Concerned 4 democracy

2012-02-07T23:27:00.000Z

“People who are right wing are thicker than those who are left wing” shock

George Monbiot made the point today citing research carried out by a Canadian University team. The Daily Wail had carried the story last week provoking some incredible responses from its readership online.

“The Canadian study published last month in the journal Psychological Science, ..revealed that people with conservative beliefs are likely to be of low intelligence. Paradoxically it was the Daily Mail that brought it to the attention of British readers last week. It feels crude, illiberal to point out that the other side is, on average, more stupid than our own. But this, the study suggests, is not unfounded generalisation but empirical fact.

It is by no means the first such paper. There is plenty of research showing that low general intelligence in childhood predicts greater prejudice towards people of different ethnicity or sexuality in adulthood. Open-mindedness, flexibility, trust in other people: all these require certain cognitive abilities. Understanding and accepting others – particularly "different" others – requires an enhanced capacity for abstract thinking.

But, drawing on a sample size of several thousand, correcting for both education and socioeconomic status, the new study looks embarrassingly robust. Importantly, it shows that prejudice tends not to arise directly from low intelligence but from the conservative ideologies to which people of low intelligence are drawn. Conservative ideology is the "critical pathway" from low intelligence to racism. Those with low cognitive abilities are attracted to "rightwing ideologies that promote coherence and order" and "emphasise the maintenance of the status quo". Even for someone not yet renowned for liberal reticence, this feels hard to write.

This is not to suggest that all conservatives are stupid. There are some very clever people in government, advising politicians, running thinktanks and writing for newspapers, who have acquired power and influence by promoting rightwing ideologies.

But what we now see among their parties – however intelligent their guiding spirits may be – is the abandonment of any pretence of high-minded conservatism. On both sides of the Atlantic, conservative strategists have discovered that there is no pool so shallow that several million people won't drown in it. Whether they are promoting the idea that Barack Obama was not born in the US, that man-made climate change is an eco-fascist-communist-anarchist conspiracy, or that the deficit results from the greed of the poor, they now appeal to the basest, stupidest impulses, and find that it does them no harm in the polls.

Don't take my word for it. Listen to what two former Republican ideologues, David Frum and Mike Lofgren, have been saying. Frum warns that "conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics". The result is a "shift to ever more extreme, ever more fantasy-based ideology" which has "ominous real-world consequences for American society".

Lofgren complains that "the crackpot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital centre today". The Republican party, with its "prevailing anti-intellectualism and hostility to science" is appealing to what he calls the "low-information voter", or the "misinformation voter". While most office holders probably don't believe the "reactionary and paranoid claptrap" they peddle, "they cynically feed the worst instincts of their fearful and angry low-information political base".

The madness hasn't gone as far in the UK, but the effects of the Conservative appeal to stupidity are making themselves felt. This week the Guardian reported that recipients of disability benefits, scapegoated by the government as scroungers, blamed for the deficit, now find themselves subject to a new level of hostility and threats from other people.

These are the perfect conditions for a billionaires' feeding frenzy. Any party elected by misinformed, suggestible voters becomes a vehicle for undisclosed interests. A tax break for the 1% is dressed up as freedom for the 99%. The regulation that prevents big banks and corporations exploiting us becomes an assault on the working man and woman. Those of us who discuss man-made climate change are cast as elitists by people who happily embrace the claims of Lord Monckton, Lord Lawson or thinktanks funded by ExxonMobil or the Koch brothers: now the authentic voices of the working class.”

Guardian 7/2/2012

The excellent Apartheid series on BBC 4 tonight provided further evidence of the premise that most right wingers are stupid. A succession of extremely nasty, thick, fascist, Afrikaners regaled us with their white supremacist views. The collusion of so many countries, including the UK, with this appalling regime was equally disturbing.

Which brings us to today. Where is the organised political resistance to the venality, stupidity and brutality of the right wing thickies currently masquerading as a government in which, “We are all in this together" belies the actuality?

2012-02-06T11:12:00.001Z

Satire dead? Hardly

Tom Lehrer famously said that satire was dead when he heard that Henry Kissinger had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Little did he know what was to come......

For instance:-

Millionaire “We are all in this together” Osborne......

David ‘Greenest Government Ever’ Cameron......

Frances ‘rent robber’ Maude attacking public workers for ‘lack of probity.’.....

David Megabucks Blunkett pontificating about the poor.......

A Cabinet made up of millionaires putting the boot into the poor and disabled while doing nothing about the bankers and speculators who brought about the crisis yet continuing to chant their mantra about ‘responsible capitalism’ while knowing it is up to government to rein the bankers in but doing nothing because these venal people are their friends and supporters........

And not forgetting, Tony ‘Middle East Peace Envoy’ Blair..............!!!!!!!

Coming up on the rails in the Humbuggery Derby is this little gem from the Argyll and Shite [this is not meant to insult the people of Bute - it reflects the quality of the council] website.

“Argyll and Bute Council’s Road’s and Amenities team, in partnership with Breedon Aggregates Scotland Limited, have been short listed in the finals of the COSLA Excellence Awards under the Achieving Better Outcomes category.” Published Date: 26 Jan 2012

The beauty and wonder of a blog is that once the ‘publish blog’ button is pushed it disappears into the ether, to be picked up by chance or choice by whosoever happens upon it. There will be many unaware why the above claim provokes howls of derision among those who know. Consider two recent photographs (above) of a minor road in Argyll. There are many, many more examples.

Sherlock Holmes would have known through the seat of his pants his exact whereabouts in Argyll. The pattern of potholes, degraded surfaces and puddles form a unique pattern. Travellers heading across Scotland are aware the instant they enter Argyll. A previously smooth surface deteriorates in an instant to a patchwork quilt of repairs, holes and bumps.

And they are on the shortlist for an award?

2012-02-05T19:45:00.000Z

We need Labour, not this soulless bunch

“His admirers say that David Miliband is one of the sharpest thinkers in the Labour Party.This is equivalent to being declared the brightest sunbeam in a Siberian winter. It's an accolade, but not one you would place on the first page of your CV.

The other brother was, for one, the Foreign Minister who told the Commons that Britain had played no part in torture and rendition. People seem to have forgotten. [Not everybody! ed.] Miliband was also at the heart of the government that took Labour to one of the worst defeats in its history. Few have forgotten that.

He is not, then, the person to whom you would turn automatically for advice on Labour's next move. The last time Miliband lost an election it was to his sibling. If opinion polls are anything to go by, even David Cameron won't make that mistake.

Not-Ed is undaunted. He has spent his entire career thinking up ways to change – "transform" – the Labour party while convincing voters that its values – "core values", of course – remain inviolable. So, writing in the New Statesman, Miliband has produced a plan.

That's not, of itself, unreasonable. Those polls show that, at best, his brother is running neck and neck with Cameron when the Coalition's name should be an insult to mud. By any measure any opposition party should be gaining support. Not Ed Miliband's party. Even when he says right and obvious things about productive capitalism, executive bonuses and Fred Goodwin, the Tories emerge with the credit.

Make a rough tally. Why should Labour be miles ahead? A collapse in real incomes might do it. Catastrophic unemployment, especially youth unemployment, should do it. Vindictive welfare reforms that will see cancer patients and disabled children pay for the banks' mistakes should certainly do it. An obsession with austerity that is demonstrably failing should clinch it.

I could go on. The point is not that Labour has failed to prosecute an argument, but that Labour has failed even to take advantage of facts that speak for themselves. The housing benefit cap – £26,000, irrespective of circumstances – is only the most startling example. It is wildly popular. People who are hard up have ceased to care about those worse off than themselves. And Labour has panicked.

It has had next to nothing to say about the shortage of affordable housing. It can't find the words to explain the connection between joblessness and the welfare bill. It doesn't even bother to explain that the poor are being cleared systematically from the southeast of England. Labour merely says that it, too, will have a cap. Just a nicer sort of cap.

Pathetically, it has accepted its failure to be "credible on the deficit". Now it hunts for ways to display economic virility and forgets the obvious. In England, in particular, the Tories are doing the things they always wanted to do to the NHS, schools, welfare and the rest. The deficit is their perfect, all-enveloping excuse. Ed Miliband says meekly that there should be more fairness. How true. (my emphasis)

How does Labour manage to get itself into this state time and again? Some reasons are almost sociological. There is the spectacle of a political movement whose list of viable leadership candidates consists of two brothers and a husband-and-wife team. Then there is the fact Ed Balls, Yvette Cooper and the Milibands each came to prominence with minimal exposure to life beyond the political bubble.

They are all Oxbridge, naturally, and part of the elite that led Britain to its present eminence. Balls went from a spell at the Financial Times to become an economic adviser to Gordon Brown. His wife had already done the same job for the late John Smith. Ed Miliband did research for Harriet Harman and then went to work for Brown. David Miliband worked for the Institute for Public Policy Research and then for Tony Blair.

Notice a pattern? It is not one that points to a deep pool of Labour Party talent. Nor is it a pattern that speaks of an intimate understanding of the lives of ordinary people. This isn't a crime, necessarily. It is inverted snobbery to insist that the only authentic Labour politician is one who has come up the hard way from wherever the bottom happens to be.

The real trouble with the Milibands and the Balls-Coopers, hand-reared in the Westminster fish bowl, is that they have a limited idea of what counts as radical. If the values they invoke were eradicated from the earth tomorrow, their lives would not be altered even slightly. The Milibands are less radical, in every sense, than their late and esteemed father, Professor Ralph. Their own mother reputedly regards them as too right-wing.

Why is that? There is plenty of evidence that Ed Miliband thinks of himself as a progressive sort. David Miliband, meanwhile, claims – a different matter – to be cut from that cloth. The obstacle seems to be that they do not believe there is a majority of British voters who share their attitudes. Timidity follows.

It is these days ingrained in the party colonised by Blair and Brown. It results in obnoxious attitudes. One is that voters can be conned into believing Labour is, in the usual image, "a safe pair of hands". Radicalism must be concealed at all costs. The second attitude is more brutally pragmatic: if voters are right-wing, become right-wing. The old Labour belief that people can be won over to the causes of justice and fairness is irrelevant.

David Miliband, therefore, proffers seven suggestions for Labour's electoral redemption. In essence, they amount to an argument for a return to Blairite "modernisation". Overlooked is the fact that what was once modern is now at least 18 years out of date, that it ended in Blair's moral squalor and Brown's chaotic premiership, and that – no small point – its thrust is essentially Conservative.

Miliband is attempting to rebut claims made by "Red Roy" Hattersley on behalf of an interventionist state, otherwise known as a government that gets things done. "The public won't vote for the prescription that central government is the cure for all ills," writes Miliband, "for the good reason that it isn't." Should I point out that Cameron holds precisely the same belief?

The article is all about how to win in 2015, as Miliband understands the game, not about the crisis for ordinary voters in 2012. It is, in that regard, truly self-indulgent. So the lost leader quibbles over equality, redistribution, and the defence of the last government's record. His intention is to strip the last guts from a party established to oppose most of the things he espouses. We could do with that party just at the moment. You have to wonder, though, about those who talk blithely about local government reform when hundreds of thousands of public-sector workers are losing their jobs.

Day by day, meanwhile, the other Miliband comes to resemble hapless Neil Kinnock, the socialist taken hostage by Oxbridge types whose only advice amounted to a list of things he must never say. Given the state of things in Britain today, that kind of cleverness amounts to a crime.” Ian Bell, Sunday Herald, 5/2/12

Hear Hear.

2012-02-03T19:05:00.001Z

The welfare reform bill will incentivise people: to turn on David Cameron

“While Tory and Lib Dem MPs were contemptuously rejecting all seven Lords amendments to the welfare reform bill on Wednesday, I was at a credit union in London's East End, listening to low earners and unemployed people struggling to save small sums to avoid loan sharks. Admirable, but little protection from a tidal wave of cuts heading their way. For people like them, this year's rolling housing benefit cuts will take £17 a week.

That same morning the Institute for Fiscal Studies delivered its verdict: double-dip recession and a miserable 0.3% growth rate. Worry about shut libraries? Then this should make your hair stand on end: only 6% of public service cuts have happened yet. Another 94% are still to come, with cascades more public servants sacked. In benefits, 88% of cuts are still to come. But Tory and Lib Dem MPs voted through an £18bn benefit cut for the "squeezed" bottom half with few qualms, taking £1400 from disabled children and £94 from the sick who don't die or recover within a year.”

The IFS says these cuts are "almost without historical or international precedent". "How deliverable these will prove remains to be seen," it adds. The answer is blindingly obvious. Cuts of these dimensions are impossible. Austerity will not be politically tolerable in a rich country in peacetime where boardrooms pay themselves 49% rises. The Attlee government was toppled by peacetime austerity that voters no longer trusted. The government reassures itself that the country is muddling along, coping with cuts, getting by. But the frightening truth is that it's hardly begun.

The IFS chart showing the sunny uplands of 2016-17, with a 0.4% current spending surplus, is hard to credit. It's a dereliction for forecasters to ignore the political reality. A miraculous growth spurt might save the day: but how, when George Osborne's hyper-austerity smothers all oxygen in the economy? What of a 2015 election, plumb in the middle of this seven-year run of cuts? The irony is that the best hope of hitting that surplus and restoring more growth is that many of these cuts never happen. Cameron will bend or snap or both.

