Sir Fred Goodwin's refusal to give up any of his £693,000-a-year pension from troubled Royal Bank of Scotland has been branded "unacceptable" by City Minister Lord Myners.
Should Sir Fred hand back his pension? Is he right to keep hold of it? Is Sir Fred in the wrong for accepting it or is the treasury wrong for asking him to give it up, even though the deal was pre-agreed?
The former RBS chief executive rejected Government pressure to accept a reduction in his package, insisting that changes to the early retirement deal he negotiated when he was forced out in the autumn were "not warranted".
The massive payouts were branded "obscene" and "grotesque" by MPs, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown indicated that the Government was considering legal action to claw back all or part of the money.
But in a letter to Lord Myners, Sir Fred claimed the Treasury minister was aware of the details of his entitlement at the time of his departure.
