Barclays: A page to be updated

[french frank]

Why did I not notice that Marcus Agius was the chairman of Barclays?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/managementstructure/biographies/agius_marcus/

They know how to pick them, don't they?

BBC Online News doesn't seem yet to have tumbled to his connection with the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18665719

[Serial_Apologist]

Why did I not notice that Marcus Agius was the chairman of Barclays?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/managementstructure/biographies/agius_marcus/

They know how to pick them, don't they?

BBC Online News doesn't seem yet to have tumbled to his connection with the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18665719

A list of high-up BBCers who've moved on to Pastures Blue would be interesting from the commonplace pov allegations of "left-wing bias", n'est-ce pas?

The name evokes some Roman gladiator!

[french frank]

Roy Greenslade has this quote from 'A Day in the Life of' Mr Agius back in 2007:

'Then, at 3pm, he talks on the phone to Mark Thompson, the BBC's director general. Evidently, "he talks to Mr Thompson frequently and gets regular briefings on how the BBC is dealing with the credibility questions facing broadcasters after fakery was exposed in phone-ins and other parts of the industry." '

[Lateralthinking1]

This short clip featuring Robert Peston is a horrible bit of broadcasting. It sounds like he is squirming as if he was up to his neck in it even though he wasn't at all involved - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18665719

Another phrase that stands out to me from the article in frenchfrank's post is "On that day he was also planning a trip to Asia on behalf of Barclays". So, Agius......Thompson.......Maude (ex Barclays Asia-Pacific). OK I had never heard of the former but I sense that this could be the beginnings of some shape to a particularly rotten borough.

On an entirely irrelevant point, has anyone seen that film about Philby, Burgess and Maclean?

[handsomefortune]

poor bloke, i expect he suffers from an awful lot of agiusm these days

in a previous role apparently agius the abominable was a Trustee of the Restoration of Appearance and Function Trust...he may need to phone them, it's not just buildings that need a regular lick of whitewash.

squirming

you'd be squirming lateralthinking1, if you had a snake travelling up your trouser leg hissing bbcccccc bbccccccccccc, 'or perhaps it's because of peston's stutter' said the platinum gold plated dwarf.

Philby, Burgess and Maclean a 2003 beeb filum apparently, along the lines of 'tinker, tailor' banker's ties usually quite sombre, yet must know all the secrets. 'behind the silence' sounds familiar too. here's a good disguise....no one will recognise you in it's either that, or a nikab by the looks lat, and a one way ticket to sunny dubai, or the bermuda triangle. failing that he might have to join mr goodwin, mr green, and ms moss at the famous night club 'indefini' in monaco. what's the bet he's not really in that much trouble......... all considered? i'll put my last 10p on it.

[french frank]

what's the bet he's not really in that much trouble......... all considered? i'll put my last 10p on it.

With those odds I don't think that will win you very much!

In the circles in which he moves he's done the decent thing and sacrificed himself because 'a chairman is easier to replace than a CEO'. Noble spirit

[Stunsworth]

Agius is the fall guy so that Diamond can keep his job. That's the plan, but I expect it to fail.

[amateur51]

Agius is the fall guy so that Diamond can keep his job. That's the plan, but I expect it to fail.

Here's hoping, Steve

[Budapest]

This short clip featuring Robert Peston is a horrible bit of broadcasting. It sounds like he is squirming as if he was up to his neck in it even though he wasn't at all involved - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18665719

Peston wrote an awful piece on Sunday (as you pointed out). Try commenting on any of Peston's stuff for a taste of how moderated the BBC is.

I wonder how much Peston and the plethora of other BBC 'financial correspondants' get paid per anum, all screwed out of licence payers under threat of imprisonment.

A recent example of BBC excess was Alan Hanson, the football pundit on Match of the Day, who gets paid about 30 grand for each programme. Hanson is not alone. It goes on and on with the BBC.

[Lateralthinking1]

Peston wrote an awful piece on Sunday (as you pointed out). Try commenting on any of Peston's stuff for a taste of how moderated the BBC is.

I wonder how much Peston and the plethora of other BBC 'financial correspondants' get paid per anum, all screwed out of licence payers under threat of imprisonment.

