It's all in the emphasis

Sky report Sir Tom McKillop's letter to the Treasury Select Committee, thus:

"City Minister Lord Myners did know about both the size and terms of Sir Fred Goodwin's pension, ex-RBS boss Sir Tom McKillop has claimed.

...

In a letter to the Treasury Select Committee, Sir Tom said there was "no elaborate ruse" by him or other members of the RBS board to pay Sir Fred more than he was contractually entitled to.

Sir Tom said evidence given by Lord Myners to the committee needed "clarification" and insisted the minister was told last October that the pension pot would be increased as a result of Sir Fred's early retirement.

Lord Myners told a committee hearing earlier this month that he did not ask Sir Tom the exact size of Sir Fred's pension during a meeting on October 11.

But Sir Tom said the minister was told in a private meeting that day that the pension would be "the sensitive issue and that it would be 'enormous"'.

He said the following day Mr Robert Scott, an independent RBS director, ran through further details of the arrangement.

"As well as referring to the undiscounted effect, and the consequence of early retirement and deemed service for the amount of the pension, Mr Scott also gave Lord Myners... a range of £15m to £20m as being Mr Scott's best estimate of what the pension liability might be," Sir Tom wrote.

The former RBS chairman said he wrote to the committee because "the circumstances relating to Sir Fred's pension have not been accurately represented".

Tory MP Michael Fallon, a member of the committee, said Lord Myners had misled Parliament and should quit.

"He has completely misled the committee and misled Parliament," he said.

"Misleading Parliament is a serious offence; misleading the public is even worse. The honourable thing to do now would be to resign.""

The BBC take a very much different line, first they give the article a rather duller and less attention grabbing headline than Sky's

"Lord Myners 'Knew About Goodwin Pension' "

The BBC opt for

"McKillop: no RBS pension 'ruse' "

and then proceed to report Sir Tom's letter without mentioning Michael Fallon's accusations and indeed without any emphasis on the claim that Paul Myners may have "misled the committee and misled Parliament .. misleading the people"


Anyone would think that the BBC were trying to protect a Labour Minister, surely that cannot be the case. Mind you at the moment there are a lot of Labour Ministers in need of protection - Tony McNulty, Jacqui Smith, Caroline Flint, Paul Myners and I presume Peter Mandelson must have been up to something, so let's add him to the list; just for starters.