The NHS tops No 10's risk register, but a close second should be the benefit cuts now being railroaded through by claiming "financial privilege" to avoid another bruising Lords encounter with angry bishops and former Tory cabinet ministers. Cameron's government by opinion poll tells him he's on terra firma: the public thinks £26,000 is more than enough benefits for any family. But the public is fickle: starting last month, 670,000 households lose an average of £13 on housing benefit occupancy rules. In council tax benefit, because pensioners are exempt, the rest of low earners will pay an extra £330 a year. In April tax credit cuts take £305 from 2 million households, while the bottom half are already £427 a year worse off in spending power, says the Resolution Foundation. With long-term unemployment set to rise even higher than already predicted, this bill touches millions more voters than Cameron expects. It may not touch his leafy heartlands, best protected from council cuts, but elections are won among middling folk: wait for the great cuts tsunami to hit them." Polly Toynbee, Guardian 3/2/12

2012-02-01T09:52:00.000Z

Quaker Census Refusers

Over 750,000 people are alleged to have not completed their census forms. The authorities have used their infinite wisdom to select 120 for punishment. The chosen ones just happen to be Quakers. They were opposed to paying Lockheed Martin £150m for administering the census. And they have a point.

As a letter in yesterdays Guardian makes clear, “On the day we had to return our forms, Gaza was being bombed by Lockheed Martin F16s. As part of a group of Quaker Census Refusers, we feel completing the census form and so contributing £150m to the profits of Lockheed Martin, which won the census contract, is in direct opposition to our peace testimony which calls on us to refuse to engage in all preparation for all wars. Lockheed is the world’s largest arms maker, making cluster bombs, Trident and F16 warplanes.” Nailsworth Friends Meeting, Stroud, Guardian letters 31/1/12

The accused, including many pensioners, are scheduled to be tried in Bristol on the 8th February.

They are an example to us all and deserve our utmost respect.

2012-01-31T09:00:00.004Z

An Unholy Mess

“The coalition's NHS reforms, the biggest shakeup of the health service in 60 years, are a "damaging … unholy mess" that will need overhauling in five years' time, the editors of three leading healthcare publications claim.

In an editorial published simultaneously by the British Medical Journal, Health Service Journal and Nursing Times, their editors say the NHS "is far too important to be left at the mercy of ideological and incompetent intervention" and argue ,"we must make sure that nothing like this ever happens again". Guardian 31/1/12

How damning is that ‘ideological and incompetent intervention?’

Contempt.

Lansley claims that his plans for the NHS are "well thought out and necessary." So necessary they did not warrant a mention in the Tory Manifesto. So necessary that Cameron made the pledge, “There will be no top-down reorganisation of the NHS," during the same election.

Contempt
So necessary because of pledges made by Lansley to private health care providers?

So well thought out we now have chaos and confusion. So well thought out we have one half of the NHS spending money reorganising structures which may well end up being binned.

Contempt
Lansley is out of his depth and drowning. He needs to be put out of his misery.

Apply more pressure by taking 2 minutes to sign this government e-petition, calling on Cameron's government to drop the Health and Social Care Bill:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22670

2012-01-29T10:19:00.001Z

David Cameron’s call for ‘responsible capitalism’ provokes public hygiene problem as millions wet themselves.

Thanks to Private Eye for the following.

“David Cameron’s speech calling for ‘responsible capitalism’, promising to “put the right rules and institutions in place” to “improve markets and make them fair as well as free”, showed that the PM, a former PR man, knows how to say the right thing even when it’s totally at odds with what he actually does.

Last year Cameron asked private equity boss Adrian Beecroft to write a review of employment law. Beecroft proposed letting bosses sack workers more easily, tearing up tribunal and maternity leave rights and generally freeing employers from responsibilities and rules.

The PM can’t have been surprised by Beecroft’s cavalier attitude to responsibility and fairness, given that he is chairman of Dawn Capital, the private equity firm that owns Wonga.com. This payday loan firm pursues poor folk, students and old people with loan rates running from 360 percent up to a staggering 4,000 percent APR.

Cameron accused the last government of being “frightened of challenging vested interests, believing too often that the interests of big business were always one and the same as those of the economy as a whole”. So Dave will presumably now chuck the Beecroft report in the bin - and the fact that he has given the Conservatives £587,000 since 2006 will of course not play on the PM’s mind at all.” HP Sauce

Those not yet donning the incontinence kit should be prepared...

“There can be few areas more in need of David Cameron’s new moral capitalism than the business of putting companies into administration.

Two years ago Eye 1255 reported how high-street chain Woolworth’s was put into administration by its bankers on the advice of beancounter Deloitte, rejecting management’s plans to save it. The administration contract was duly handed to .....Deloitte. The banks were paid in full, Deloitte trousered more than £9m and 30,000 staff lost their jobs, with no redundancy payments.

Now a tribunal has found that Deloitte failed to consult properly on the redundancies and the workers are due compensation totalling £67m. This of course, will be paid not by Deloitte, but by the taxpayer. We’re all in it together?” Private Eye 27/1/12

2012-01-27T20:28:00.000Z

RBS, Hester and the Government

Make loads of hardworking people redundant? Check.

Oversee a loss-making bank? Check.

Run a company 81% owned by the taxpayer? Check.

See the share price plummet? Check.

Enjoy a salary in excess of £1million per year? Check.

Set in place rules which make it harder for small businesses to get a loan? Check.

Take home in 3 days what a soldier serving in Afghanistan earns in a year? Check.

Believe this to be right and proper as you risk being shown up as a greedy bastard or worse, not making as much moolah as your venal colleagues, whereas a squaddy could merely end up being dead, and where is the shame in that? Check.

Be given rewards for all the failures listed above as a bonus of nearly a million? Check.

Can’t believe your luck? Check.

Live in a parallel universe? Check.

Claim that you could earn much more in another bank somewhere else? Check.

Expose the Tory-led Government as a bunch of smug, arrogant, inept and hypocritical bastards? Check.

Show up Nick Clegg for being a piece of useless bloody offal drowning in shark-infested waters? Check.

Embarrass the hell out of New Labour for awarding a crazy contract? Check.

Shoot down any bollocks about us all being in this together? Check.

Annoy the hell out of any decent citizen of the UK? Checkety check check.

Run a coach and horses through any notion of fairness? Checkety checkety check.

Help prepare the ground making revolution that little bit more likely? Check.

2012-01-26T09:49:00.000Z

Bankers take the biscuit - the poor get the blame

An investment banker, a Daily Wail reader and a benefit recipient are sitting round a plate with 12 biscuits on it. The banker takes 11 biscuits, then turns to the Daily Wail reader and says, “Watch out, that scrounger is after your biscuit.”

All the fuss about benefit caps should be seen in the light of this little joke going the rounds. Most of the biggest payments go to claimants in London for their rent. The system is unfair because it transfers money from the taxpayer to landlords who can set the level of rent at a price that suits them. In many major cities in the world there is rent control. It could be re-introduced to London.

Do not hold your breath. As Mark Blackman, writing in the Independent put it, “It won’t happen, because at least one section of the Coalition Government is funded by the likes of wealthy landlords and many MPs earn a tidy sum by renting out properties themselves.”

So MPs blame the poor while pocketing the cash and the Daily Wail looks the other way.

2012-01-25T16:58:00.002Z

Are there no depths to which these bastards will not sink?

A little article about the way statistics have been abused by this corrupt and self-serving government emerged today. Last weekend, the egregious Grayling and Green pandered to those of our society who like to blame foreigners for all our ills. The fact that 371,000 people who were foreign nationals were claiming benefits was seized upon by the rightwing press. The Daily Wail, the Scum and Torygraph pandered to their fascist readership with their rent-a-guff, ‘Coming over here taking our jobs, taking advantage of the welfare state, robbing us blind’ nonsense. The EDL need little persuasion to use such ‘facts’ to launch racist attacks. Grayling and Green know this. But they still went ahead and peddled the ‘foreigner taking advantage’ line. Bastards.

Now it emerges that the facts do not stack up. It seems that ‘foreigners’ are less likely to claim benefits than British born workers. That will not stop the racist attacks. As Goebels said, “If you are going to lie, then make it a big lie.”

‘Aliens’ (great word) are also more likely to be hardworking and contributing to our society. Unlike our ruling millionaire toffs who would not recognise hardship even if it reared up and bit them in the bum.

2012-01-24T10:38:00.000Z

Haditha - a ‘Dereliction of Duty’

It is seven years since 24 Iraqi civilians were massacred at Haditha by a US Marine squad. The sergeant in charge has accepted a plea bargain to admit ‘dereliction of duty’ rather than the more serious charge of manslaughter. Cynics will argue that the ‘man’ should have been left off the ‘manslaughter’ charge. Testimony from other squad members stated that Sgt. Frank Wuterich personally lined up five men as they arrived in a taxi and shot them. He is the only one of the squad to be found guilty. Six squad members had charges dropped or dismissed, including some in exchange for testifying at the trial. Among the 24 civilians were women and children and a man in a wheelchair.

While the events in Haditha occurred in November 2005, an investigation did not begin until a local human rights activist went public with video footage of the aftermath.

Alistair Leithead, a BBC reporter had this to say from Los Angeles, “The dropping of nine manslaughter charges against Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, 31, and the relative leniency of a maximum three month jail sentence will not be well received by those in Iraq who wanted justice for the death of family members. Especially after all other cases related to the killings have been dropped or acquitted.

The killings severely tainted the reputation of US forces in Iraq, but by 2005, they had already been hit hard by the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. The Haditha massacre is still an emotive issue in the country and prompted calls for US troops to be denied immunity from prosecution in the Iraqi justice system.”

“Will not be well received by those in Iraq who wanted justice” is a bit of an understatement. The plea bargain charge of ‘dereliction of duty’ is deeply insulting. As is a maximum three month sentence. It reflects the US military’s approach to Iraqi casualties. They were never counted. Estimates vary from 150,000 to over a million deaths. US casualties were counted.

Americans make a great deal about being a democracy and observing the rule of law. The outcome of this case undermines that claim. Haditha is indeed a dereliction of duty.

2012-01-23T22:11:00.000Z

Cable’s crap attack

Just when a gallant knight is needed to sort out all the villains in the city of London up pops Vince. Watch the financiers squeal. Listen to the bankers howl. Enjoy the anguish of the hedgefunders. Then again....dream on.

Fairness and rigour do not feature in St Vince’s apology for a policy. Bathetic.

Fat Cats will not lose any sleep.

It is down to us to boycott the robber baron companies and greedy megacorps.

Make a start by taking your money out of RBS and putting it into an ethical bank.

38 degrees - this is a campaign made for you.

2012-01-20T22:59:00.000Z

ConDem Capitalism

On the same day that Stephen Hester, CEO of RBS was announced to be getting a massive bonus for running the company at a £600m loss.........

.... was the same day that Goldmann Sachs announced they were going to give their staff humongous bonuses again........

...and it was the same day the report was published into the way we subsidise supermarket profits by boosting the wages of their low earning staff by providing tax benefits which thereby enables their bosses to trouser millions ........

.....was the same day that the House of Lords passed the Bill which would take 20% from the income of the most vulnerable in our society - the disabled.

And also on that same day, as Millionaire Cameron told us that he thought something had to be done to make capitalism a little fairer, he was drowned out by the noise of sick buckets being filled around the land.

2012-01-19T09:27:00.000Z

‘State-subsidised corporate super-profits’

Zoe Williams has written a very good article in the Guardian which addresses one of the issues of our society ignored by our political class.

“The first time I heard the phrase "state-subsidised corporate super-profits" was last June, at a conference of the pressure group Compass, in a discussion about meeting child poverty targets by 2020 (the title was intended as a bleak joke, I think). Someone in the audience said that the very existence of "in-work benefits" was evidence of the government subsidising the bloated profits of huge corporations.

This was underlined by the arcane terminology – a "working family tax credit". Why a "tax credit" and not a "benefit"? Clearly, because otherwise some smart-Alec might have said that if a company is paying a worker less than it takes to break through the breadline, and that's legal, then there's something wrong with the minimum wage. However, this was a lefty conference, full of lefties, and this is the sort of thing they say.

The next time I heard it, it was July and a reported observation, specifically about pay in supermarkets, from the editor of MoneyWeek, Merryn Somerset Webb. I don't know her politics, but she was previously a broker at SBC Warburg, she writes for the Spectator, and she is a non-executive director of two investment trusts. You don't meet many people like her at a Compass conference.

Tomorrow, the Fair Pay Network publishes a report on the impact of low pay in national supermarket chains. It looks at the big four supermarkets: Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons – the largest employer block in the country outside of the NHS. The report finds that the working poor now dominate poverty equations, with nearly two-thirds of children in poverty living in working families. It gives case studies for individual members of the 900,000-strong supermarket workforce: workers such as the mother who has to hold down two part-time jobs, never sees her kids, and still can't afford to use the tube – so they probably end up blowing what quality "me-time" they have schlepping across town on a bus. Life would be untenable for many families without in-work benefits, and even with them it is back-breakingly hard.

Who wins, when the government makes up the shortfall, between the poverty pay a shelf-packer earns and what he or she needs to live on? Not the worker, evidently; not the taxpayer, who may get a certain empathy boost from the fact that nobody's starving, but reaps no economic advantage from this bizarre system; not the supplier to the supermarket, who often has his or her own case to make about deals so bad they often amount to a mugging.

The only winners are the chains themselves: Justin King, the CEO of Sainsbury's, receives £3.2m a year; Philip Clarke of Tesco, £6.9m; Dalton Philips, of Morrisons, £4m; Andy Clarke of Asda's pay is not in the public domain. What justifies these amounts? Their profits, of course: well done, guys. You don't pay the London living wage, or the UK living wage (a non-binding rate set by the Centre for Social Policy Research) to your lowest-paid employees. You were abetted in this by the last government, and now have this government, with its soaring unemployment, over a barrel.

You reaped greater profits as a result, which you must now feel free to skim off. To grab so much in excess of what you could ever spend or need, at a cost of so much hardship, to so many people, defies comprehension. It can't be because they want the money; it can only be an urge to compete with their CEO peers. What would be good is if they could divert some of this myopic energy into a more innocuous pastime, like a FTSE 100 squash tournament.

