Commentaries

Kingman to go private

So John Kingman is leaving UK Financial Investments “in due course” to spend more time with the private sector. That, at least, is the line put out by Robert Peston, the BBC reporter who could sometimes be confused for his personal press officer, on his blog.

As Pesto observes:

He’s wanted to move into the private sector for a couple of years – and said as much to the Treasury’s permanent secretary, Nick Macpherson, last summer.

That Kingman is leaving so soon into his mission may, as Pesto observes, occasion surprise. He slyly implies that Kingman is leaving to avoid political interference by the beastly Tories should they win office.

In reality, he’s probably moving on because he rightly perceives that it is going to be a long and thankless slog at UKFI. The shares will take years to sell, and in the meantime UKFI will probably be the whipping boy for a government that wants to get the best price for its shares while urging banks to lend more, protect consumers, etc.

A Timmid measure reinforces UK pensions apartheid

Neil Collins

Jul 7, 2009 10:10 UTC

At the lower end of the income scale, Britain’s pensions apartheid is well established. Public sector workers are guaranteed an index-linked pension based on their final salary, while private sector workers must just hope their contributions are enough to buy a decent income. Now it is to be applied at the top end as well.

Stephen Timms is the poor sap with the task of cleaning up the trail of ordure left by his boss, Alastair Darling, at the UK Treasury. Two months after the shambles that was the UK Budget, he’s still hard at it, trying to nail down the tax rules for a year that’s a quarter gone.