Heroes: Something and Nothing, or is it? 

 

‘We’re shameless 

We will do anything 

To get our fifteen minutes of fame’ 

 

I would not usually stoop to cover such triviality as that offered up by Holly Willoughby  and Philip Schofield, but her opening address to viewers was too good to miss. 

 
‘Are you OK?’  
 
Holly was concerned that viewers might be feeling ‘shaken, troubled, let down, and worried.’ 

Irritated might be a better adjective. 

‘You, me and all of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth. Who acted in a way that they themselves felt that they had to resign from ITV and step down from a career that they loved. That is a lot to process.’ 

Oh, for heavens’ sake! How have we sunk so low that the machinations of two talentless half-wits have become a national obsession? 

Of true concern is how they earn: she’s reputed to earn £700K+ and be worth > £10m. Whilst Phil, from I can tell was making a few million each year. Just think what the numbers would be if they had talent! 
 

‘How have we sunk so low that the machinations of two talentless half-wits have become a national obsession?’

 
But they aren’t the only ones making it big.  This week it was revealed that bosses at Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, and National Grid are also coining it in. 

National Grid’s John Pettigrew, took home £7.2m last financial year, up from £6.6m a year. His fixed pay fell but variable pay, which includes bonuses and long-term incentives, rose from £5.2m to almost £6m.  

Pettigrew’s remuneration is far greater than the £4.15m median package paid to FTSE 100 chief executives. The company transports the nation’s energy and receives about £20 a year from each households through bills as part of an electricity transmission charge. 

National Grid said last month its annual profits climbed by 15% to £4.58bn on the previous year. 

The question is, what has he done to deserve this? The business isn’t more efficient, or progressive, profits have risen because Putin’s invasion of Ukraine distorted energy markets. 

Simon Francis, the coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: ‘This is a slap in the face for families who have been on the frontline of the energy bills crisis. On the one hand we have millions spending winters in cold damp homes. On the other, we have energy companies posting record profits and paying out eye-watering salaries to executives.’ 
 

‘This is a slap in the face for families who have been on the frontline of the energy bills crisis’

 
The Sainsbury’s chief executive, Simon Roberts, banked a 36% pay rise last year, taking home £4.9m, after hitting profit, cashflow and personal targets. 

Roberts’ increase was largely a result of being awarded a £2.3m long-term bonus. He did receive a 3.5% increase in basic pay last year, but given inflation that is akin to a real value decrease.  

Commendably shop-floor staff were given a 10% pay rise, however, Roberts’ pay last year was 247 times that of the average lowest paid staff, up from a multiple of 202 the year before.  

M&S’s co-chief executives took home more than £2m in pay last year as pre-tax profits rose by 21% to £476m in the year to April while sales rose almost 10% to £12bn. 

Stuart Machin earned £2.5m including a £1m bonus and Katie Bickerstaffe earned £2.25m after a £989,000 bonus. In the coming both will receive a 3% increase in basic salary. If they meet performance targets, they could earn £5.7m and £5.2m respectively. 

On the surface the restraint shown with their own pay increases when compared to shop-floor workers looks commendable. However, the latter aren’t the beneficiaries of such generous bonuses and incentives.  

In truth, the rich are still getting richer while the poor are just getting poorer.  
 

‘the rich are still getting richer while the poor are just getting poorer’

 
Overall, the economy is in poor shape. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (‘OECD’) predicted the country would have one of the highest inflation rates in the developed world this year. Not good news for Rishi and his pledge! 

Headline inflation is expected to slow on the back of declining energy prices and to come down close to the government’s 2% target by the end of 2024. Core inflation – which excludes items such as energy and food – is predicted to be more persistent due to strong inflation in the price of services, only receding to 3.2% in 2024. 

While they raised their forecast for UK growth, the OECD also warned that inflation would average 6.9% during 2023, higher than Germany’s 6.3% and France’s 6.1% and the OECD average of 6.6%. 

In response the Chancellor said: ‘But while inflation is still too high, we must stick relentlessly to our plan to halve it this year. That is the only long-term way to grow the economy and ease the cost of living pressures on families.’ 

In its overall assessment, the OECD said ever-higher borrowing costs to combat rising price pressures could put the global financial system under severe stress and send share and bond prices. 

‘One key concern is that inflation could continue to be more persistent than expected. Significant additional monetary policy tightening may then be required to lower inflation, raising the likelihood of abrupt asset repricing and risk reassessments in financial markets.’  

Additionally, they raised the impact of past interest rate rises was difficult to gauge after a prolonged period when central banks had pegged official borrowing costs at historically low levels. For example, the BoE has raised interest rates at each of its last 12 meetings, pushing them from 0.1% to 4.5%. 
 

‘ever-higher borrowing costs to combat rising price pressures could put the global financial system under severe stress’

 
The OECD said:  ‘While a cooling of overheated markets and moderation of credit growth are standard channels through which monetary policy normally takes effect, the impact on economic growth could be stronger than expected if tighter financial conditions were to trigger stress in the financial system and undermine financial stability,’  

One of the issues that still overhangs government finances globally, is the impact of Covid. Most governments provided support to business and individuals to help them through the crisis, although some of that support was abused.  