However, CEOs are hard to influence, especially on the matter of their own salaries; a better place to start would be the government. Part of the problem here is that it is typically leftwing to agree with benefits, both from a political, redistributive agenda and as part of a semi-Keynesian programme that it's good for GDP for the poorest to have more money, because they spend a larger proportion of their income, thence pumping it back into the economy.

Meanwhile, on the right, it is typical to disagree with benefits, both from an ideological faith in the individual as master of his own destiny, and from the monetarist position that government spending strangles private enterprise. Clem Chambers espoused this so succinctly in Forbes this week that I almost bought it and had to change my whole identity: "If you subtract state spending from total GDP, then subtract the tax take from what's left and then deduct government borrowings, what remains in most developed countries approaches zero. There is little or no GDP left for the private sector. No wonder there isn't any economic growth."

However, this is a simple chicken-or-egg question: does the size of the public sector suffocate the private sector? Or does the public sector only look big because the private sector is so rubbish?

What nobody in any of these corners would ever advocate is state spending as an alternative to fair wage settlements. The left would say: set a minimum living wage, make it decent, enforce it, unionise. The right would say: let the market determine wages; if people aren't paid enough, they'll stop spending and the supermarkets themselves will realise that boosting pay packets in the middle will yield better profits than one huge pay packet at the top.

Nobody would say: let the supermarkets pay what they like, and so that they never have to deal with the economic consequences of that, let the state make up the difference. Nobody would say that, because it's senseless. And yet, here we are.” Guardian 19/1/12

On the ‘Comment’ pages following the article, Zoe Williams makes the case for ‘organised boycotts’ of these subsidised profiteers. Bring it on.

2012-01-17T19:14:00.000Z

Miliband, Balls and the Cuts

Oh Dear! Why should any person of sound mind and of fair disposition support the political class that currently run the Labour party? Miliband and Balls could have made an excellent case to go after the estimated £125bn tax that is currently avoided by many famous companies, corporations and individuals. They could have stressed fairness and reined in the bankers and financiers who reward themselves with astronomical salaries and bonuses despite their appalling performance. They could have saved at least £25bn by scrapping Trident. They could have hammered home the fact that it is disgusting to expect the poorest to pay for the calamities of the wealthiest.

They did not do any of this. They marched onto the Tories front doorstep and said, “We agree with you.” They conceded in effect that the Tories were right to attack the poor, the weak and the vulnerable. Balls should have resigned months ago. Apart from being a bully involved in the dark arts of counter-briefing against his own colleagues, he was also proud of his ‘soft-touch’ regulatory regime which was a factor in the economic madness of the banking scandal. As for Miliband? He flounders and huffs and puffs but essentially he lacks the values and nous to connect with ordinary people.

The LibDems are also in bed with this policy too so you will not get a gnats knacker between any of the three main parties. What a disgrace. What democracy?

Why any union contributes to this bunch of chancers and careerists masquerading as a political party beggars belief.

The grave of Keir Hardy should have a generator attached to it to harness the energy currently being given off by its occupant.

2012-01-16T10:01:00.002Z

John Lewis and Toxic Clegg

The John Lewis model of how to run a company has always impressed by its very logic. The company does well - the ‘partners’ do well. Eminently fair and encouraging. None of this nonsense where the cheeses take home 160 times the average pay. It is a model which should be much more widespread. Sadly the fact that Toxic Clegg has latched onto it as his latest wheeze means it is unlikely to flourish. Since selling his soul to mammon to get in bed with the big boys, Toxic has struggled. He has floundered and in his heart he knows he is out of his depth. The more he tries the worse it gets. He is deeply tarnished. It is a stain which shows no sign of fading.

2012-01-14T09:42:00.000Z

U K renamed ‘Poundland’

Cait Reilly had been working on a voluntary basis at a museum. She was an unemployed graduate who was working in a museum for work experience and to increase her employability. The government did not agree. They have worked out a cosy little deal with their business chums which on the surface looks like a good idea.

“Geology graduate Cait Reilly is suing the Government for forcing her to sweep floors and stack shelves in Poundland for no extra salary or lose her benefits. There is nothing wrong with stacking shelves. There is everything wrong with stacking shelves for a wage that would amount, for a 22-year-old, to £1.33 an hour for an average working week, with no security, benefits or expectation of promotion: Ms Reilly was not even offered an interview after her placement.

The Department for Work and Pension's claim that the practice of requiring people on benefits to work menial jobs for substantially less than the minimum wage is somehow about "support" and "help[ing] people off benefits and into work" Laurie Penny, Independent

A reader commenting on the article wrote the following, “My son was offered work experience for 4 weeks and he, an 18 year old with limited experience of work, jumped at the chance. After 1 week working for 30 hours as a member of staff not an extra, they asked him if he would like a job. He was delighted, and of course said yes.

But they continued to keep him on a work experience basis for the following 3 weeks.

After his 4 weeks were up, they decided to keep him on - but not as an employed member of staff, but still on work experience, for another 4 weeks, taking him to the limit allowed for work experience.

THEN they gave him a job, working 25 hours a week, but on an 8 hour a week contract (this obviously works out better for the business - less holiday and sickness allowance for them to pay out. It appears to be standard procedure these days).

So YOU, the taxpayer, funded this business for 7 weeks longer than you should have, giving them a free employee for those seven weeks, and giving the business all the extra allowances they are given by the government for being kind enough to take on people on the work experience scheme.

Businesses (with millions of profit every year) and taking advantage of us, and also reducing the hours of employed staff whilst taking on these 'free employees'.

The system stinks.”

Another added, “If there's work to do then the employee should receive minimum wage, regardless of whether they work in a business or in the community. Every job an unemployed person does results in a paying job being lost.” (my emphasis)

There is a move to identify these ‘helpful’ companies who are exploiting the situation to make even more millions - and boycott the bastards.

2012-01-12T19:33:00.000Z

News Management or Pigs Might Fly

Lying in bed early this morning listening to the news, a little alarm bell began to ring. The BBC security correspondent (does he write in lemon juice?) let it be known that Scotland Yard and the Director of Public Prosecutions were going to issue an important statement later in the day. He then went on to say that ‘sources’ had let it be known that no-one from MI5 or MI6 was likely to be charged after a 3 year inquiry into torture.

The alarm bell was right. The ‘statement’ confirmed that no-one would be charged because of insufficient evidence. However, to take minds off this lack of action there was the sop that the two Libyans who had been rendered back to Ghaddaffi in the days of Reverend Blair were having their cases thoroughly investigated as there was prima facie evidence that we had colluded with their ill-treatment and used subterfuge to get them back into the clutches of Mr Tony’s new best mate.

This was not a new story. The information emerged as Libya changed hands. Documents were found, which if genuine, gave the lie to all the mealy-mouthed crap spouted by Milibean senior and (man of) Straw, not forgetting Blair. So why today to announce this ‘major investigation’? Why was this not begun three months ago?

It could not possibly be to take attention away from the lack of progress in the torture case could it? Insufficient evidence? You bet. Somebody, somewhere in spookdom knows the score.

And as for this latest inquiry into rendition? Another three years then hoofed into the long grass. The investigation will turn up evidence of wrongdoing but be unable to pin anything on a secret minion. Another ‘important’ announcement will be timed to cover up the cover up.

Pigs Might Fly

They could surprise everyone by rounding up Blair, Straw, Milibean and the heads of MI5 and MI6, interviewing them under oath before whisking them off to the Hague.

Even in the Pigs Might Fly category that scenario takes a lot of believing.

2012-01-11T17:40:00.000Z

PIP implant scandal and the NHS

Several folk will have been bemused to hear bc Lansley bewail his lack of progress with the private cosmetic health clinics who were responsible for fitting 95% of the dangerous implants.

Several others will bemoan the lack of action from the watchdog. NHS surgeons began raising concerns about the failure rate of these implants in 2006. Why has it taken the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) till now to raise their concerns?

Richard Horton is the editor of The Lancet. He wrote an article about the scandal in today’s Guardian which had this conclusion.

“The British government's health and social care bill will open up the NHS to private sector providers. The events of the past month show why this policy is so misguided. When something goes wrong in the NHS the entire organisation can be mobilised to address the problem coherently, transparently, equitably, and to the very highest of standards. But in the case of PIP implants, over 95% of which were done by private providers, what have we seen? Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, has had to castigate private cosmetic clinics for failing to gather and provide high-quality data on their procedures. The best he could do was ask that they "take similar action" to the NHS; he could not require such action. Bruce Keogh, Medical Director of the NHS went further: "We can place no reliance upon [their] figures."

Yet this is the future for the NHS. A system of healthcare that cannot be held accountable by the government; one that has no obligation to collect or supply accurate information about what it is doing; one that fiercely resists its duty of care to patients; and one that is more concerned with cost than it is with quality. The evidence is before us: it's time to kill this bill.”

2012-01-10T08:41:00.000Z

Reverend Blair - a two-faced hypocrite

Q. Who said, in 1994, “We must tackle abuse of the tax system. For those who can employ the right accountants, the tax system is a haven of scams, perks,City deals and profits...We should not make our tax rules a playground for revenue avoiders who pay little or nothing while others pay more than their share.”

A. Why none other than our former PM - The Reverend Blair.

Why are we not shocked? Why is the news that his company paid just £315,000 tax on income of more than £12m more grist to the mill?

Few will be surprised at just how sleazy he and his organisations have become. The deadlock continues in the Middle East. Many lives have been lost. Livelihoods ruined and the running sore fans the flames of religious hatred throughout the region. And while that appalling situation prevails, the Middle East peace envoy rakes in the cash.

The accounts showed Blair had £8m worth of ‘administrative expenses.’

Yeah right. Just the sort of wheeze devised by a ‘revenue avoider’.

Remember Al Capone? The feds finally got him - for tax evasion.

2012-01-09T22:46:00.000Z

Hoots Cameron

Today’s news about Westminster intervening in the little local difficulty that is Scotland has to be a diversion. But from what?

Is it the total failure to rein in excessive pay and bonuses for his mates in the City? Could be.

Is it the fact that folks are getting wise to his PR stunts and are starting to see through them, whether it is nurses, pay, the NHS or anything else which needs a good spin?

Is it to cover up his embarrassment at the arrant nonsense he guffed about ‘health and safety’ identifying himself as a direct descendent of the Gradgrinds and other mightily nasty pieces of victorian opprobrium? Hmm - like most tories , for whom a dangerous job is picking up wet change from a bar top, he hasn’t a clue.

Is it because of all the sabre rattling going on in the Gulf of Hormuz? The Americans are getting edgy and we must be by their sides ......mustn’t we? It is frighteningly possible.

Is it the news that DC’s hero the Reverend Blair, has seemingly skipped paying a large amount of wonga from his incredible (in every sense) earnings?

Is it to take the heat off the decision to go ahead with the high speed rail link through the heart of toryshire?

Is he too upset after seeing his heroine depicted as more than a little batty in a movie? If so he needs a reality check.

Or is he simply fed up that in the land of Caledonia the tories are toxic and is about to cut his losses? Surely not - what about his shooting ‘n fishin? Maybe he just cannot stand Alex Salmond.

Readers with more possibilities are welcome to throw them into the pot.

2012-01-07T09:39:00.000Z

Contempt

Lansley and private clinics

Listening to bc Lansley talking on Radio 4 about the shoddy breast implants was an insight into the mind of the man. bc was unhappy at the lack of co-operation from so many private clinics. They had been reluctant to divulge the extent of the problem and give details about how many breast implants they had done. bc thought this was not good. Doh!

Private medicine does not like spending money on admin or on righting wrongs. It all costs cash. And cash is what they are all about.

As usual the NHS will end up picking up the bill to put matters right.

bc will not let a few tough facts about private medicine spoil his plans to massively increase it in the NHS. Too many vested interests are relying on him to deliver.

bc = beneath contempt

2012-01-02T10:04:00.002Z

Dishonourable and disreputable

“Handing knighthoods and other honours to financial backers of major political parties risks bringing the system into “disrepute” because of the suspicion of corruption, according to the standards watchdog.” Daily Telegraph 2/1/12

Another statement in the long long line of stating the bleeding obvious, this is yet another example of how our political elites do not give a monkeys about the way this plays out with ‘ordinary folk.’ They know it will be a two-day wonder.

“Sir Christopher Kelly, the chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, was speaking after four leading Conservative donors who had collectively given the party nearly £1million were given awards in the New Year honours list. Paul Ruddock, a hedge fund manager, and Doug Ellis, a package holiday millionaire were knighted, while James Lupton, an investment banker, and James Wates, a construction firm tycoon, were awarded CBEs in Saturday’s list.” (ibid)

Labour have huffed and puffed but with no real conviction. They are mired in sleaze by the ‘Cash for Honours’ scandal. And as for the LibDems? They are in the dock thanks to their refusal to pay back the £2.4 million they received from convicted fraudster and current fugitive Michael Brown.

Anyone who thinks these baubles are all that these wealthy wankers want must be living in cloud cuckoo land. Nothing like a large dollop of cash to buy yourself some influence - and improve your bank balance.

So there you have it. Another instance where reform is long overdue but where there is neither the will, the desire, or as yet the pressure to force our political elite to do anything.

2012-01-01T14:22:00.000Z

The BBC, MI5/MI6 and the Tories

The BBC's director general (dg) personally intervened to censor a 1981 edition of Panorama on Britain's secret services, official papers have revealed.

According to documents from the National Archives, Sir Ian Trethowan, was put under pressure by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government over the planned documentary.

In a letter flagged as "top secret and personal", the Tories even considered invoking their power to "veto" the BBC programme about MI5 and MI6 because it threatened to reveal details of the agencies' inner workings and question their accountability.

The dg requested a video of the original 100-minute programme to be shown to Bernard Sheldon, the then legal adviser to MI5. Sheldon suggested a number of heavy cuts.

