Who knew what?

The BBC and Robert Peston are frantically trying to spin that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling knew nothing about Sir Fred Goodwin's special pension arrangements. Now I don't know whether or not they did know, although I have my suspicions. However more to the point, Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling are paid a large amount of money, given lavish accommodation and a multitude of perks - not to mention a huge final salary pension - surely we should be able to expect them to know what is actually going on in the affairs of businesses they decide to take under full or partial state control. Instead it is claimed that they knew nothing of the impending financial crisis despite them being in charge of one of the three arms of the tripartite financial regulatory system. It is also claimed that they didn't know what RBS was planning to pay out by way of pensions and bonuses even after taking it over in our name. If Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and the team of Treasury hot-shots, not to mention Shriti Vadera didn't feel able to check senior management's employment contracts to see what benefits were compulsory and what were discretionary, could they not have found an employment lawyer to check the details before they went ahead with the takeover?

The smokescreen of Sir Fred Goodwin's pension arrangements is being used to obscure the real story which is the accusations made by Lord King and Lord Turner to the Treasury Select Committee. The BBC in general and Robert Peston in particular are doing their best to "run interference" for Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling; how can we stop them?