The Spectator’s Notes | 21 February 2009

You cannot blame Lord Turner, the Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, for defending the bonuses paid to his employees. He is new to the job and must work with his team. But when he said this week, ‘If you are saying we should now cut the bonuses, you are saying we should cut their pay by 15 per cent’, he was inviting the reaction he did not intend. Yes, that is, now you mention it, what we are saying. The FSA failed to do the most important job assigned to it. Therefore, broadly speaking, its staff should not only not get bonuses, but should get less money than before. It is a point so simple that it seems to elude the intellectual giants who preside over our financial system.

As with most government pre-announcements, it is impossible to tell whether the latest — aired on Panorama — is true. The documentary reported that the government is worried that its programme for tackling violent extremism in practice favours extremist types, and wants to change it.