BBC News reports that Sir Ian then asked the BBC's head of news and current affairs to make many of the suggested cuts, reducing the programme by around half.

Sir Ian had told the press that no-one from the government had been shown the film, but the documents reveal that he did in fact hold meetings with the heads of MI5 and MI6.

In a subsequent note to the prime minister, Armstrong said that "it looks as if Sir Ian Trethowan has not managed to clean the programme up to the extent we might have hoped".

Also revealed in the released documents was that Number 10 Downing Street felt Sir Ian was a "weak" BBC dg, while the programme makers were concerned that he was pandering to the government's wishes.

All of this was revealed in last Friday’s PM programme. The original journalist on the piece, Tom Mangold, related how he was invited to a meeting with the dg who then spent some time flattering his work. The dg then slipped in the barb that it would need to be edited ‘for sensitivity.’ Which it duly was to the apparent satisfaction of no-one.

This was thirty years ago. We have moved on and things are better now - - -aren’t they?

Well not quite. Since the Hutton report, the BBC has tended to adopt a pre-emptive cringe in the face of perceived government unhappiness. Only recently, Jeremy Hunt applied pressure to get the Corruption in FIFA Panorama programme shelved while the horse-trading was going on. He denied it of course.

The lack of mainstream media coverage of these revelations has been interesting. Compare it with the coverage of ‘Liverpool to be left to rot’ - from the same sources and subsequently unconvincingly denied by Lord Howe.

One thing this affair has confirmed. Our leaders lie to us on a regular basis. No surprises there.

Happy New Year.

2011-12-28T21:33:00.002Z

You cannot trust the tories with the NHS

A little bit of small print emerged blinking into the light. Among the details of the revised NHS Bill there is the fact that all NHS Trusts will have the chance to raise up to 49% of their funding from private medicine. This is a huge increase on the current 1-2%.

The consequences are the drift to a two-tier system with the wealthy and the comfortable having instant access to the best treatment. The poor and less comfortable will have to trust to luck and the leftovers.

People who make themselves wealthy on others misfortune are among the lowest of the low.

Ministers who facilitate such people are beneath contempt.

Contempt.

Lansley.

2011-12-27T09:28:00.000Z

State Funeral for Thatcher

There are many tories who worship at the shrine of Thatcher. There are many, many other, more rational beings in the UK, who hold a very different view. One such appeared in the Independent yesterday.

“The fact that a state funeral for Margaret Thatcher has even been contemplated (report, 21 December) is a slap in the face for the millions of people whose lives she ruined.

She destroyed the British manufacturing base, destroyed the coal industry and destroyed the steel and ship-building industries as well as destroying whole communities which are still suffering from her legacy today. She ruled a land where an estimated five million were unemployed, forming the basis of today's multi-generational benefit-dependent families. She waged a war which could have been avoided.

She allowed Nigel Lawson, her chancellor, to begin the ruination of pensions by allowing employers to take a "pensions holiday". She created a nation reliant on financial services and service industries (and look where that has landed us) and changed a cohesive society to one which was and is selfish, self-serving and hypocritical, and this has led to a divided nation.

Her premiership started and ended with nationwide riots and protests. All this came from her fanatical ideology and it came to a point where even her own colleagues decided to get rid of her.

Today's austerity was born from her ideology, so why should taxpayers' money be wasted on a divisive state funeral?” Letter from S. Silgram, Blackburn Lancs.

It would probably be best all round if she were to be buried at sea. That would at least stop people dancing on her grave.

2011-12-25T08:27:00.000Z

Man in posh frock condemns glitter

Wearing a cream and gold creation, an elderly man urged his followers to, ‘see through the superficial glitter of this season.’ He was speaking in a place decorated with gold-leaf and full of ornate statuary. As the CEO of one of the wealthiest organisations in the world, his remarks on poverty had a special resonance, particularly with non-believers.

2011-12-21T22:38:00.002Z

Compare and Contrast 2

Take a look at the way the taxman treats MegaCorps like Vodaphone and Goldman Sachs. Consider how the head of HMRC goes for regular private lunches with Vodaphone’s cheeses. See how other similar giants are caressed into paying a bit of tax for the nuisance of making a vast fortune in the UK. We are told that the Revenue are doing a good job getting something out of these corporate fat cats as the alternative is worse.

Oh what an unfair world we live in. As Simon Jenkins made clear yesterday.

“Why the hell should people be expected to lose their jobs, their houses, their lifestyles, when the government is a soft touch for the rich and powerful? This is not a matter of left or right, socialist or capitalist. Britons are now embarking on a journey into a dark night of economic gloom. Nothing will make them less inclined to co-operate than the sight of a lucky few rowing to safety in gold-plated lifeboats.”

“Today's report on the tax leniency shown by the Revenue towards big corporations indicates that toughness towards the poor is not replicated by toughness towards the rich. The estimate was of some £25bn in taxes gone missing, the bulk of it concealed by an insistence on "commercial confidentiality", otherwise known as incompetent secrecy.”

Simon Jenkins, Guardian 20/12/11

By way of contrast have a listen to the distress a self-employed person was put through by the same Revenue. He spoke at length on the excellent Victoria Derbyshire show yesterday. How he had to spend £58,000 to prove that he had done nothing wrong. A process which crippled his business and left him in a psychological mess. He was not alone. Thousands and thousands of British Citizens can relate their stories of Revenue Hell. But they are not giant mega corps with tricksy lawyers.

Dave Hartnett, the incompetent, supine, stupid (or corrupt) head of the Revenue struggled to justify his systematic groveling to the powerful when he was hauled before the Commons Public Accounts Committee recently.

A numpty from No. 10 yesterday disputed the findings of the report. He claimed that it was not like that. As No. 10 has very close relationships with many of these tax avoiders it was not exactly a surprise. Many of them pay good money into Tory party coffers. They do not do this out of the goodness of their hearts or the purity of their morals. They do it from the depths of their wallets.

So Mr No.10 Spokesman. What you said was bollocks. Not just ordinary bollocks, but complete and utter bollocks. It was also deeply unfair and very revealing. But not a surprise.

Here is Mark Steel writing in The Independent with the final word.

“This is all for our benefit, because we have to be prepared to pay the global market rate for thieving bastards, otherwise they’ll leave the country and thieve from somewhere else, and THEN where would we be?”

2011-12-20T21:25:00.000Z

Compare and contrast

What do the Harry Hardnoses and Phil Spaces who churn their living writing celebrity drivel for the tabloids feel when they read about the killing of yet another Russian journalist?

Do they consider themselves members of the same profession? Do they feel an ounce of empathy? Do they reflect on how far they have slid from their idealistic beginnings?

As The Independent reported on Saturday, “In a brazen attack that again highlights the danger many Russian journalists face for attempting to report the truth, the founder of an independent newspaper was shot dead in what appears to have been an ordered killing.

An assailant shot Khadzhimurad Kamalov 14 times late on Thursday night as he left the offices of Chernovik, the newspaper he founded and one of the few independent media voices in the troubled southern republic of Dagestan. The killer fled in a Lada, and Mr Kamalov died on the way to hospital.

He is the latest in a long line of journalists to be killed in Russia, in crimes that are rarely solved.“

‘Killed for attempting to report the truth.” Not ‘the truth’ about who is having an affair or going into rehab, but ‘the truth’ about the actions and skullduggery of people in power.

All the time the tabloids concentrate on celebrity, royalty and sexual shenanigans, they leave the political class free and unmonitored. Free to continue doing harm. Free to continue feathering their nests. Free to take us into illegal wars. Free to collude with torture and rendition.

2011-12-19T09:24:00.004Z

Kim Jung il? No, Kim Jung dead. Weep for your lives!

Pity the poor souls of North Korea. They live in the most benighted country on the planet. It is totalitarian in the extreme. Starvation and lack of heating are commonplace. The military rule with an iron fist. The cult of the supreme leader prevails. It is like living through a never-ending Stalinist purge of the 1930’s.

Desperately poor, malnourished and hypothermic, the North Korean citizen must nevertheless appear cheerful. To appear sad would normally indicate knowledge of reality to the authorities and lead to one being taken away to a correction camp.

Today the situation has suddenly changed. The Dear Leader has died. It is a time for mass outpouring of simulated grief. Weeping, wailing and mourning must be done - and seen to be done. Anyone not weeping and showing extreme grief will be regarded as an enemy of the state and sent away. Some to be shot.

The people are weeping as if their very lives depend on it. Which they do.

2011-12-18T18:02:00.002Z

£4.5 million pay-off

Yet another scandal from the NHS. This time it is a Doctor hounded and bullied by the senior management at Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust. The tribunal who awarded the massive payout delivered a scathing assessment of the senior managers at the hospital. They were, “Positively outraged by the way this employer has behaved.”

So will heads roll? Only if enough folks are equally outraged. The payout is money that should have gone into patient care.

The problem unfortunately goes much deeper. It is symptomatic that NHS Managers’ first reaction to a problem is to deny it. The next step is to pillory the person who pointed out the problem. This is tackled in one of two ways: the first is to buy them off with a good payout including a ‘confidentiality agreement.’ These are supposed to be illegal in the NHS......Oh yeah.

The second method is to identify the whistleblower as the problem. “Cannot be a team player,” “untrustworthy”, “unreliable,” “bully” and ‘troublemaker” are all used to belittle, denigrate and humiliate someone who is acting on behalf of patients. Sackings and disciplinary action are common. The outrageous happenings in Mid Yorkshire are not unusual. There are far too many instances of this treatment for it not to be systematic. Anyone unconvinced should read Private Eye which has devoted considerable, unchallenged column inches to the issue.

Bad as all this is, there is an even bigger problem. The recent shocking revelations of how the elderly, those suffering from dementia and too many ‘average’ patients are being appallingly treated in too many hospitals brings disgrace onto a national institution. It also must be so dispiriting to work with people who are abusers or uncaring.

One of the solutions to this mess is to promote whistleblowers. It needs to be enshrined in contracts and conditions of service that within the NHS there is a duty to report wrongdoing and malpractice. To say nothing is to collude with the sinners. To not act should be a disciplinary matter.

Another simple and easily implemented improvement is to empower a matron-like figure at every level who has as their sole function the duty of patient care. Any nurse or carer falling below acceptable standards should have the opportunity for some re-training. A second similar offence would result in immediate dismissal. Some of the recent revelations would qualify for instant dismissal. This to apply at all levels.

The NHS is one of the greatest creations of our time. The principle of care being available to all, no matter what their means is brilliant. It is a principle which the Tory party and, to their eternal shame, NewLabour undermined. Lansley is so far in bed with sleazy private medicine that only the tip of his snout is visible. These shocking revelations play into the Tory’s hands.

Anyone thinking that we would be better off under private medicine should take a look across the Atlantic. 40 million American citizens do not have access to medical care. The man who took home the biggest wage last year in the States ($175 million) was the chief exec of a private medicine company. Enough said.

Reform = yes. Privatisation = no!

2011-12-17T09:46:00.000Z

Shame on you Obama

The treatment of Bradley Manning has been nothing short of disgraceful. The man is about to be tried for leaking secret information to Wikileaks. He has been held in solitary confinement for months. During that time he has had his sleep regularly and routinely interrupted. He has been subjected to degradation and humiliation from a military that clearly believes Law and Order does not apply to the mightiest military machine on earth. The military’s deeds in this case appear to contradict the wishes of the founding fathers, who worried about their armed forces becoming too powerful. So much so they enshrined the need for the military to be subordinate to Congress in the Constitution. Remember all this has taken place before his trial. He is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty.

One of the items allegedly released was disgraceful and shocking video footage of the crew of a helicopter gunship. They casually gunned down several innocent civilians in Iraq including two journalists and children. One of the reporters had a camera. The gung-ho murderers masquerading as highly trained soldiers thought the camera was a rocket launcher. What was worst of all was the casual disregard the killers displayed towards the lives of the people they were slaughtering from their safe place in the sky. The dialogue accompanying the film clips was chilling.

Manning is charged with breaches of secrecy and bringing the good ole U S of A into disrepute around the world.

No.

Not so.

It is the actions of ill-trained numbskulls murdering innocent people from gunships. And it is the routine covering-up of such events.

It is the use of similar numbskulls to launch drone attacks on men, women and children in Afghanistan or Pakistan, putting an end to any chance of a ‘hearts and minds’ approach.

It is the abomination of Guantanamo.

It is the disgrace of Abu Graibh.

It is the trillions of dollars spent killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis so that Big Oil can get its greedy mitts on their oil.

It is spending trillions of dollars on illegal wars when the country back home is broke.

It is the collusion with all of the above by a President who promised to make things so much better after the reign of the Bush Gang.

Shame on you Obama. Shame on you America.

Even more dismaying is seeing current Republican candidates who are far, far worse.

2011-12-16T17:10:00.000Z

LibDem Turkeys

It has just been announced on the PM programme that Nick Clegg has phoned the French Government to complain about the tone of recent comments attacking the UK and the City.

Stand by for waves of laughter washing across the channel. As Ian Bell wrote in yesterdays Herald:

“Mr Clegg is in a ludicrous position. The leader of the most explicitly Europhile Westminster party has been complicit in the most reckless of eurosceptic gestures. The party that supposedly wants Britain at the heart of Europe, as a matter of principle, has allowed Britain to be pushed to the margins.

Subsequent LibDem "protests" have been laboured or preposterous. If Mr Clegg thought he could satisfy anyone by going into hiding while Mr Cameron faced the Commons he truly does believe voters are dummies. His colleagues have been equally fatuous. They can huff and puff: everyone knows they will not quit the Coalition. No price is now too high.

