edgarshade
Bluelighter
Independent
Tom Foot
Monday 18 November 2013
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...ormer-coop-bank-bosss-drug-deals-8946829.html
Ben Chu
Sunday 17 November 2013
With reader comments
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices...bank-chairman-knew-about-finance-8945554.html
Tom Foot
Monday 18 November 2013
More...A police investigation has been launched after a Methodist preacher and former chairman of the Co-operative Bank was exposed apparently leading a secret double-life as a hard drug-taker.
West Yorkshire Police said they were aware of allegations about Reverend Paul Flowers and had begun making inquiries in view of footage showing him counting out £300 while allegedly discussing a drug deal.
Rev Flowers, 63, apologised yesterday “to all I have hurt or failed by my action” and admitted that he had “done things that were stupid and wrong” to cope with mounting pressure from his public and private life. The film, published by the Mail on Sunday, was secretly taken by the supposed dealer from the passenger seat of his car.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...ormer-coop-bank-bosss-drug-deals-8946829.html
Leaving aside Reverend Flowers' drug abuse - the truly indefensible thing was how little this Co-op Bank chairman knew about finance
Ben Chu
Sunday 17 November 2013
With reader comments
More...Morality must be more than an advertising slogan or carefully cultivated image
Until this weekend it looked like things couldn’t get any worse for the Co-operative Bank. Earlier this year it was forced to pull the plug on its ambitious plans to buy some 630 branches from Lloyds. Shortly after, the bank revealed a catastrophic £1.5bn black hole in its balance sheet. Then this month the parent company, the Co-op Group mutual, admitted defeat in its fight to retain control of the bank and was forced to deliver the lender into the hands of a group of US hedge funds.
Now comes the revelation that its former chairman – a Methodist preacher no less – was buying cocaine and other hard drugs just days after being questioned by Parliament about the bank’s near collapse. The despoliation of the reputation of the once-respected institution, founded in 1872, is now surely complete.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices...bank-chairman-knew-about-finance-8945554.html
