RBS Job cuts – BBC Bias

The 11 O’Clock news on Radio 4 announced in disapproving tones that largely state owned RBS was axing 600 jobs. The facts are as follows ( as reported by the biased BBC). 1. Due to RDR changes 600 jobs in the RBS IFA operation will be culled. 2. The bank is largely state owned. 3. 350 jobs are being created elsewhere. 4. Unite (the union) says the cuts are draconian and appalling.

Where do we start? The changes caused by RDR mean that certain staff will after December just not be qualified to continue in their posts – so RBS has no choice in what it is doing. Unite seems to think that RBS should act like a charity in carrying on paying staff to do nothing.

The BBC seems to think that because the taxpayer owns most of RBS, the company should not be making job cuts. It misses the point. It is precisely because the taxpayer owns so much of RBS that the BBC should be celebrating its efforts to make a profit. Carrying staff who cannot generate revenue is not something anyone should encourage RBS to do. Even another badly run enterprise, wholly owned by the grateful taxpayer, should realise that.