Their choice is simple: shut up and play along with the Tory script or face annihilation at the polls. That being so, however, it is no longer enough to say that the Lib Dems have exhausted every last reason they ever had for being in government. That was true, in every important respect, before the veto row. Mr Clegg's only real remaining role in political life is to make Mr Cameron's brand of Conservatism possible.

How is that defined as the national interest from any conceivable Liberal Democrat perspective? The claim that Mr Clegg and his colleagues would exploit their positions in Government to restrain the Tories has been exposed, once and for all, as nonsense. One by one, the "worst excesses", the excesses the Liberal Democrats were supposed to prevent, are happening.

There is no way back for Mr Clegg. He can stagger on to the next General Election, but his fate, and his party's fate, is sealed. He has no more crumbs of comfort to offer even to the most blindly loyal of his remaining supporters.

Ed Miliband and Labour would be well advised, then, to have nothing to do with this toxic brand. Flirting with the Liberal Democrats will not be well received by the mass of voters who have seen enough and heard enough”.Ian Bell Herald 15/12/11

There is one hope for the LibDem turkeys trying to avoid Christmas. It is that something will turn up.........

Telling off the French from a positively puny position is not it.

2011-12-12T21:29:00.000Z

Peel back a layer

Sometimes a stone is lifted and what lies buried underneath emerges into the light. Such a moment came over the weekend when news of a Tory MP and a stag party came out. The right wing of the Tory party are pretty unappealing at the best of times but given the boost they think they have had by Cameron’s veto, they are even more repugnant than usual. Fortunately, one of their redeeming features is that they are mainly quite thick.

That is one explanation of why the chants of ‘Hitler, Hitler, Hitler’ with folk (or should that be volk?) dressed up as SS officers was thought to be so amusing.

Another possibility is that they are fascists masquerading as democrats.

2011-12-11T19:51:00.000Z

The Right Honourable David Blunkett

Before the NewLabour landslide of 1997, Blunkett had built a well-deserved reputation as a man of good sense and strong values.

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Following on from his ‘unfortunate’ imbroglios in government, when he achieved the unusual distinction of having to resign twice, he sought alternative employment to boost his paltry MPs salary. One of his nice little earners was to accept a £50,000 per year contract with News International (file under ‘You couldn’t make it up - Private Eye) to act as an advisor for corporate social responsibility. Bearing in mind what happened subsequently, it appears Murdoch wasted his money.

He also has an occasional column for The Times, worth £5000 pa and before October 2009 he wrote a column for the Sun worth around £45,000 pa.

He is reputedly one of the highest earning MPs reportedly on nearly a million a year. He represents Sheffield Brightside, one of the poorest constituencies in the country. He is less than candid about his financial affairs.

He has recently threatened the Observer with m’learned friends and reported them to the Leveson Inquiry for having the temerity to question him about a reported pay-off from the self-same News International of £300,000 in the phone hacking saga.

Aren’t these confidentiality agreements brilliant? He probably will not have to declare it on the MPs Register of Interests. Why the hell not?

He has become a lot less candid about all sorts of things, including his role in changing the advice to British agents about the use of torture in the ‘war on terror’. He even maintained it was potentially libellous even to ask him questions about the matter.

What a hero of the people. What a bastion of democracy. What a defender of civil liberties.

What a hypocritical bastard.

Yet another who has tasted the sweet life and taken the devil’s shilling.

Like so many of his NewLabour cronies, Blunkett wrote an autobiography. It did not sell well. In it he had the following priceless observation about his venal chum, Mandy. Peter Mandelson was "in love with himself". "His tragedy", explained David, was that he "lacked self-awareness".

2011-12-10T20:30:00.000Z

Whose Interest?

Cameron claimed he was acting in the national interest when he vetoed our involvement in the EU Treaty early on Friday morning. Much is still to emerge from the spinning and counter-spinning. One fact is clear. The deeply unattractive europhobic wing of his party are happy. That to any rational being must be a cause for concern. Dinner with 30 of his backbenchers last night reinforces the impression that the veto was done on their behalf. Cameron cited protecting the City as a major reason for his objection.

As Nicholas Faith, writing in today’s Independent makes clear, the City is not a friendly or effective bedmate.

“Let us hope that the City – and above all the hedge funds which contributed so generously to the Tory war chest – are happy.

For in the early hours of yesterday, David Cameron made it clear that the well-being of London's financial community was a vital element in Britain's economic well-being. So crucial, in fact, that it formed the key reason – or was it just a convenient excuse? – for the decision to ruin our relationship with the European Union, and above all with its dominant forces, France and Germany.

Cameron's veto of the EU treaty change needed to save the euro could prove an exceedingly expensive gamble, politically and economically for him – and indeed for the whole country. It also turns the spotlight on what the City can do in return for the Prime Minister's loyalty. In theory, it should lead the City to help the rest of a country that has taken such a risk on its behalf. But this would set a historic precedent in 2,000 years which, unfortunately, show that London has always been a selfish, insular place invariably independent from the rest of the country, looking abroad for its living, and perfectly capable of ignoring the wishes of successive governments up-river in distant Whitehall, let alone the needs of the wider economy by providing funds for industrial development.

The City's neglect is based on a fundamental inability to think long term, for the Square Mile has always been a home for traders rather than investors.

....For centuries, the greed and short-sightedness of the City's denizens have made them a target: in the 18th century, Jonathan Swift described the jobbers as "traders waiting for shipwrecks in order to strip the dead". Alexander Pope was just as sharp: "There's London's voice, 'get money, get money'." The industrial revolution emphasised that the rest of the country lacked any real business connection with London. In the 19th century, great manufacturing cities – Birmingham, Manchester, Middlesbrough – boomed thanks to local finance. The biggest absorbers of capital, the railways, were originally financed by Quakers in the north east and by what was called the "Liverpool interest". As soon as the City got involved, there was the usual pattern of recurrent financial crises. For most of London's company promoters were crooked. During the 19th century, the London markets became steadily less connected with commercial reality. As the great Nathan Meyer Rothschild put it: "I am no trader in goods." By the end of century, the City was investing money everywhere from US railroads to the railway networks of Argentina, often with disastrous results, rather than at home.”

Judging by recent events, nothing has changed. Greedy chancers who are little better than the gamblers found at a racetrack brought the world to its knees. It is these self-same chancers that Cameron is in hock to.

This ConDem coalition has talked a lot about putting curbs on excessive bonuses and salaries.

It has done bugger-all.

National interest?

2011-12-08T11:06:00.000Z

Hen Harriers - another casualty of the rich

A spokesman from the RSPB was on R4 this morning telling us that these magnificent birds are in danger of going extinct in England. They were reduced to four breeding pairs last year. Having been lucky enough to see them in Islay it is bad news. Many more people should have the opportunity to see these wonderful creatures quartering the ground as they hunt for prey.

What makes this far worse is that their reduction in numbers has not been brought about by natural forces. The decline is down to unscrupulous keepers working for shooting estates. The RSPB man kept his mouth shut on this point - why? There is a long history of persecution because Hen Harriers do take grouse chicks. Experiments have been tried on a couple of estates which offer the Harriers alternative food at bird tables near their nests. It works well. The Harriers do not take Grouse chicks.

Many of the shooting estates manage their estates in a way that gives their clients ‘a total experience’. Accommodation, fishing and shooting are all relatively labour intensive. It is perfectly normal to pay £15,000 for a pair of shotguns. A days shooting can set you back £1500, it is not a cheap sport.

This is probably why it is the haunt of men with willies the size of a peanut and brains to match. Whether inherited or acquired ‘through the city’ they have money to burn. To prove their manhood they slaughter lots of red grouse, which have been specially reared and protected to meet the demand. Hence the persecution of the Hen Harrier. Unseen and unknown - apart from the keeper - nests are trampled on and eggs destroyed. Why bother using poison (which some have and been caught) when a size ten welly can do the job?

These estates benefit enormously from the EU cash cow that is the CAP. One of the criteria to get these handouts is that estates are supposed to ensure the protection and preservation of endangered species. The figures speak. There should be 300+ pairs of Hen Harriers in England. There are 4.

Unless and until the estate owners end up in court for having Harriers killed, very little will change.

Don’t hold your breath. Cameron is a friend of the landed gentry. And so are many of his chums.

2011-12-05T22:26:00.000Z

Welcome to Dystopia

Shortly after switching off the very dark Black Mirror last night reality burst in. The C4 programme entitled “National Anthem,” set up the situation where a Royal Princess (think Kate Middleton) had been kidnapped. The person holding her hostage has a weird ransom demand. The Prime Minister, (think David Cameron), very credibly played by Rory Kinnear, has to have intercourse with a pig, live on tv at 4-00pm. The assessment of our media, the internet, politicians and ‘the public interest’ was provocative, well acted and credible. Billed as a satire it was a bleak reflection of the way our society operates. Hence the ‘Black Mirror.’

A few minutes later an online website reported on the following case from Kent. A one month old baby boy had been raped and seriously injured - all his ribs had been broken and he was seriously ill in hospital. Yes, horrible but true, a one month old baby boy had been raped. Two adults had been arrested and then released on bail. A vigil had been held outside the baby’s home when the cry had gone up that the adults involved were at a house nearby. What had been a vigil swiftly became a mob. Windows were broken and the police were called to quell the violence.

A grimly powerful drama had been overtaken by an even grimmer reality.

Dystopia = an imaginary place where everything is as bad as it possibly can be; the opposite of utopia.

2011-12-04T11:18:00.000Z

Dowlympics

On the night of December 2-3 in 1984, a poisonous gas leak from Union Carbide India Ltd's pesticide plant in Bhopal killed more than 15,000 people and maimed half a million more. Though the Indian government initially demanded $3.3 billion as compensation, it scaled it down to $500 million and ultimately agreed to Supreme Court supervised settlement for receiving $ 470 million in 1989 as full and final compensation from UCC. Times of India 3/12/11

This sum has been seen as derisory in the circumstances. There has been a long-running campaign to get the 2nd biggest chemical company in the world to pay more towards the victims and to clean up the toxic nightmare that is the legacy of the incident. The Indian Supreme Court weighed in on the side of campaigners. However, efforts to make Dow Chemicals pay more have been met with contempt. The Company issued a terse statement last week saying it does not recognise the Supreme Court of India as it has no jurisdiction over Dow. It also maintains the incident happened a long time before they took over Union Carbide so ‘nowt to do with us, squire’.

This is a company with form. During the Vietnam War, the good ole USA sprayed thousands of gallons of highly toxic defoliant on the jungles in Vietnam. It was known as Agent Orange. Not only did this cause an environmental disaster it also seriously affected any person coming into contact with it including military personnel who worked with the chemicals. And who made this lethal toxic spray? Step forward Dow Chemical and Monsanto.

A series of class action suits on behalf of Vietnam veterans and more recently, Vietnamese people damaged by their contact with Agent Orange, have struggled to get anywhere against the might and wealth of these companies.

It has not stopped the company being deemed ‘fit and proper’ to sponsor the wrap - a series of panels which will go completely round the Dowlympic stadium. The company relishes the opportunity to associate itself with healthy, fit athletes. You betcha!

“Yesterday Coe and the London organising committee board rejected a call from a fellow board member and mayor of the Borough of Newham, Sir Robin Wales, to cancel Dow Chemical's sponsorship of the Olympic wrap.

Following their meeting, the Locog board said in a statement to Telegraph Sport that it had awarded Dow the sponsorship after a "rigorous procurement process with due consideration of its financial and reputational standing and its ability to deliver the best sustainable solution for the wrap". Telegraph 3/12/11

“Now his Olympic committee is facing a threat that would horrify any event manager. If it doesn't cut ties with Dow, protesters have vowed to hold their own "Bhopal Olympics" during the London games - an event contested by children with congenital disabilities attributed to the Bhopal gas leak.” Sports Illustrated 2/12/11

Dow’s mission statement: ‘To passionately innovate what is essential to human progress by providing sustainable solutions to our customers" with the vision: "To be the most profitable and respected science-driven chemical company in the world".

2011-12-02T16:08:00.000Z

Afghan woman jailed for being raped to be freed - if she marries her attacker

“An Afghan woman jailed for adultery after she was raped by a relative is set to be freed – but only after agreeing to marry the man who attacked her.” Guardian 2/12/11 President Karzai ordered her to be released on condition she become the second wife of her rapist.

It is good to know our boys are dying for such a noble cause.

2011-12-01T09:18:00.000Z

All in this together....?

The Autumn Statement laid that lie to rest. The Toxic Tories are back. And how.

Strip away the rhetoric and guff and what remains? An attack on the poorest in our society to help pay for the excesses of the richest. There was much talk of austerity and the need for belt-tightening......but not for the rich. Austerity and belt-tightening are for the poor and the powerless.

Search through the small print and there is nothing about the rich paying their share. Tax avoidance and evasion? Nothing - apart from the fact that a further 12,000 tax inspectors are being laid off. Tax on property over £1m? Nothing - again despite stamp duty on such properties being routinely avoided by the use of offshore havens. Bankers still pay themselves obscene bonuses. They can relax. Nothing further will go to the victims of their excesses. The footsie top 100 companies paid their directors an average 49% more and also increased their pensions too. The boss of Barclays pays himself 75 times the amount an average Barclays worker earns but can have peace of mind that the tax system is firmly on his side. The Tobin tax on financial transactions has been ruled out.

Meanwhile back in austerity land.......

Osborne angered the public sector by holding down pay rises to 1% over the next two years when inflation is currently over 5% and rising. This follows two years of zero pay rises. Many public sector workers are among the lowest paid and 73% are women. A further 700,000 are expected to lose their jobs in the next couple of years.

Then there are the children.

Barnardo’s described the statement as, “A desperate state of affairs when the government’s own analysis shows that a further 100,000 children will be pushed into poverty as a result of tax and benefit changes announced today.” There are already 300,000 children in poverty as a result of Osborne’s previous cuts.

Disgraceful and shaming.

