How to put the spring back in the steps of shareholders

The shareholder revolts sparked off last year against excessive pay have all but fizzled out, says Matthew Lynn. It's time for the government to put its weight behind the movement.

For a brief moment, it looked as if something might have changed. Last year, as the days started to grow longer and the first blossoms appeared on the trees, the City was rocked by a series of revolts over runaway chief executive pay.

At companies ranging from Barclays to Trinity Mirror, Aviva and Astra Zeneca, chief executives were forced to trim the lavish pay packages they had awarded themselves. In some cases, they were actually kicked out.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.