Is high pay rewarding failure?

It's difficult to see any real justification for the huge - and increasing - disparity between the highest earners in the UK and the rest.

The High Pay Commission - set up by a pressure group - says the difference between what top executives and average workers earn has been building for 30 years.

Richard Evans, president of PepsiCo in the UK and Irish Republic, sought to justify the enormous salaries to top executives to the BBC by saying that the UK has to be competitive with the rest of the world.

But one wonders whether it does and if it is. Does it have to be competitive with the rest of the world? And is it?

I haven't got the figures to answer that question.

What I would say is that salaries at such a level should be commensurate with the success or failure of the compnay they are running. I am all for incentivising success. But given the dismal failure of many companies' share prices in recent years (often chosen as a general indicator), that should surely mean that salaries should have fallen recently.

Why do we continue to reward failure?

That's certainly a good incentive for top executives: "I can screw this company and this country and still get paid hugely. What a fine vehicle for competition this country is!"

Branson's an example we should aspire to

There's still a lot of anger about regarding the banks, since the credit crisis and recession began in 2008. The anti-capitalists camping outside St Paul's and the Stock Exchange in London demonstrate the ongoing frustration.

It is interesting to speculate how the news that Northern Rock is being sold to Virgin Money will be received.

Many hardliners will no doubt shrug it off as being sold from one bunch of capitalists to another, but I suspect many will be (at least secretly) quite pleased that Northern Rock is being sold to one of Richard Branson's companies. A self-made billionaire, Branson doesn't quite fit the bill of the despised money-men.

In fact, Branson is - and should be - feted, lauded, exemplified and copied. This is surely the kind of business person we should all aspire to be.

I hope he makes a magnificent success out of Virgin Money and its new-found Northern Rock clients.

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