Polly Toynbee summed up the situation in The Guardian yesterday:

“The gap between what they say and do is now exposed. The injustice of how the pain has been shared is breath-taking. A windfall taking just one year's bank bonuses would pay for all the cuts in youth services and the EMA for the next 23 years. That's just one example. Osborne is fatally wrong on the economy, as his deficit target slips by two years in just the past eight months. But even if his straitjacket were necessary, the pain would be politically acceptable only if justly shared. The Bullingdon budget tears the last veil of deceit, leaving the nasty party naked for all to see. But every school will get its King James Bible with Michael Gove's presumptuous foreword: is prayer all that's left?”

Meanwhile, what about the Liberals? What are they doing about this attack on the poor? How do they feel about the lack of commitment to tackling tax evasion?

“The parties agree that tackling tax avoidance is essential for the new government, and that all efforts will be made to do so, including detailed development of Liberal Democrat proposals.” Coalition Agreement, May 2010

As the Autumn Statement makes clear - that is just so much bollocks.

2011-11-30T18:27:00.000Z

Pensions and the rich

There has never been a public sector pension fund. It is a 'notional' fund run by a government actuary who is supposed to weigh up the figures and then make recommendations. It was really an extra tax on the public sector when private pension schemes were still well run and not robbed by thieves like Maxwell. For example, the then British rail pension fund paid for itself. So many had contributed for so long and it had been well invested, the workers no longer needed to pay any more into it to get their pension. Now whatever happened to all that lovely money when the railways were privatised......?

Now that many private pensions have been shafted and fallen below the level of some (not all by any means) public schemes there are howls of outrage stoked up by a compliant media who

a) should say how much they are on before they comment

b) Scumbag tories who love a bit of union bashing - a very easy target.

c) Scumbag tories and their illiberal chums who seek to divide and rule. It takes the heat off the real villains...........

.............the bankers and financiers who caused the mess - and who should be paying towards the clear up - but have you seen any moves? No? Odd that. It could not have anything to do with who pays the bulk of the Scumbag party’s funds.....could it?

2011-11-29T12:22:00.002Z

Expenses Cheat Gove and Maude the Fraud

Is there no limit to the amount of brass neck these two miscreants display? Millionaire Maude moved his second home 300 yards away his London property so he could claim even more cash from the taxpayer. Gove had to pay back £7.5 k in wrongly claimed expenses.

They both lecture the poor in our society about how they should behave and can be heard currently urging public sector workers ‘to act responsibly.’ What a wonderful example of responsible behaviour they displayed. Shame our supine media do not prefix any announcement from these two paragons with the above reminder of what they are.

Before they utter any more hypocritical nonsense, they should take a good look in the mirror.

Raspberries all round.

2011-11-28T11:49:00.000Z

A view from Scotland

“It was revealed that more than 50,000 people in Glasgow will struggle to put food on the table this Christmas, having been fleeced by unscrupulous lenders. The banks won't touch these people and so they are driven into the hands of loan sharks or finance companies which our governments allow to charge obscene interest rates.

The banks' values are now solely underpinned by the values of greed and avarice. They sell us a lie that they must continue to pay Luciferean bonuses so that they can attract "the world's best financiers". It is as if the knowledge of working the markets is known only to a few anointed necromancers who have studied at the feet of the Father of Lies to gain aptitude at their fell art. Total pish. It's easy to take risks on the markets with a half-decent economics higher and billions of other people's money, secure in the knowledge that you'll never be penalised or prosecuted when you fail, as fail you must.

In Scotland today, more than 100,000 young people are unemployed, more than ever before. This evil is not even deemed worthy of comment by the Bullingdon Club chancers English voters put in Downing Street. As this was announced, George Osborne, a man you can imagine in a Beefeater's hat and a redcoat demanding tithes and a night with your wife, warns companies to stay away from Scotland over uncertainties about independence. He just added another few thousand to the unemployment figures in Scotland. And another few thousand who will now vote yes in the independence referendum.

Don't kid yourself that all this misery facing the poor is an unfortunate but unavoidable byproduct of the "recession". In large parts of Britain, recessions don't occur. In the past 30 years, which, by my calculations, have witnessed three economic recessions, top executive pay has increased by 4,000%. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers have lost their jobs, not because their firms were in trouble, but because they had only made £5m that year instead of £7m. The "recession" is something "top executives" invent when they want to take your job and increase their pensions.

Wednesday's strike action by public sector workers is long overdue. It will not, as David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Osborne claim, cost the country millions. It will inconvenience some of us for a day or so. We won't lose our jobs and be prevented from putting a turkey on the table because of it. That's already happened because of the greed, corruption and negligence of bankers and the governments which turned a blind eye to it all. The right to strike is a noble and dignified tool that workers can use when bosses and the government have taken the piss once too often. I'll be backing the public sector workers. The government ought to be thankful that they will endure a mere day of peaceful protest and not the violent uprising they probably deserve.” Kevin McKenna Observer 27/11/11

2011-11-25T14:27:00.000Z

Colluding with Madness

There are times in a persons life when difficult decisions have to be made - often in a moment. The consequences either way can be devastating. For instance, there is a momentum gathering about a deeply shaming episode from the Iraq invasion. More and more stones are being turned over and the scale of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners continues to grow. The MOD and the Army stand accused at best of being ignorant of what some troops were getting up to - and therefore incompetent. At worst, willfully blind eyes were turned and warnings ignored all the way to the top of Government. This means you, Blair, Hoon and Straw. The mistreatment of prisoners is in breach of the Geneva Convention and the Human Rights Act. Not difficult to comprehend.

Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Mercer was the army’s chief legal adviser in Iraq. His warnings about the way prisoners were being treated were not only ignored, he was warned that he would be reported to the Law Society by his then boss. Shortly afterwards he was ‘sent into the wilderness.’

Whistleblowers from the NHS would recognise this situation as they too are frequently blamed as being ‘not one of us’ and therefore the problem. Patients lives are secondary to the culture. Warning about unsafe practices or dangerous doctors puts the person doing the warning in danger of losing their job. Or they are bought off with a large payment and a ‘confidentiality agreement.’ A most unsatisfactory way to run a public service.

Iraqi prisoners were not protected and the ethical ambivalence at the top of the MOD/Government meant troops operated in a moral vacuum. Now the reckoning has begun and all those who sat on their hands and kept their mouths shut are busily engaged in an arse covering exercise.

Whether it is Baha Moussa or Stafford General the process is similar. Bad Practice, Collusion, Cover up, Report and....... Lessons Learned. Oh Yeah. Whistleblowers or warners are ostracised or sacked. Those who establish the culture emerge unscathed and unaccountable. Hundreds of others inhabiting the same culture are demeaned and maligned by implication.

What damage is done to those who knew what was going on was wrong yet did nothing? For every person prepared to put their head above the parapet there are nine others who keep their heads down. How do those silent ones live with themselves? What does it do to their psyche?

Governments of all persuasions mouth platitudes about supporting whistleblowers but do nothing to establish it as a necessary part of every job. To not report something should be the offence. The emphasis needs shifting.

Collusion with madness should be unusual, not the norm.

2011-11-22T22:51:00.000Z

Paying for our politics

The news that all three major political parties in England and Wales expressed unhappiness at the Report into Party Funding which came out today will not be a surprise to anyone who has followed their recent activities.

For Labour we have Mr Blair and his cash for honours, where wealthy men paid the Labour Party vast sums of money so they could sit in the House of Lords. We also have a long record of union bosses toadying up to Labour too. Giving them millions from their unaware members. Odd they continue to do this - they have achieved so little for all their donations. Bernie Ecclestone gave them a million and they dropped the plan to remove tobacco advertising from Grand Prix cars. So it works - for the rich.

The Liberals used to be reasonably squeaky clean on this issue - but that was in the days before convicted fraudster Michael Brown gave them £2 million. Having squirmed and wriggled and not returned the money, they stand as sheepishly as a shepherd caught en flagrante with a sheep.

Then there are the Tories.......Who receive vast sums from their chums in the City and who have done bugger all to rein in the Bankers. Who receive enormous amounts from corporate funders who avoid paying their taxes in the UK. Who are fighting the imposition of a Robin Hood tax because their mates don’t like it even though it would help ease our problems significantly. Who have in their cabinet a bunch of millionaires who like to get up close and personal to the wealthy and barking such as the right wingers and arms dealers met by Mr Fox and his chum Werritty. So they get their offices paid for. And staff. And travel. All out of the goodness of their hearts - bless!

Our democracy is broken.

Relying on this present bunch of venal, short-sighted, undemocratic bubble-dwellers to do anything constructive is a non-starter.

The idea that we should pay for political parties seems wrong. Why should we pay for the likes of Alistair Campbell, Derek McBride and Andy Coulson, to do their dirty work smearing and bullying decent folk, suppressing truth and being an affront to transparency?

Go back to basics. Parties to rely on the subscriptions of their members to fund party workers etc. No membership to be more than £100 , with the vast majority fixed at £10. To get that money they would have to get out and about and actually meet real people. Go ‘on the knocker‘ as it used to be called, and involve people from the ground up. They would also have to cut their garment according to their cloth. It may even persuade some of the bubble-dwellers that they have better things to do with their time than meeting real people with real issues.

So goodbye Special Advisers, goodbye ‘researchers‘ and ‘interns‘ and hello root, branch and stem democracy. Welcome back a beefed-up civil service who forego the ‘not one of us‘ approach beloved of Thatcher and who put the needs of the country first.

Pie in the sky? Maybe - but it would be a damn sight better than what we have now.

2011-11-19T09:28:00.000Z

Rewarding the Rich

Watching Osborne smugly describing his giveaway of Northern Rock as, “A good deal for the taxpayer,” was more than usually annoying. The millionaire chancellor was giving another millionaire many millions of public money.

According to UK Uncut, Branson and Virgin are serial tax avoiders.

Which makes the whole thing a lot lot worse.

Smug Osborne must have known this but it didn’t merit consideration because in the strata they occupy, that is what you do.

Meanwhile there are over 1 million young people out of work with little or no immediate prospects.

2011-11-17T13:09:00.000Z

Tory Toerags

It’s the little things. Listening to a friend describe how he could no longer get a cataract fixed on the NHS until his other eye deteriorated was only the beginning. He could of course go private and get it done within a few weeks. Welcome back queue jumping. Many happy returns pennywise pound foolish thinking. What bliss it must be to be a tory at such times. What agony it must be to be a decent Liberal in bed with them knowing they will take the rap.

Chris Grayling, arch tory toerag, described the figure of 1 million young people being unemployed as “A bit of a distraction.” What from? His other jobs? Sucking up to bankers?

It is a national disgrace that we condemn our young to penury and a lifetime possibly not knowing anything but the benefit culture and the black economy. Now it wont happen to the Jemimas and the Huberts because they will be supported by Mumsy and Dadsy as they do their internships and wangle their way into lucrative positions in finance or the media.

Knowing things are getting worse is no comfort. This bunch of ideologically driven incompetents do not inspire confidence. Neither is there any comfort in knowing that the other lot are any better. Today’s news that Northern Rock has been sold off to Virgin tax avoider Branson at a loss typifies the mess we are in.

Our political system is in a mess. No doubt the eviction of the occupy protesters from St Paul’s will reassure the right wing Phil Spaces and Glenda Slags writing in the Daily Hate. It will do nothing for reasonable people and rational debate.

It might just galvanise people to take more action themselves. It is time for a left-of centre party to emerge who are not in hock to the rich and nasty.

A little bit of civil disobedience could go a long way too.

2011-11-15T10:48:00.000Z

Corruption in Government

Jack Abramoff was sent to jail in the States for widespread corruption. He served three-and-a-half years of a six year sentence. He was stripped of his status as one of Washington’s best-connected and most powerful lobbyists. He has an insiders view of the way corruption works. He claims it as simple as saying to someone, “You know when you’re done working on the Hill, we’d very much like you to consider coming to work for us.” He said this in an interview on CBS television’s 60 minutes. “The moment I said that to them, that was it. We owned them. And what does that mean? Every request from our office, every request of our clients, everything that we want, they’re gonna do.” Independent 14/11/11

We do things a bit differently here. We have politicians openly ‘working’ for companies and investment trusts while they are an MP. David Blunkett has so many other engagements he is reputed to make nearly a million a year. William Hague has cut down on his outside activities but he has not stopped them all. Patricia Hewitt walked out of her job as health secretary straight into a series of non-executive directorships with private health care companies. There are many, many more.

Does it matter? You betcha!

Take this little nugget from the letters page of yesterdays Guardian about the privatisation of Hinchinbrooke Hospital. “The company recruited a former aide to health secretary Andrew Lansley as head of communications. Christina Lineen spent two years working for Lansley prior to him becoming health secretary. In addition , Conservative MP for Boston and Skegness Mark Simmonds, who was a minister when the healthcare reforms were drawn up, was paid £50,000 a year to work just 10 hours a month as ‘strategic adviser’ to Circle Healthcare.” Guardian 14/11/11

At the height of the expenses scandal, Lansley featured on Question Time. He did not go down well with the audience, with his claim that the extra £30,000 per year he received for attending 10 meetings a year, was value for money and helped him in his role as an MP. The company turned out to be a private health care concern. Seed corn.

It is no surprise to see that Lansley is sitting on a report examining the implications of his so-called reforms. Now why would he do that? The Information Commissioner has given him a further 30 days to comply and publish the report. Unfortunately, most of the votes on the bill will have been completed by then.

Our system is rotten through and through. Lansley and his cronies are among the rottenest of a deeply shitty bunch.

As Andrew Robertson, the author of the Guardian letter concluded, “Our democracy is broken.”

