It's question time
THIS will surprise those who have fallen for its advertising campaign, with the ambiguous slogan: 'It's question time: the Equitable Life.' Its message is that the Equitable is a mutual society, with no shareholders to skim the cream off its finances. Equally, it has no shareholders to top its finances up when things go wrong. Now the directors must think that it needs some. I expect that they will find a buyer who will honour the promises and pay the bonuses, but they cannot be said to be bar- gaining from a position of strength, and members hoping for fat windfalls can forget about them. That is a measure of the value that has been destroyed. Mr Nash tells us that the board wants him to carry on his double act with John Sclater, the society's president. Whether the members feel like that about the board is the next question, and an easy question, for the Equitable.
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