knights and dames grace the boards and regulators of electricity, transport, education, health, and just about every major commercial endeavour. Judge them not by their fruits, but by their titles.

To recognise these valiant men and women who fearlessly take responsibility for our nation's well being, ensuring the good and chivalrous behaviour of their companies and those they regulate. In praise of these goodly citizens who use their bodies, minds and reputations as buttresses against all the unseemly pillaging and ripping-off, we give you an excerpt from Monty Python's tale of Camelot:

Brave Sir Robin ran away.
Bravely ran away, away!
When danger reared its ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet
He beat a very brave retreat,
Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin!

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New Years Resolutions - should we have faith that goodness will come from within?

We at Ripped-Off Britons have kept our focus on those who rip off within the law. The targets of our blog posts and cartoons are as likely to be seen glowing in the company of princes and bishops as sweating in a commons committee or court room. 

The role call of lords and knights passing through Parliament's Grimond Room in 2012 sounds like a list of nobles sitting at the Round Table in King Arthur's Camelot. Actually they were perched on the naughty seats attesting to the disgrace of the Banking industry in front of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards. The hearings may have been uncomfortable for those gallant and noble men with accusations of being "delusional" and "dishonest" ringing in their ears. But after three hours of wriggling and wiggling in the Grimond Room they were driven in a car paid for by the proceeds of their dodgy activities back to a comfortable home paid for by some more of the proceeds of their dodgy activities, to have a glass of single malt paid for by...(you get the general idea).

Of course we should be resolute in the campaign against rip-offs and rippers-off. It is for us campaigners, those who draw and write and those who tweet and retweet, to point out their frauds and negligences. But what will actually stem the tide of scams and injustices is the resolution of the perpetrators themselves. They are proud spirits who, like Sir Thomas More's devil, cannot abide to be mocked and jeered. But they have almost impenetrably thick skins. In the end, their resolve must come from within.

So we invite suggestions for a New Year's Resolution for those who perpetrate and have the power to stop some of the rip-offs:

Contributions from some of our guest authors in 2012 can be read here:

• Deborah Hargreaves, High Pay Centre: Excessive Pay
• Richard Murphy, Tax Research: Tax Dodgers
• Richard Hebditch, Campaign for Better Transport: Transport Industry
• Honestly Banking, the undercover banker: Bankers

Email further contributions to resolutions2013@rippedoffbritons.com

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New Year's Resolution - Tax Dodgers

By Richard Murphy

Adviser to the Tax Justice Network and the TUC on taxation and economic issues. He is also the director of Tax Research LLP.

Can I shock the world and say what I’d really like someone to do in the New Year has something to do with tax?

I believe in tax. I think it’s the price we pay for living in a decent, democratic, wealth generating and wealth sharing democracy. I don’t think we’d have any of those things without a strong tax system. So I don’t like tax cheats. 

They abuse the system, undermine democracy, increase inequality and leave decent people to pick up the bill – except that their capacity to do so is now at its limit.

So what would I like someone to do? I’d like a General Anti-Tax Avoidance Principle to be included in UK law. Not the nonsensical apology of a general anti-abuse rule that the government is proposing but something like the Bill Michael Meacher put to the House of Commons in September this year.  

Now, I am biased: I wrote this Bill. But it would stop tax avoidance in its tracks, make using tax havens hard, let H M Revenue & Customs tackle companies like Google and rebalance the tax equation in favour of the honest and the poor.

It could be done. That’s why I have picked this option of the many available to me. The Bill is still waiting for its second reading in the Commons. The option of passing it is available. 

It’s my New Year’s wish that it reaches the statute book.

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New Years Resolution - Transport Industry

By Richard Hebditch, 
Campaigns Director, 
Campaign for Better Transport.

The one New Year's resolution Campaign for Better Transport would like is for Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, to resolve that 2013's rail fare rises will be the last to be set above inflation.

The rises on 2 January 2013 are the tenth anniversary of above inflation fare rises. Increasing them by one per cent above inflation year after year has meant that they are now outstripping wage increases by ever increasing amounts. For many on low to middle incomes, it simply means that they can no longer afford to travel to work in London or other city centres.

The Government have promised to end such rises but they have set no target date to do so. A New Year's resolution to end above inflation rises once and for all would be a late Christmas gift that millions of rail passengers would welcome.

If you want to help encourage Mr McLoughlin's choice of New Year resolution, then please sign our 

petition at http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/fair-fares-now

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New Year's Resolution - Bankers

By Honestly Banking, the undercover banker

Looking back over 2012, we've seen the world of banking plumb new depths. Libor rigging, Interest Rate Swap scandals, money laundering to name just a few. 

For 2013 we would like bankers to resolve to simply take personal responsibility to do the right thing. This means having the moral courage to speak out and blow the whistle when something is wrong. To put customers first and stop the greed. We should have the moral courage to welcome legislators giving regulators teeth that bite. 

It is staggering that 2012 has brought many clear cases of corporate misdemeanour yet there have been hardly any individuals paying the price. A substantial fine is just a cost of doing business and usually only represents a fraction of the profits made. Those that have permitted or profited from the crime just turn up for work again the next day!

Those who believe that any behaviour is acceptable in pursuit of profit must learn that they will and must be called to account for their actions. If they have done wrong, the price must be paid - personally.

In 2013 have moral courage to stand up for what is right.

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New Year's Resolution - The Excessively Paid

By Deborah Hargreaves, Founding Director of the High Pay Centre

Highly paid bosses' New Year's resolution should be to give up their bonuses and award their workforce a pay rise instead. 

A chief executive of a big company earns on average £4.8 million or 185 times average wages, and some bankers are on even more than that. Surely, they can't spend all that?

It's about time the rest of us got a pay rise. While top bosses have seen their pay  treble in the past 10 years, average earnings have increased by 51 per cent -  barely keeping up with price rises which are up 45 per cent. If the minimum wage had risen as fast as executive pay, it would now be £19 instead of £6.19.

Our business leaders are very competitive people. But could we turn their boast around? Let's make it not about "mine is bigger than yours", but "I've given up more than you!" Let's see them contributing a bit to the general good by foregoing a couple of million and turning that into a top-up for the lowest paid.

In the long run it would help their businesses by putting a bit of spending power into the pockets of those who are likely to spend it. It would help boost demand for their goods and get the economy off the ground again.

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