Moya Green, Canadian-born chief executive of Royal Mail, a long-running taxpayer-funded national embarrassment, received a pay and benefits package worth £1.47 million in the last financial year. Her basic salary remained unchanged at £498,ooo while her ‘benefits’ rose to £972,000.

One of her benefits was a mere trifle in the grand scheme of things, £120,000 towards the cost of buying a house. Well, how else could she have afforded to pay for a roof over her head? Vince Cable, the Anti-Business Secretary, in the first intelligent thing he’s done since the general election in May 2010 – and possibly long before that, to be fair – has advised Royal Mail’s remuneration committee that it should have secured his approval for the £120,000 payout – the remainder of the £972,000 benefits presumably being for reasonable expenses like a subscription to the Guardian.

Ms Green, it has been reported – link to a BBC piece below – has ‘voluntarily’ agreed to pay the sum back to the taxpayer. Which is good of her, I think we can all agree.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23549554

Oh, one final thing. Ms Green is a firm supporter of quotas to increase the number of women on corporate boards. What are the chances?