2011-11-14T17:58:00.000Z

EDF (Extremely Dodgy Firm)

“France's state energy firm EDF has been fined €1.5m by a Paris court for spying on Greenpeace. Its head of nuclear production security in 2006, Pascal Durieux, was given a three-year sentence with two years suspended, and a €10,000 fine for commissioning the spying. The Nanterre court also sentenced the security No 2 in 2006, Pierre-Paul François, to three years, 30 months suspended.

EDF has also been ordered to pay €500,000 in damages to Greenpeace.

The judge further handed down a guilty verdict on Thierry Lorho, head of Kargus, a firm employed by EDF to hack into Greenpeace's computers. He got three years in jail, two suspended, and a €4,000 fine.

EDF is the world's biggest nuclear energy supplier; it owns the UK nuclear power operator, British Energy, and is a major sponsor of the London Olympics. It was charged with complicity in concealing stolen documents and complicity to intrude on a computer network.” Guardian 10/11/11

Those of us with a cynical disposition will wonder at the lack of comment at this disreputable activity by a company who are earmarked to build a new set of nuclear reactors in the UK. There will be those who wonder too, why the behaviour of News International makes the headlines and this bunch of criminals does not. It cannot be dismissed as the ‘one rogue operative’ line so successfully parroted by News Corp for so long, until thanks to the Guardian, the wheels whizzed off. (Today we were told that 28 reporters at the Screws utilised the services of Glenn Mulcaire.)

How high up did it go in News International?

How high up did it go in EDF? Remember, this is a state energy firm, so one would expect the state to be more ethical.........or maybe not! Just remembered Rainbow Warrior sunk by French secret Agents in New Zealand.

Should colossal public money be going anywhere near such a bunch of crooks?

2011-11-13T17:50:00.000Z

'Stuffers' and 'Stuffed'

“ When you look at the average Conservative cabinet, you see two kinds of people: those who spent their schooldays stuffing other boys’ heads down the toilet, and those who spent their schooldays having their head stuffed down the toilet.”

So says George Monbiot in a profile in this month’s Word magazine.

Does this novel idea have any juice? What do you think?

Stuffers

Cameron: aka ‘Flashman’, recently revealed that stuffing is in his DNA with his ‘calm down dear’ comment to Angela Eagle and his double-entendre to Nadine Dorries at PMQ’s.

Osborne: Can swing both ways. Has Flashman qualities in spades yet was alleged to have been the butt of the Bullingdon Club.

Maude: would make an excellent lieutenant for a Dark Lord....if he isn’t one already.

Clarke: would do it with a smile

Fox - although recently defenestrated, had all the ‘qualities.’

Hunt: an acolyte of the really nasty.

Lansley: ditto

Huhne*: would he do it quicker?

Alexander*

Stuffed

Gove: no doubt about it. Form an orderly queue!

Letwin: probably would not notice it happening.

Hague: explains the jokes.

Pickles: he is getting his own back by punishing us, the public.

Duncan-Smith: ‘beware the quiet man’......hmmm.

Willetts: having two brains would not go down well.

Grieve

Young

Clegg* wants to be with the stuffers.

Cable*

* Liberals who fit the bill.

The jury is out on several who have too low a profile as yet to assess their stuffingness: Moore, Mitchell, Hammond and McLoughlin. Anyone with suggestions to add to the above or to amend them are welcome to email them to me so they can be added (if appropriate).

Among the handful of women, May and Warsi stand out. The obsession with May’s shoes reflects tory-boys love of a good dominatrix. (Is a ‘good dominatrix’ an oxymoron?) Warsi, on the other hand, is regarded as ‘too gobby,’ again reflecting tory-boys dislike of assertive women.

Monbiot goes on to lay the blame for most of our present ills at the door of boarding schools where this stuffing took place.

“The system which the dominant class has created - sending small children away at a very tender age, into somewhere where they cannot be properly loved - is a catastrophic system. Not just for them, but for everybody else. It creates a dominant class of people who have something missing and who will find ways of trying to fill that gap.That arises, I think, from a sense of rejection, from being sent away to what is basically an orphanage when you still have two living parents. That is a terrible blow to a child’s sense of self; you’ll always need to prove something to yourself from that point onwards. Unfortunately, what a lot of people appear to require is domination, and yes, it’s the domination of other people.” (ibid)

They need to remember though, that we are the 99%.

2011-11-12T10:44:00.000Z

The Poppy

What should be a straightforward matter of showing respect and support for servicemen who fought and died for our country has become more complex.

Poppies thrive on disturbed ground. No ground was more disturbed than the narrow slice of land over which most of the battles on the Western Front in World War 1 were fought. In several places land was captured and retaken several times. Conditions were grim. There is a story of a regiment arriving at such a place and being ordered to dig trenches, only to find that as they dug, they exposed the decomposing bodies of former casualties. Grim indeed. And out of this carnage the poppies bloomed.

Every village, town and city in the UK has war memorials from that war. 760,000 men from a population of 46million were killed. Many, many more were wounded and damaged. The dead were aged between 18 and 41. Within that age group the effect was shattering.

In the immediate aftermath of the war and as comprehension grew, there was a need to honour the fallen. The Unknown Soldier was given a state funeral and laid to rest among the great and the good from our history. Huge memorials to the missing such as Tyne Cot, Thiepval and the Menin Gate, were designed and built throughout the twenties.

The first Poppy Appeal was launched by the British Legion in November 1921. It was based on the poem written by John McCrae in 1915.

In Flanders' fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders' Fields.

Armistice Day and remembrance services, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month, were rigorously followed for many years. Everything stopped. Everything. Everywhere fell silent. Everywhere. And then over the years came the erosion until the day was held on the Sunday nearest to the 11th. Not the same. It gave an insight into the way governments pay lip-service to their troops. It also gave pause for thought about what exactly should a country do for its wounded and damaged veterans. Having been prepared to pay the ultimate price, why should these brave men and women rely on public handouts. Being prepared to risk other peoples lives should be a fiendishly difficult decision. It should also involve accepting the consequence of looking after what comes back - if necessary for the rest of their lives.

Harold Wilson upset the Americans by not getting involved in Vietnam. In his cabinet there were many who had seen combat at first hand and understood the implications. Compare that with Blair’s supine cabinet who seemingly were marginalised over the Iraq decision. None of them had war experience.

And as our wars have become more unpopular and illegal there are extra complications. Many people support the troops but not the war, particularly Iraq and less so Afghanistan.

Our recent actions have stirred up hostility, particularly in the middle east. Not surprisingly certain groups want to let us know. The decision to ban a group who included burning poppies among their tactics is worrying. Troops gave their lives so we have the freedom to cause offence.

This mornings leaked memo suggests that this current crop of politicians are following in Blair’s footsteps. While they publicly laud the bravery, quality and integrity of our troops, they secretly plan to make them redundant, including the wounded.

Last week had a report of an ex-veteran and his wife committing suicide together because they could not face life on a meagre pension.

“Wear your poppy with pride?” Maybe.

2011-11-11T12:27:00.000Z

How 1% screwed the world

George Monbiot, writing in the Guardian assembles a strong case for a re-think of how the world regards the mega-wealthy.

“The findings of the psychologist Daniel Kahneman, winner of a Nobel economics prize, are devastating to the beliefs that financial high-fliers entertain about themselves. He discovered that their apparent success is a cognitive illusion. For example, he studied the results achieved by 25 wealth advisers across eight years. He found that the consistency of their performance was zero. "The results resembled what you would expect from a dice-rolling contest, not a game of skill." Those who received the biggest bonuses had simply got lucky.

Such results have been widely replicated. They show that traders and fund managers throughout Wall Street receive their massive remuneration for doing no better than would a chimpanzee flipping a coin. When Kahneman tried to point this out, they blanked him. "The illusion of skill … is deeply ingrained in their culture."

“In a study published by the journal Psychology, Crime and Law, Belinda Board and Katarina Fritzon tested 39 senior managers and chief executives from leading British businesses. They compared the results to the same tests on patients at Broadmoor special hospital, where people who have been convicted of serious crimes are incarcerated. On certain indicators of psychopathy, the bosses's scores either matched or exceeded those of the patients. In fact, on these criteria, they beat even the subset of patients who had been diagnosed with psychopathic personality disorders.

The psychopathic traits on which the bosses scored so highly, Board and Fritzon point out, closely resemble the characteristics that companies look for. Those who have these traits often possess great skill in flattering and manipulating powerful people. Egocentricity, a strong sense of entitlement, a readiness to exploit others and a lack of empathy and conscience are also unlikely to damage their prospects in many corporations.” Guardian 7/11/11

This could explain why so many of these movers and shakers just ‘don’t get it.’ Without empathy why should they? Their culture values wealth and strength above compassion and care.

Unfortunately these heartless bastards have been helped enormously by their friends Thatcher and Reagan. Monbiot points out some telling facts and figures.

“What has happened over the past 30 years is the capture of the world's common treasury by a handful of people, assisted by neoliberal policies which were first imposed on rich nations by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. ...Between 1947 and 1979, productivity in the US rose by 119%, while the income of the bottom fifth of the population rose by 122%. But from 1979 to 2009, productivity rose by 80%, while the income of the bottom fifth fell by 4%. In roughly the same period, the income of the top 1% rose by 270%.” (ibid)

The de-regulation of the stock exchange commemorated recently happened 25 years ago when Thatcher was PM. This was alongside the de-mutualisation of Building Societies and ‘selling off the family silver.’

And there are still many Tory numbskulls who look back at those times with admiration.

2011-11-08T21:43:00.000Z

May, Balls and due process.

For someone with responsibility for Laura Norder in the Yew Kay, Mrs ‘look at my shoes’ May sets a very poor example. Castigating her head of the Borders Agency without giving the chap any right of reply harks back to star chamber justice. ‘Due process’ is a vital defence against the overmighty acting on a whim or creating a fall guy for their mistakes. It might be slower but it is fairer and it works.

Before Labour get all uppity about the matter they should scroll back through their mental filing system and recall how Balls ‘dealt with’ Sharon Shoesmith. Balls, like all good bullies, quickly bowed to tabloid pressure over the death of Baby P. He ignored a large file of evidence which pointed the finger at (among others) Guys Hospital and the Police

A scapegoat was needed so with much huffing and puffing one was provided. Shoesmith won her appeal mainly because due process was not followed. A large financial settlement is on the cards.

If the May/Balls school of management had to pay for their errors themselves, they may, just may, be a little bit more circumspect.

2011-11-06T19:28:00.000Z

The Global Arms Trade: Making a Killing

Andrew Feinstein is an ex South African MP who was appalled to see at first hand the way BAE ‘persuaded’ the ANC to spend £6bn on weapons they did not need when millions were dying of HIV/AIDS. He has written a book exposing the way the arms dealers do their sordid business, ‘The Shadow World - Inside The Global Arms Trade.’ The Sunday Herald published a very positive review today.

“There’s a memorable sequence at the start of the 2005 Hollywood blockbuster Lord Of War which shows a bullet’s-eye view of a bullet’s life cycle, from a manufacturing plant through various intermediaries until it ends up in the head of an African civilian via the chamber of a Kalashnikov.

The message is clear: arms don’t come from nowhere. From factory to gun, there is a path that is easy to trace for anyone with the will so to do. The fact is, as Andrew Feinstein explains in this remarkable and courageous book, that governments are so heavily involved in the deeply corrupt world of arms dealing that they turn a blind eye to the human cost and the damage they do to their own economic and moral integrity.”

Feinstein follows the careers of several leading dealers and exposes the way they are protected by security services and intelligence agencies. He also details the nefarious activities of the tories favourite, Margaret Thatcher.

“....the Al Yamamah arms deal, the biggest in the world, negotiated personally by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with the Saudi Royal family in 1985. It was an arms-for-oil deal worth £40 billion, benefiting the UK defence conglomerate BAE systems and, according to documents submitted to parliament by Tam Dalyell in 1994, the Iron Lady’s son, Mark Thatcher. Huge sums were paid in “commissions” and other kickbacks to Saudi Princes and shady intermediaries. More than £6bn was paid out, and some of it, according to Feinstein, even flowed through the accounts of the Saudi fixer, Prince Bandar, into the pockets of two of the terrorists responsible for 9/11.

Feinstein’s account of how the Serious Fraud Office was nobbled in its attempt to bring BAE to justice is deeply disturbing because of the insight it gives into the way that the entire British establishment has been subborned by decades-long complicity in the arms firm’s illegal activities.”

And who was that pillar of the establishment who ‘nobbled’ the SFO?

Step forward Reverend Tony Blair and take the opprobrium your seedy, disgusting, hypocritical actions merit.

The Herald review concludes, “We knew the arms business was corrupt, but only a book as exhaustively researched as this one is able to reveal just how serious and extensive this corruption really is, and how democracy itself is threatened. “The tragic reality,” Feinstein says, “is that arms companies, large and small, and arms dealers and agents, get away with corruption and bribery on a massive scale, complicity in crimes against humanity and even murder. They operate in a shadow world, taking advantage of gaps in the international legal system and hiding behind the protective cover of powerful politicians and intelligence agencies.”

“The Shadow World is a heroic book by an author who, in writing it, has placed himself in the firing line.” Sunday Herald 6/11/11

Remember the name: Andrew Feinstein.

2011-11-01T09:30:00.000Z

The City of London stinks

Many people will be totally unaware of just how rotten the City of London really is and how pervasive are its powers. A timely article by George Monbiot sets out the shocking facts. Here it is in its entirety.

“It's the dark heart of Britain, the place where democracy goes to die, immensely powerful, equally unaccountable. But I doubt that one in 10 British people has any idea of what the Corporation of the City of London is and how it works. This could be about to change. Alongside the Church of England, the Corporation is seeking to evict the protesters camped outside St Paul's cathedral. The protesters, in turn, have demanded that it submit to national oversight and control.

