"Sir" Philip Green wantonly consigned BHS to the retail graveyard via a lethal cocktail of deceit, greed and irresponsibility. Sad that BHS's 88 years history will soon be at an end; sadder still for the 20'000 employees and former employees whose pension pots have been systematically decimated.
A commons select committee has found Green to have greasily enriched himself and his perma-tanned wife, Tina, who is most frequently seen in hot climates sporting a cleavage that droops like a tired dog's mouth, with obscenely large dividends, while ruthlessly depriving the struggling chain of much needed investment.
To cap things off, he then sold the business to a serial bankrupt and fraudster for £1, who happily continued where Green left off by extracting large cash sums whilst simultaneously ignoring the the chronic under-investment.
Readers will be please know that Green and his wife have just bought a third yacht for £100m - so while thousands of people who have given their careers to serving the needs of their employer, BHS, are facing the Autumn of their lives without a meaningful pension income - as well as the 11'000 set to lose their jobs - pot-bellied Phil and his Botoxed beauty will lap up yet more of the sun's rays on the decks of silken luxury and champagne sprayed hedonism.
What utter contempt for human life! What sickening disregard and deceit! The select committee's report was indeed damning, but my fear is that the worst they can do to him is take his knighthood. Tough talk.
The report also claims that he has a moral duty to fill the black hole in the pension pot. Only a moral one? He should be legally compelled. I can't see a moral imperative tugging too tautly at Ol' Greasy's ravenously hard heartstrings. His arrogance is mind boggling - during his commons hearing he repeatedly told one MP to "stop looking at him!"
It would seem that this is what spellbinding wealth does to people, or at the very least certain individuals. The scale of their existence escalates so far into the stratosphere and above the reach of the Everyman, that these common people do indeed become manifestly less significant: toys, objects, statistics, germs on a petridish that can be played with, manipulated, tested on or destroyed.
Sir and Lady Green do not suffer the pangs of conscience you might expect after robbing thousands of people of their livelihoods and adding torment to all those connected to, and dependant on, the pensions and jobs of these individuals - all in exchange for an extra £570m that can be thrown on the to their already swollen pile of assets that marks his net worth at around £3bn.
The idea that this Greasy Cash Guzzler should get a knighthood for being stinking rich is a joke to begin with - to then suggest that the toughest line we can take with him is to remove what should never have been given - is a total fiasco! A scandal! Let us hope that behaviour like this will be properly discouraged with justice - by employing full-extent of the law! That would drain the colour from their tangoed faces!
It's A Roffey
Philip Green: The Greasy Cash Guzzler
