Thomas Cook gone bust!

[Phil H]

Various media reports allege that TC's accounting methods made the company look healthier than it was, hence the payment of performance-related bonuses. Whether further scrutiny will confirm that remains to be seen.

PH

 

[fcz360]

light cigars with tenners.

nothing wrong with that!! ive been lighting mine with 50p coins for years

 

[philw696]

 

[UlstermanAbroad]

Being replaced. They had a jet engine fired up on this truck thing outside our office window, freaking loud!

Aer Lingus is part of BA (IAG). Both my housemates here in Dubs are pilots (Captains) for Ryanair, and they are both 28. Feel old?

Feeling oldish, but not envious. After ground transport is automated. Guess what comes next?

 

[UlstermanAbroad]

Various media reports allege that TC's accounting methods made the company look healthier than it was, hence the payment of performance-related bonuses. Whether further scrutiny will confirm that remains to be seen.

PH

I'll defer to someone more knowledgeable, however I'd have thought that the Serious Fraud Office will take a look at this, as will the FCA/PRA, as the company is registered with the FCA. Unless I was in a country without extradition agreements with the UK, I'd not be a smug ex-director just yet.

 

[philw696]

I have read that the Pension Fund has been plundered too.
Shocking mismanagement.

 

[CatmanV2]

I'll defer to someone more knowledgeable, however I'd have thought that the Serious Fraud Office will take a look at this, as will the FCA/PRA, as the company is registered with the FCA. Unless I was in a country without extradition agreements with the UK, I'd not be a smug ex-director just yet.

Can't see why TC would be regulated by the FCA but....

I'd lay a small bet that the posturing of 'looking at how to get bonuses back etc etc' is exactly that. Nothing will come of it unless it's volunteered.

C

 

[UlstermanAbroad]

Can't see why TC would be regulated by the FCA but....

I'd lay a small bet that the posturing of 'looking at how to get bonuses back etc etc' is exactly that. Nothing will come of it unless it's volunteered.

C

Offering various types of payment terms? Buying and selling currency?
I don't know either. I stopped using travel agents decades ago, so unfamiliar with their operations.
As regards bonuses; on balance I would agree with you.
At any other time, there might've been political interest in recouping bonuses. Especially if they were obtained by share price manipulation. However, with Brexit being the focus of government, I'd say that Thomas Cook board must be hoping that this one falls through the cracks. A bit like that Spad suggesting that 9/11 was a good day to bury bad news. Or am I getting mixed up with a domestic incident?

 

[CatmanV2]

Offering various types of payment terms? Buying and selling currency?

Actually that's not a bad shout

C

 

[Phil H]

I'd lay a small bet that the posturing of 'looking at how to get bonuses back etc etc' is exactly that. Nothing will come of it unless it's volunteered.

C

Agreed, and imho boardroom cultures are unlikely to change unless offending directors forfeit all of their ill-gotten gains and go to prison for long periods.

PH

 

[daverichardson]

One problem is news headlines only last a day or two, so in a months time when hopefully much of this is sorted out directors will sneak away with little accountability

 

[Nibby]

I was disappointed when the Thatcher era let some of our industry go the wall because some of it could've been saved in the right hands and there was still potential imho but Andy Burnham saying the government should've bailed out Thomas Cook I find myself thinking what a waste of money this would've been. Unfortunately Thomas Cook have fallen victim to the times and the government pumping loads of money into the firm would've only delayed the inevitable.

 

[GeoffCapes]

I was disappointed when the Thatcher era let some of our industry go the wall because some of it could've been saved in the right hands and there was still potential imho but Andy Burnham saying the government should've bailed out Thomas Cook I find myself thinking what a waste of money this would've been. Unfortunately Thomas Cook have fallen victim to the times and the government pumping loads of money into the firm would've only delayed the inevitable.

Especially when it's been bailed out to the tuen of over billion quid a few years ago!

Why have a shop on every high street when everyone books on line?

Colossal mis-management, and basic not keeping up with the times.

 

[UlstermanAbroad]

I was disappointed when the Thatcher era let some of our industry go the wall because some of it could've been saved in the right hands and there was still potential imho but Andy Burnham saying the government should've bailed out Thomas Cook I find myself thinking what a waste of money this would've been. Unfortunately Thomas Cook have fallen victim to the times and the government pumping loads of money into the firm would've only delayed the inevitable.

Plus, Thomas Cook wasn't exactly a strategic asset. Like BAE, nuclear power, telecoms.....
Other EU countries seemed to be very good at ensuring as many capital intensive domestic contracts as possible went to domestic manufacturers. If not on best bid, on other criteria, like social impact. We rarely seemed to fight as hard to keep manufacturing in our own country.
Apologies to any non-Brits. However, when we insist on conducting warfare, or business, or other hard or soft power, like its a game of cricket, with everyone playing by the same rules, we will get rogered time and time again.
I honestly believe that Theresa May thought she could smother the EU Brexit negotiators in middle class niceness and win them over with sugar and spice and all things nice. They stated publicly that they were going to punish us for daring to vote to leave and they've done exactly that. No subterfuge in this instance. Plain English. We will punish you.
And what did we do in response. We started negotiations by explicitly or implicitly promising to fold on every issue that mattered.
We let the Irish government create hysteria and raise tensions over the border issue, which allowed the so-called New IRA to try to kill more Catholic police officers and put teenagers back on the streets in Londonderry, rioting against their own police service.
The Irish government have Lyra McKee's blood on their hands and I will never, ever forgive them for that. They played their domestic politics with Northern Irish issues and it ultimately resulted in the murder of a brilliant young journalist and one of the few sources of my own hope for the future here.
We are lions led by donkeys. Not in the trenches of the Great War, but now, on the green benches in the Mother of Parliaments.
I apologise for straying off topic, but I do not apologise for the sentiments I have expressed here.

 

[CatmanV2]

Agreed, and imho boardroom cultures are unlikely to change unless offending directors forfeit all of their ill-gotten gains and go to prison for long periods.

PH

Very unlikely to be any legal ground for that (IMHO)

IANAL etc etc

C

 

[Phil H]

Very unlikely to be any legal ground for that (IMHO)

IANAL etc etc

C

Ah but there could be. Generally speaking, folk are fed up with directors who play fast and loose with their companies and run off with the spoils, so all we need is legislation from our Members of Parliament who could come together for the common good and agree ………….

PH

 

[UlstermanAbroad]

I'm guessing. But, I don't think that additional legislation is needed. Between the police, SFO, FCA, CAA and anyone else who has skin in this, I suspect that there's enough legislation to hang, draw and quarter the directors, if there is the political will, as well as the will to prosecute on the part of the CPS. Then there are possible civil proceedings, that may follow.