So, John Prescott, Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman, Lord Myners and others. Now Sir Fred Goodwin’s house and car have been vandalised in the middle of the night, I hope you are proud of yourselves.

Well done, everyone. Well done on whipping up public hatred against a man who is, let’s not forget, now a private citizen. Well done on ensuring that his children have been picked on at school and that his wife, according to people who know the family, been left “distraught”. On ensuring that the man’s life has been made so miserable he may have to go and live overseas.

You may not have lobbed a brick through Sir Fred’s plate-glass window yourselves but, in inciting public anger over Sir Fred’s pension, you may as well have done.

Here’s John Prescott on February 26: “He’s not entitled to this pension. It’s called greed, greed, greed and that’s where the responsibility lies.”

Here’s the Prime Minister the same day: “We are still asking Sir Fred to waive the pension that he has been given. When people make mistakes and the banks fail the public the people cannot and should not run off with entitlements and with additional discretionary payments.

“The anger that the public has is anger that I have as well. It’s unjustifiable, it’s unacceptable and we’re going to clean up the banks so that this doesn’t happen again.”

And here’s the preposterous Ms Harman on March 1: “Sir Fred Goodwin should not count on being £650,000 a year better off because it is not going to happen. The prime minister has said that it is not acceptable and therefore it will not be accepted.”

Mr Prescott, Ms Harman and the others leading the lynch mob against Sir Fred all have children. As parents themselves, particularly ones in the public eye, they know full well how kids can be affected by this kind of thing. How can they then go out and encourage, even condone, this kind of behaviour?

Sir Fred Goodwin’s controversial pension may be unpalatable, but he was contractually entitled to it. You may not like it. I don’t like it. But it is the law and he is entitled to it.

The barmy Ms Harman says: “And it might be enforceable in a court of law, this contract, but it is not enforceable in the court of public opinion and that is where the government steps in.”

Call me old-fashioned, but I thought MPs were supposed to uphold the law, particularly laws like contract. The enforceability of contracts, along with laws enshrining property ownership and the like, are the bedrock not just of a democracy but also of a healthy and stable economy. Start undermining that and you make the UK a far less attractive location in which to do business.

Never mind, here’s John Prescott again: “I believe basically take it [Sir Fred’s pension] off him and let him sue in the courts.”

John Prescott, through his botched management of Britain’s transport system, his madcap plans to concrete over the greenbelt and his shambolic attempts to introduce regional parliaments, has done far more lasting damage to this country than Sir Fred ever did.

Can we have his taxpayer-funded pension back too, please?

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