The 1 Million Pound Bonus Question

The MP for the City, Mark Field, wonders on a Conservative Home blog entry whether or not the eventual success of the campaign to get Stephen Hester to return his bonus is something of a pyrrhic victory. Mr. Field makes many apposite comments, not least his dislike of the unpleasant campaign of denigration waged against Mr. Hester. There was a lynch-mob mentality to it, and the ensuing media discussion was far from edifying. But there remains a question mark about the huge pay differentials in this country, and Mr. Field's concluding paragraph is scathing about the abilities of significantly more lowly paid people. He writes:

Either the government leads the way in making the case for protecting our £45 billion investment in this bank, which we so sorely hope to get back in due course. Or alternatively the only other logical option is that we write-off the entire sum pumped into RBS and from now on run it as a public utility headed by a civil servant on an established grade salary.

Wow! It could be that bad?! A "civil servant on an established grade salary"? Boy oh boy! If Mr. Field's conclusion is that ony sums in the region of £1 million or more can bring in people of real talent, then what price any form of public service, to say nothing of vast numbers of talented private sector toilers? Teachers, doctors, nurses, soldiers, sailors and airmen, civil servants - just go back to mediocre-land and exist on your sub-human salaries worthy only of such despairing lack of talent. If you're not in the million pound bracket, you're useless!