A recent example of BBC excess was Alan Hanson, the football pundit on Match of the Day, who gets paid about 30 grand for each programme. Hanson is not alone. It goes on and on with the BBC.

I would have preferred not to have known the latter. I like Hansen as a pundit. Some would find it odd that my opinions should change on the basis of his pay. They will say, wrongly, that it must be envy, either because they can't see another's point of view or more likely they can and yet stick rigidly to the market principle. I go back to that idea of someone's pay being displayed while they are on screen. In a case like Hansen's, his popularity would plummet. Hence, his income is hidden. This is a food which contains lethal E numbers but isn't labelled as such. The level of demand is only artificially maintained by routine systemic opacity.

But what is that demand? Good as Hansen might be, he is one guy doing a job a thousand others could do. Many would be equally as informed, communicative and likeable. Audience numbers often relate more to the role than to any individual. The public broadcaster should act accordingly. It needs transparency to be fully accountable. Instead, those who make appointments in all sectors choose not to see how appointees look to the majority of us. It could be argued, for example, that O'Donnell has an establishment barrow boy style and is not renowned for his transparency. I doubt his suitability for Barclays and would welcome the news that he was abandoning this country for New Zealand as earlier rumoured. Regrettably, those in the high bubble of cross-sector movement only see each other as wonderful. As for Peston, the atrocious piece you have highlighted is arguably a case in point. I am minded to ask about someone so unsuited to the media 'which side is he on?', that is, if it isn't the secret services.

[teamsaint]

Infortunately, on financial matters, the BBC is essentially untrustworthy.
Nick Robinson's recent programme on tax was a case in point. it was full of "Statistics" and graphs which really only showed a part of the picture...the part that suggests the very rich pay their fair share of taxes.

If somebody could point me to a BBC feature which highlights the insanity of what is going on in the financial markets (the rigging of them by the ratings agencies, ECB and the banks) to screw money out of governments and tax payers, i might change my mind .

[Russ_H]

Bob Diamond has resigned with immediate effect.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18685040

[Northender]

It may have been a coincidence, but.....
At 0715 my wife brought me a cup of tea and humorously suggested that Jeremy Paxman be asked to sort out the banking sector. 25 minutes later, Radio 4's 'Today' programme reports the resignation of Bob Diamond.

[Osborn]

Wonder what his pension will be?

[Lateralthinking1]

The way I see it is that few of the main players are bothered about corruption. Their main concern is financial instability and their principal objective is national stability. When something like the Libor scandal breaks, they are all obliged for the sake of the latter to say what is expected. This happens to some extent but the lines given are awry where political and self interests are at stake.

So in this case the Tories dragged their feet more than Labour. They muttered about how terrible it all seemed but found it impossible to demand Diamond's resignation. There was a bit of a patch up job in which Agius agreed to be the fall guy but at a price. Perhaps the price of everyone agreeing that the Bank of England should also be depicted as culpable, as exclusively revealed by the respected independent broadcaster Robert Peston. In that way, the leverage of Government was conveniently contained. They could hardly say that it was all the fault of Barclays. Hence it was stability first; parliamentary democracy and the judiciary second - and for God's sake don't have a lengthy Inquiry. However bad the business is, it still must be business largely as usual.

In parallel, no one was convinced that it would work. Plan B if the dust didn't settle down was that Diamond would resign. Peston would run a story that the ex Head of the Civil Service could be a contender supposedly to re-emphasise stability. That then happens at the point when the Conservatives come off the fence and decide they can't keep being seen as meek on the former, not least because of comments from Lib Dems. Whether Diamond remains an adviser to the London Mayor and Agius continues to have inputs into the BBC is anyone's guess but no one has said they won't do. The establishment will, I am sure, see to it that each is kept fine, notwithstanding any financial settlements in the bank which will be condemned but with no Government action.

I could, of course, be totally wrong in all of the above. There might not be any cosy working together of the Government, the Civil Service, the banking sector, the security services and parts of the BBC. In that case, Mr Peston is simply a tenacious journalistic investigator on the public broadcasting network who just happens to have key contacts and he is only interested in providing a good news story to licence payers. It remains the case that he has often sounded remarkably sympathetic to the empire of Rupert Murdoch, seeing that he had a very major falling out with him less than five years ago and works mainly for his major competitor.