THE REGISTRAR OF Companies Gordon Jones is obviously a man who sets great store by that commendable virtue of hope.
He says that one objective of a corporate governance tribunal for the protection of minority shareholders is to give them a fairly fast and hopefully inexpensive way of resolving reasonably straightforward disputes.
He has, however, also put his finger on one of the key difficulties of this proposal: 'There are major practical problems such as finding people who would be prepared and have the actual professional expertise to sit on the tribunal.'
Exactly. Why should anyone who has the required professional expertise bore himself to tears on a low-paid government tribunal when he could make many times as much money putting that expertise directly to work, perhaps even in the cause of the people called to defend themselves in front of the tribunal.
Poachers do not turn gamekeeper in this game. Gamekeepers rather turn poacher.
Perhaps the tribunal could attract them to take an occasional break from poaching by paying them huge fees that would upset any civil service pay-scale but then there goes that 'hopefully inexpensive' part of Mr Jones' proposal.
The part about 'reasonably straightforward disputes' is a forlorn hope from the start. I get occasional complaints from minority shareholders who want me to espouse their causes and I have yet to see one that is straightforward.