Fred Goodwin Training In Secret Location for UK Treasury Committee Grilling

It’s finally here! The day of reckoning is upon us. Fred Goodwin, the world’s worst banker, whose seven year ego-maniacal trip at the helm of RBS ended in 70% nationalisation, is to be given the full Dick Fuld treatment and dragged in front of a panel of seething politicians at the Treasury Select Committee next week.

So much for that money buffer you though could keep you away from the leering chants of the hoi polloi for ever eh Goodwin? As the Telegraph reports, no one’s seen the mad Scot since a fortnight ago when RBS admitted its 2008 losses would top £28 billion, £20 billion of which is directly the consequence of Goodwin’s hubristic-banking-act-of-the-century, the €71 billion acquisition of ABN Amro at the absolute apogee of the boom market in 2007.

But now he is being smoked out of his little hole. Expect a fight though – the Daily Mail is reporting that communications gurus from RBS have been coaching Goodwin in preparation for his big showdown with the Treasury Committee. We also hear Goodwin has hired PHA Media, run by former News of the World editor Phil Hall, as his PR personal trainers. Apparently the decision to bring in the heavyweight flacks was made after the Guardian’s Simon Hattenstone flew to Scotland and appeared outside Goodwin’s hidey hole in Glasgow with a megaphone and a whole lot of rage. Well, you can’t just tilt the blinds and release the hounds anymore…

So get ready for the most cathartic piece of television you’re likely to see in 2009 (yes, the Treasury select committee hearing is going to be televised!). Tuesday next week sees Goodwin and other jobless losers and charlatans – including HBOS’s Andy Hornby – appear before the Committee, with a follow up grilling of Lloyd’s Eric Daniels, Barclay’s John Varley and the other bank heads who still have their jobs on the Wednesday.

We’ve been waiting for this ever since last year’s brilliant Senate Oversight Committee Hearings in the US, where everyone from bank heads to an ailing Alan Greenspan was dragged over the coals. We all know who’s going to be cast as the UK’s Dick Fuld. The next question is, which MP is going to step up to the plate and be our Henry Waxman? We’re rooting for John McFall.

Posted by Jonty Rhodes in Hot Money | February 3, 2009 11:42AM |