Greed is the watchword of the captains of British industry and commerce.

By 1 pm 4th January, the bosses of Britain’s FTSE 100 will already have earned (delete earned and substitute taken)  more money in 2019 than their average employee will make in the whole of the year, 133 times more than workers on the median annual salary of £28,758.

Having sat in their posh offices for only 29 hours since the Christmas break, these fat cats (the fattest in Europe) will be trousering an average £3.9 million.

That is why our economy has the chronic problem of low productivity. Instead of companies investing in research and development, instead of investing in new technology and training, the greedy buggers swipe as much as they can for themselves. They receive this obscene level of pay regardless of the success or otherwise of their companies.

How on earth can they spend so much money?  Easy. They don’t just send their spouses on spending sprees in Harrods, they invest it in enterprises in off-shore tax-havens, making yet more money.  They buy up properties to rent, bringing in even more unearned dosh.  They buy themselves country pads in The Cotswolds, the Chilterns, rural France etc, exacerbating the problem local people have in finding an affordable home.

This is all part of the growing problem of social inequality.

If the fat cats’ employees had a fair share of all this wealth, most of them would spend it in their localities, giving a much-needed boost to the overall economy.

What does the government do about it? Zilch. The government simply waits for cheques to roll into the Conservative Party’s coffers.  They will certainly not super-tax their best friends.

Of course, the last Labour lot were no better. The Oleaginous Peter Mandelson memorably remarked that he is entirely “relaxed” about the greed of the super-rich.  Not surprising, because he is one of them.

Mandelson, Tony Blair, Gordon  Brown and Ed Balls argued that the money “cascaded” down for the betterment of all. Total codswallop.

It is to be hoped that a future Labour government would take a number of measures, including:

Punitive taxation of grossly inflated incomes;

A nation-wide living wage of at least £10 per hour;

Maximum pay ratios of 20:1 in all public and private sector companies;

Generous salaries for the people who contribute most to society: doctors, nurses, carers, teachers.

While I am at it, in this vein, I draw attention to yet another scam in an educational academy trust.

The latest is in the so-called E21C multi-academy trust, which runs Ravensbourne School, Coopers School, Mead Road Infants School, and the yet-to-open Eden Park School.