This week it has been revealed that the international engineering company Wood Group expanded its oil and gas business and dramatically shrunk its renewables operations after receiving a £430m government-backed ‘green transition loan.’ 

After receiving the funding, the business chose to grow its upstream oil and gas business by 17%. As a result, it accounted for >£2.4bn in revenue in 2022, up from $2.6bn in 2021.   

Over the same period the company reduced the size of its renewable, hydrogen, and carbon capture business units by 35% so that they only accounted for revenues of $222.8m in 2022, down from $344.6m in 2021. 

The five-year loan, which was the first of its kind and was designed to help Wood transition away from fossil fuels, was announced in August 2021 by Liz Truss when she was international trade secretary. 

At the time, Truss said the engineering company had ‘already made great strides in repositioning its business for a low-carbon future‘. 

Not only do the rich continue to get richer they don’t seem concerned how they do it. 
 

‘Not only do the rich continue to get richer they don’t seem concerned how they do it’

 
At which point we turn to sport, or, more accurately what used to be sport, which has finally sold its soul. 

In 2019 Anthony Joshua made £60m, and retained his world heavyweight title belts, in a bout hosted by Saudi Arabia. Like many, he held his nose, looked the other way, and took the money. 

Prior to the fight, Joshua had responded to questions about human rights by insisting the Saudis were ‘trying to do a good job politically‘ before adding: ‘I just came here for the boxing opportunity. I look around and everyone seems pretty happy and chilled. I’ve not seen anyone in a negative light out here, everyone seems to be having a good time.’ 

OK…… 

Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn summed it up, saying, ‘If they’re going to be investing this kind of money in the sport, we’ve got to be realists.’ 

Hearn was merely ahead of the game. Staging the fight showed the world how serious Saudi Arabia was about sport. The acquisition of Newcastle United, and the hosting of Formula One and high-profile golf events confirmed it. 

This week, the Saudi’s flexed their muscles further, striking a deal with the PGA Tour to merge with LIV, backed by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). At the same time they are also throwing immoral sums to attract western players to the Saudi Pro football league. 

Whilst they haven’t officially bid for the 2030 World Cup, it is seen as only being a matter of time. Cricket is also on their radar, especially with so many of the population of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin. Esports is another major focus – next month it will host Gamers8, which is billed as the world’s largest gaming and esports festival. 

All this proves is that money wins, and most people have a price. 

They clearly view sport as a tool of soft power, and as economic diversifier. 

According to the Saudis, the value of their sports event industry is growing by 8% per year, rising from $2.1bn in 2018 to an estimated $3.3bn by next year.  
 

‘money wins, and most people have a price’

 
Behind the public façade its human rights record is still awful; a woman was jailed for 34 years for following and retweeting dissidents and activists. They also executed 81 people in one day. According to the UN high commissioner for human rights 41were Muslims from the Shia minority ‘who had taken part in anti-government protests in 2011-12, calling for greater political participation‘. 

It is easy to condemn sport, but governments are not better; we exports billions of pounds in weapons to the country and receives billions of pounds in foreign investment in return. 

The final word goes to the golfer, Rory McIlroy; ‘The PIF and the Saudis want to spend money in the game of golf and they are not going to stop. Would you rather have one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds as a partner or an enemy? At the end of the day money talks, and you’d rather have them as a partner.’ 

‘What have I done to deserve this?’ 

Some big numbers in Philip’s closing article this week; some are downright ugly in the context of what is going on in Struggle Street.

It is important to get Philip’s perspective:

A somewhat meandering second piece this week, which really revolves around money.

As a rule I avoid celebrity trash, but Holly Willoughby’s wholly absurd monologue on “This Morning” really couldn’t pass without comment.

If I read it was a tongue-in-cheek joke I wouldn’t be surprised, but she isn’t that clever. It was simply vomit inducing and crass.

Unfortunately she just seems to be typical of the grinning half-wits that pick-up untold sums of money for what is deemed entertainment. It really is the lowest common denominator.

Corporate CEO’s continue to do very well. Although I will commend them for the below inflation pay rises they are accepting.

The situation with the Saudi’s and sport really puts into context where we are as people. Nothing is sacred. Money, like absolute power, corrupts.

Manchester City were also ran for years. Then a gulf state buys them, provides unlimited spending power, and the premiership is turned into a procession. Who can compete with them? Only another club with similar owners.

One other issue that has come to light is Sunak’s ongoing battle with his own party. That and the continuing malign influence of Boris.

This time it was today’s Times headline saying Sunak has now agreed to accept Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, which is now expected to be published within weeks.

Starmer said: “The Conservative party is, as ever, talking about the Conservative party and how they appease different bits of their own party. Whether it’s Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages, Boris Johnson’s peerages, all the prime minister is doing is managing his own party instead of running the country.”

Lyrically, we turn to the Pet Shop Boys, perhaps one of music’s more overlooked artists. We start with 1993’s “Shameless”, which (1993) gleefully blasts celebrity culture (“We have no integrity”). It is either weirdly prescient, or the work of people complaining with no idea how bad things are going to get; Shameless predates reality TV and the web. We play out with their collaboration with Dusty Springfield, who asked “What Have I Done to Deserve This”. Quite. Enjoy!

 

@coldwarsteve

 

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

Click on the link to see all Brexit Bulletins: