Goodwin the scapegoat is godsend for government

The  government clearly does need people to focus attention away from them, writes Mark Borkowski.

If they can, in some way, have a witch-hunt, not just on Fred Goodwin but other members of the banking community who are also sitting on pretty hefty pensions, that clearly helps.

We all want a scapegoat. Unfortunately, scapegoats turn out to be just a passing focus of attention.

In these situations, Sir Fred needs a meaningful dialogue and he needs to find some media friends. But nobody in the media is going to befriend this person because he is going to be vilified.

He is making it very difficult for the banks to recover trust. I think that is something that must have the government tearing their hair out.

No-one believes Sir Fred is the single reason for the downturn. It would be foolish to focus on him, but we do need to see certain people in that position feeling pain. After all, the average bloke in the street is probably fearing he’s going to lose his job.

It’s a godsend to the government, really.

If this goes on, Goodwin will continue to be the conversation. But we all know that something in the news that is focused on one man will eventually disappear. The public anger will still be focused on the government.

No matter what Gordon Brown says about global economic considerations and the subprime market in America, the economy will still be a millstone around the government’s necks.

• Mark Borkowski is a public relations, media commentator and blogger at: www.markborkowski.com