and it’s yours and my money 
Yesterday’s Sunday Times reported a City analyst saying that RBS may report losses of up to £28 billion for 2008 when it reports its full year figures.
If it does, or if reports a mere £20 billion of losses for last year, that means all the extra capital pumped in by UK taxpayers will have gone in just a few months of ownership. Many of the losses will be on foreign banks and overseas investments within the RBS group.
In the meantime we do know, now that RBS shares are trading around 42p, that the taxpayer has lost a small fortune on the shares – around £8 billion at current market prices.
The quote above is from a larger piece by John Redwood which can be read in full here.
I’m furious that the unelected clowns trying to run our country are running it into the ground faster than a meteor on speed and that they’re doing it with my and my childrens money, and probably my grandchildrens too. I’ve been involved in business divestment from both the buyers and sellers perspective and am well versed in the process of due dilligence. Our government either didn’t do due dilligence, in which case they should all be sacked for gross incompetence, or worse they did do due dilligence and chose to ignore it in which case they should be hung drawn and quartered.
Put this in persepctive. £1bn in uk terms is a million million. An NHS superhospital costs in the region of £250m to build. For £28bn this country could build 112,000 superhospitals.
I feel sick.
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Ministers told me when I asked they were not doing due diligence!
“Put this in persepctive. £1bn in uk terms is a million million.”
It used to be a million million – a very long time ago. However, it is now generally used to mean a thousand million, with the American word “trillion” coming in for the old meaning of the word “billion” – as the link you offer notes under its discussion of how the word entered common currency after “thousand millions” became a more widespread numerical value. That is the meaning of the figure here – i.e. £28 billion is written numerically 28,000,000,000.
Therefore with the £28 billion lost only 112 superhospitals could be built (which would still be a huge number and a useful addition to the NHS). You could have added other examples – entire defence or schools budget for a year, for starters.
I’m equally furious with what the government are doing, but please keep the facts straight or you run the risk of undermining your main point which was after all about a lack of due diligence. It would be a bit difficult for them to throw the amount you are claiming down the drain – the country’s entire GDP is only about £1,600,000,000!
You make a fair point and I humbly accept it.
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