Executive remuneration

I AM writing in connection with your brief reference (Yorkshire Post, April 19) to the remuneration of Marshall’s chief executive officer. While on the face of it Graham Holden received a 43 per cent pay increase in 2012, the story, as so often in these situations, is much more complex than it first appears.

In fact, Mr Holden received a three per cent increase in his salary from 2011 to 2012, and his bonus actually fell by £54,000 to reflect the company’s performance.

Moreover, in 2011, Mr Holden chose to defer £94,000 of his bonus, which was then paid in 2012. So the comparison between 2011’s numbers and 2012’s, which you concluded, was not fair. Full details are available in the annual report. And you also might be interested to know that Mr Holden has, entirely voluntarily, requested that his 2013 salary be cut by 20 per cent.

Heavy colours

From: RB Holroyd, Headlands, Liversedge, West Yorkshire.

WITH reference to the motoring piece on the replica Mercedes W125 Grand Prix car (Yorkshire Post, April 13), the true story of the origins of the Silver Arrows is that the cars, painted white, then the international racing colour of Germany, were found to be too heavy to conform to the formula regulations.

Alfred Neubauer, the teams’ racing manager, ordered the cars to be stripped of their paint in order to lighten them. This was done and the cars now conform to the regulations and were raced in their bare aluminium bodywork and subsequently became known as the Silver Arrows. Silver became Germany’s racing colour.

One or two?

From: David Cook, Swinton, Rotherham.

WHY does it take two people to present BBC Look North – Christa Ackroyd and poor old Harry Gration? Other regions manage quite well with one presenter.