THE POSSIBILITY OF REDEMPTION

Redemption? What does that have to do with welfare reform? Patience. Patience. One side of welfare reform is spending. The other side is Government income. All will be revealed.


While many have relished the downfall of Fred Goodwin, other, more careful, voices have taken a more considered line. Alistair Darling, always someone to listen to, asks : What about the others? Many top bankers and other speculative investors received honours. Many are now known to have taken outrageous risks with other people's money. 


And Darling and others have warned against the too easy emotional spasm of vindictiveness against the demonised individual. It feels too much like mob mentality. And too much like a neat piece of political manipulation : it wasn't us guv, honest, it was them bankers over there. And Fred has fallen into being the scapegoat for the whole financial crisis.


Individuals can and do make mistakes. If they remain a danger to the public they get locked up. Sometimes forever. But that's not Fred and the other bankers. John Profumo famously made amends for his indiscretions (sufficiently serious at the time to bring down a government) by doing voluntary work in the East End. All prisoners are, at least theoretically, regarded as having the potential to be rehabilitated. I remember helping a friend, who had completed a long prison sentence for violent crime,  to complete a job application. I told him (and I know that many would disagree with this advice) to declare every crime, every conviction, every sentence, including those regarded as spent in terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. The rationale was that he accepted what he had done, that it was now behind him, but that he was making a fresh start. The employer, a responsible national charity, took the measure of the man and took him on. Some years later I had the great privilege of completing his "fit person" reference to enable him to take charge of a home for people with disabilities. He deserved it. He had paid the price for his mistakes. He was now rehabilitated. Redeemed.


Fred Goodwin is 53. What is he going to do now? I have a suggestion. Why not offer the possibility of redemption? Why not get Fred, and the other errant bankers, to volunteer their services to the revenue. They know all the scams. Set them to be poachers turned gamekeepers. They could retrieve billions from top tax evaders and avoiders. Let them chase down tax havens, loopholes, 'products'.


It can't be a reward deal. The knighthoods can't be restored. The obituaries are always going to major on their part in the financial crisis. But, like Profumo, they could have their equivalent to 'voluntary work in the East End'. They could use their considerable skills and experience for the good of the country.


If I were Fred, I would be offering myself now. For the good of the country. And so should all the others. They know who they are.