Liberal Burblings

Archive for January, 2012

…A very comprehensive review from Mark Kermode on Simon Mayo’s Five Live show.

…Not very good ultimately. The senility is not a particularly valid framework for a shallow cut and paste of the Thatcher life. …Ultimately disappointing and quite pathetic. One good performance when Thatcher lectures her cabinet around the time of the poll tax. Good performance from Anthony Head as Geoffrey Howe.

If you want to see a film about senility in general then this is for you. It could be about anyone with senility – your father, mother, aunt, uncle, grandmother. …A rather cheap hook on which to hang a shallow biopic which stretches itself far too thinly with very little compelling dramatic substance. A waste of three hours of my life. If you want to watch a decent film about Thatcher watch The long road to Finchley.

Does Meryl Streep deserve an Oscar for this? No, on the basis that Oscars should only be given out when the overall film is worth watching. Since only a handful of people, none of them involved in this film, know what Lady Thatcher is like these days, then how the heck can we say whether or not Streep’s portrayal is accurate?

Critic Matt Brunson puts in very well:

Forget for a minute the movie’s soft-pedaling of its central character. … With so much history and personality to draw upon, it’s infuriating that so much of the running time is wasted on mere speculation involving an elderly person’s flights of fancy.

Jan Brewer, Arizona Governor, points her finger at President Obama when he arrived in Phoenix, Arizona. They had an exchange of views on Brewer’s description of Obama’s behaviour in her book, which has now, needless to say, climbed to the top of the Amazon charts.

Brewer accused Obama of lecturing her when she met him in the Oval Office.

Seeing this picture, you have to ask: Who’s lecturing who?

Ms Brewer has caused amusement before when she had a brain freeze during a televised debate. Some blame all this on the “hot as hell” Arizona weather – it fries your brain, apparently.

First of all, let’s get the facts straight. Stephen Hester has not been awarded a cash bonus.

He has been awarded share options. These do not vest until March 2013 and March 2014 (50% for each date).

So, OK, presumably that is where the eyes of 90% of the population glaze over and they change channels. Here’s a definition of vesting:

When employees are given stock options or restricted stock, they often do not gain control over the stock or options for a period of time. This period is known as the vesting period and is usually 3 to 5 years. During the vesting period the employee cannot sell or transfer the stock or options.

So, (a) he can’t cash the shares in until 2013 and 2014. And (b) because they are shares, the value may go up or down during that period.

As a result of those conditions, Stephen Hester is, to an extent, locked into the fortunes of RBS. He has an interest in ensuring he does all he can to increase the value of RBS shares. So that’s an incentive for him to improve the performance of the bank.

I can readily accept that Hester has done a good job. He has, farnkly, stopped RBS going down the toilet.

The level of banking bonuses and salaries is obscene and morally reprehensible. But to start with a hairshirt approach (and yes I know he gets a £1million salary anyway but that is similar to others in a similar position) to just one bank leader is daft. It would result in a worse performance of RBS for the taxpayer. It would be cutting our nose to spite our face.

Reform, or reduction, of banking bonuses and salaries needs to be done across the world. It can’t be done in isolation in one bank.

Here’s the FT quoting the reaction of Boris Johnson:

RBS should be run “on public sector lines”, he added

Public sector lines? Absolute, unmitigated round sperical objects rolled in unlimited horse manure. If it is run on public sector lines it will end up being unsuccessful in the competitive world of banking. That would be a disaster for the taxpayer.

There’s a bit of passing cloud here, but generally it’s an excellent night for star-gazing.

Via GoSkyWatch I have identified:

The old faithfuls of Jupiter, Venus, the Moon (yes, even I can spot that), Capella and Belegeuse, plus Algol, Alpheratz and Procyon.