Dear All
A damning new book about Glasgow University product Sir Fred Goodwin is in the offing claiming that former Royal Bank of Scotland boss was obsessed with biscuits and had anger problems.
Written by two Tory MPs - George Osborne's former chief of staff Matthew Hancock and Nadhim Zahawi, it appears to not pull any punches either above or below the belt.
A storker is the claim that Sir Fred wasted huge sums indulging his personal tastes.
Known as "Fred the Shred" because of his obsession with cutting costs, it looks like the book paints a scenario of one rule for Goodwin and another for the plebs.
Goodwin is best known for leaving the taxpayer with a £45 billion bailout bill.
Further claims in the book alleged that Glasgow University product Fred Goodwin was a terrible boss to work for.
Claims of Goodwin not be able control his anger if the wrong type of biscuit was put in the boardroom seem incredibly petty.
As does the threat to catering staff of disciplinary action in an email titled "Rogue Biscuits" after executives were offered pink wafers.
Pink wafers, seems fine to me with a cup of tea.
When a window cleaner fell in Goodwin’s office, it is alleged in the book that RBS staff "went into panic mode" regarding a broken a toy plane.
And there is listed a catalogue of other alleged behaviour such as at dinner functions, an engineer was also kept on standby until the early hours to switch off fire alarms when executives wanted to smoke.
Peter de Vink, managing director of Edinburgh Financial & General Holdings, said bank staff "were absolutely terrified of him".
It seems the public image doesn’t match the private image.
The book is called, Masters Of Nothing: The Crash And How It Will Happen Again, which goes on sale next month.
And if you can’t afford it then try the library.
Allegations of outlandishness are in there with the authors alleging that £5.3 million was spent refurbishing a listed building known as "Sir Fred's Pleasure Dome" by staff.
Wallpaper in the lobby was said to cost a whopping £1,000 a roll because someone had made a tiny stain on a surface.
However there is some funny bits as the also claims that fruit was flown in daily from Paris. No wonder Royal Bank of Scotland went straight down the tubes.
When RBS hit the rocks, Goodwin lost his £4.2 million-a-year job as chief executive of RBS as a condition of the taxpayer-funded bailout in 2008.
The Glasgow University product led RBS to the worst corporate loss in British history.
So much for the hype of Glasgow University superiority, I have met many people like Goodwin at Glasgow University convinced of their own importance but sadly lacking in many respects.
Recently it emerged that Sir Fred had taken out a privacy injunction to cover up an affair that he had with a married woman colleague as he led RBS to total and utter disaster.
On Saturday it was reported that Sir Fred had been kicked out of the family home by Lady Goodwin, his wife of 21 years.
I wonder if she likes pink wafers!
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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