What is this thing? Ostensibly it's the equivalent of a local council, responsible for a small area of London known as the Square Mile. But, as its website boasts, "among local authorities the City of London is unique". You bet it is. There are 25 electoral wards in the Square Mile. In four of them, the 9,000 people who live within its boundaries are permitted to vote. In the remaining 21, the votes are controlled by corporations, mostly banks and other financial companies. The bigger the business, the bigger the vote: a company with 10 workers gets two votes, the biggest employers, 79. It's not the workers who decide how the votes are cast, but the bosses, who "appoint" the voters. Plutocracy, pure and simple.

There are four layers of elected representatives in the Corporation: common councilmen, aldermen, sheriffs and the Lord Mayor. To qualify for any of these offices, you must be a freeman of the City of London. To become a freeman you must be approved by the aldermen. You're most likely to qualify if you belong to one of the City livery companies: medieval guilds such as the worshipful company of costermongers, cutpurses and safecrackers. To become a sheriff, you must be elected from among the aldermen by the Livery. How do you join a livery company? Don't even ask.

To become Lord Mayor you must first have served as an alderman and sheriff, and you "must command the support of, and have the endorsement of, the Court of Aldermen and the Livery". You should also be stinking rich, as the Lord Mayor is expected to make a "contribution from his/her private resources towards the costs of the mayoral year." This is, in other words, an official old boys' network. Think of all that Tory huffing and puffing about democratic failings within the trade unions. Then think of their resounding silence about democracy within the City of London.

The current Lord Mayor, Michael Bear, came to prominence within the City as chief executive of the Spitalfields development group, which oversaw a controversial business venture in which the Corporation had a major stake, even though the project lies outside the boundaries of its authority. This illustrates another of the Corporation's unique features. It possesses a vast pool of cash, which it can spend as it wishes, without democratic oversight. As well as expanding its enormous property portfolio, it uses this money to lobby on behalf of the banks.

The Lord Mayor's role, the Corporation's website tells us, is to "open doors at the highest levels" for business, in the course of which he "expounds the values of liberalisation". Liberalisation is what bankers call deregulation: the process that caused the financial crash. The Corporation boasts that it "handle[s] issues in Parliament of specific interest to the City", such as banking reform and financial services regulation. It also conducts "extensive partnership work with think tanks … vigorously promoting the views and needs of financial services." But this isn't the half of it.

As Nicholas Shaxson explains in his fascinating book Treasure Islands, the Corporation exists outside many of the laws and democratic controls which govern the rest of the United Kingdom. The City of London is the only part of Britain over which parliament has no authority. In one respect at least the Corporation acts as the superior body: it imposes on the House of Commons a figure called the remembrancer: an official lobbyist who sits behind the Speaker's chair and ensures that, whatever our elected representatives might think, the City's rights and privileges are protected. The mayor of London's mandate stops at the boundaries of the Square Mile. There are, as if in a novel by China Miéville, two cities, one of which must unsee the other.

Several governments have tried to democratise the City of London but all, threatened by its financial might, have failed. As Clement Attlee lamented, "over and over again we have seen that there is in this country another power than that which has its seat at Westminster." The City has exploited this remarkable position to establish itself as a kind of offshore state, a secrecy jurisdiction which controls the network of tax havens housed in the UK's crown dependencies and overseas territories. This autonomous state within our borders is in a position to launder the ill-gotten cash of oligarchs, kleptocrats, gangsters and drug barons. As the French investigating magistrate Eva Joly remarked, it "has never transmitted even the smallest piece of usable evidence to a foreign magistrate". It deprives the United Kingdom and other nations of their rightful tax receipts.

It has also made the effective regulation of global finance almost impossible. Shaxson shows how the absence of proper regulation in London allowed American banks to evade the rules set by their own government. AIG's wild trading might have taken place in the US, but the unit responsible was regulated in the City. Lehman Brothers couldn't get legal approval for its off-balance sheet transactions in Wall Street, so it used a London law firm instead. No wonder priests are resigning over the plans to evict the campers. The Church of England is not just working with Mammon; it's colluding with Babylon. (my emphases)

If you've ever dithered over the question of whether the UK needs a written constitution, dither no longer. Imagine the clauses required to preserve the status of the Corporation. "The City of London will remain outside the authority of parliament. Domestic and foreign banks will be permitted to vote as if they were human beings, and their votes will outnumber those cast by real people. Its elected officials will be chosen from people deemed acceptable by a group of medieval guilds …".

The Corporation's privileges could not withstand such public scrutiny. This, perhaps, is one of the reasons why a written constitution in the United Kingdom remains a distant dream. Its power also helps to explain why regulation of the banks is scarcely better than it was before the crash, why there are no effective curbs on executive pay and bonuses and why successive governments fail to act against the UK's dependent tax havens.

But now at last we begin to see it. It happens that the Lord Mayor's Show, in which the Corporation flaunts its ancient wealth and power, takes place on 12 November. If ever there were a pageant that cries out for peaceful protest and dissent, here it is. Expect fireworks – and not just those laid on by the Lord Mayor.” George Monbiot, Guardian 1/11/11

2011-10-31T17:05:00.002Z

The only way is ethics

The latest to depart from the ongoing soap that is the running of St Paul’s is the Dean. There is increasing anxiety among the cathedral authorities that the Met will be violent (they do have form) and that will reflect badly on them. In this they are right. Their handling of the protest has been almost unanimously condemned. The backlash created by a violent clampdown will damage the church. Where the church should be seen to support the poor and the oppressed it will be seen to have nailed its colours to the flag of mammon.

Even some bankers are not happy. It is worth repeating that, even some bankers are not happy! Ken Costa who is an immensely rich banker and who funded the Alpha Course wrote the following in the Financial Times.(29/10/11) “I have been in the City since before the Big Bang whose 25th anniversary came this week. I have been through several recessions but I cannot recall the underlying sustained anger across all social levels – from dinner parties to demonstrations – aimed at bankers and the market economy as a whole.”

"When such a wide range of people are singing a tune perhaps discordant to a City worker's ears but seemingly in tune with the global view that the market economy has failed to deliver growth, jobs and hope, we need to listen. The cure is not more legislation, or increased regulation. It is the pressing need to reconnect the financial with the ethical." (My emphasis)

As Andrew Brown concluded in a Guardian online article today, "This need to reconnect the financial with the ethical is precisely the cause on which the protesters and the chapter of St Paul's are united, even when they disagree. It would be an act of insane folly if the Church of England were to disconnect them once again, and to take the side of money against ethics.”

Insane folly indeed.

2011-10-30T19:19:00.000Z

St Paul’s: Bad Timing and Bad Values

The Independent had a front page spread revealing that a report into the attitudes of city workers had been suppressed. It should have come out last Thursday but the clergy in charge of the current debacle thought it would look like they were on the side of the protestors. Now why would that be such a bad thing?

A clue lay in the depths of the article where the Rev Studdert-Kennedy, who had been asked to write a piece accompanying the launch of the report, revealed that he had been ‘astonished’ by the attitudes some city workers displayed. “I did speak to many people about morality. I was amazed by how many banking crises there had been and how sanguine people were about them. A number of people said ‘ this is just what happens - it’s the nature of banking, it’s the nature of capitalism.’ I was astonished that people didn’t try to learn a bit more.” Independent on Sunday 30/10/11

Why should they ‘try to learn a bit more’ when their mistakes are paid for by the rest of us? Why should they change their ways when those with the power are in hock to them and their money? Why should anything change in the current cosy world of high finance and why should they give a toss about the rest when they can pay each other massive rises?

Those who condemn the protestors as having no idea what to do should stand back and look at just how feeble (or corrupt) our system.

Listening to the Bishop of London patronising the protestors today further reinforced what an out of touch, arrogant and ineffective bunch the hierarchy at St Paul’s are. It is no wonder they suppressed the report. It would embarrass them in their dealings with their financial pals who support St Paul’s. That they are in bed with many in the city comes as no surprise but it shows just how far their values have travelled from those set out by Jesus.

It has been a PR disaster for the church but that is as nothing should the Met be unchained and let loose. There are many christians who are willing to form a ‘wall of prayer’ to defend the camp. Now that will cause some hand-wringing in the upper echelons.

2011-10-28T17:07:00.002+01:00

99%, 1% and 49%

We are the 99% who are paying for the greed, stupidity and arrogance of the 1%. Now we find that in these austere times the 1% have been paying each other 49% pay rises! Talk about two fingers to the lot of you.

Listening to one typical fat cat attempting to justify his massive income on the Today programme was very frustrating. Would that we could reach into the radio and give him a slap. Or many, many slaps being as they are so thick-skinned they would not notice to begin with. Or a ‘Goodbye and Good Riddance’ card.

Their argument is that they are sooooo talented they can whizz off around the world and will be welcomed with open arms........ Oh yeah.

It is what they always say. Do not hold your breath waiting for millionaire Cameron, millionaire Clegg or millionaire Osborne to do anything. They are of the same stock.

The atmosphere in the UK would be a lot sweeter without these parasites.

2011-10-26T10:57:00.000+01:00

Dave Hartnett: Tax Supremo, Imbecile or Bent?

Massive corporations employ the brightest brains to minimise the amount they pay in taxes. There are occasions when the use of such clever clogs is unnecessary. All that is apparently needed to save millions is to wine and dine the head of Tax at HM Revenue.

Goldman Sachs, that byword for poverty, are one of Mr Hartnett’s beneficiaries. In a remarkable appearance before an irate Public Accounts Committee, Mr Hartnett insisted client confidentiality precluded him from giving the details of an arrangement he had struck with Goldman Sachs which had saved the poor financiers between 10 and 25 million.

This follows another deal with Vodaphone who were allowed to pay £450m of its tax bill over five years - a process usually allowed for ‘troubled businesses.’ With its £7bn plus annual dividend payouts, Vodaphone could hardly be called ‘troubled.’

As there are £25bn of disputed taxes with big companies it is more than worrying to have such a plonker as Hartnett in charge of retrieving this money. At a time of national financial crisis £25bn would go quite a long way to ease the pain.

The Committee Chair, Margaret Hodge, angrily noted that Hartnett was, “The guy who does the deals and the guy who is on the board who vets the deals. There is nobody checking that the deals you do represent good value for money. This is an outrageously unprecedented situation for me.” Private Eye 26/10/11 Another committee member, Richard Bacon, was angry that “extremely rich, extremely highly paid people paid less tax on their bankers’ bonuses as a result of the way the case was mishandled.” Ibid

Hartnett is one of several public officials who cost the country and therefore us taxpayers billions through their incompetence. Anyone want to buy two aircraft carriers without any planes....? Or how about the colossal sums spent on IT, none of which have worked? Or the business-friendly contracts worked out under the abominable PFI scheme?

Call it crap, call it incompetence but don’t call it corruption. That only happens in third world countries doesn’t it?

2011-10-23T20:19:00.002+01:00

St. Paul’s Cathedral and Occupy London

The news that St Paul’s has been closed because of ‘health and safety’ concerns will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the workings of the Church of England. Giles Frazer rightfully gathered much approbation for his decision to allow the Occupy London protestors to stay on the steps of St. Paul’s. Since then other forces have mobilised.

Listening to ‘Any Questions’ on Friday night, the tory, Bernard Jenkins, made the astounding claim that, ‘Jesus was not a politician.’ This remark was howled down by the other panelists who mentioned cleansing the temple of money-lenders, rich getting through the eye of a needle, and blessed are the meek etc etc. A caller on the ‘Any Answers’ programme on Saturday pointed out that it costs £14-50 to enter St Paul’s. Yes, £14-50. Mammon is alive and well and living in the C of E. A comment today from some spokesvicar said they were losing £20,000 a day! All because people opposed to greed were taking action. Canon Peter Bruinvels, a member of the General Synod, said the financial losses caused by the closure were a tragedy. "Clearly now the demonstrators should pack up their tents and go. St Paul's is a greater cause than theirs." Observer 23/10/11.

There are many entrances to St Paul’s. It is not difficult to carry on with normal proceedings. The tent village on the steps acts as a reminder of how bad the worst excesses of capitalism have become. And it does upset the Tories.

A simple question. What would Jesus have done? It is clear to this correspondent that Jesus would not have voted Conservative. Or New Labour either. Neither were socialist enough to match his values. As for the LibDems.......! Jesus would have pitched his tent with the occupiers - and laid into the bankers and financiers. And their political chums.

The Church of England used to be regarded as ‘the conservative party at prayer.’ Perhaps the powers that be (with the honourable exception of Giles Frazer) would prefer the cathedral to be renamed as St Mammon's ?

2011-10-20T16:53:00.000+01:00

The Met: A law unto themselves?

In a democracy, the glue that binds the whole shebang together is the ‘Rule of Law.’ It is the cornerstone, the bastion, the spine. Without it there is either anarchy and chaos or the rule of the mighty who impose their will on their citizens by force and fear. The use of cruel and inhuman punishment is the norm, victims have no rights and the tyrants goons fear no reprisal or legal redress. The Rule of Law matters.

That is why the revelation last night that an undercover policeman had lied on oath and broken defence privilege was staggering. The spy had infiltrated the ‘Retake the Streets’ campaign of the 90’s. Again, quite staggering to think a bunch of cyclists were a threat to civilisation as we know it. A criminal case of assault against a policeman (denied by the convicted activist) now stands as being false. It joins the 20+ activists wrongly charged and sentenced for occupying a power station in Nottingham.

Whoever was running this police spy or agent provocateur has a lot to answer. Whoever was heading this particular farrago has a lot to answer. Unfortunately, the track record of the Met in coming clean about this and similar matters is worse than poor - it is crap.

There is a role for undercover police working against crime syndicates and terrorist organisations. There is not a role in infiltrating peaceful protesters and civil disobeyers. That the plods in charge are unable to tell the difference is a concern.

This latest revelation added to the other recent unmaskings is disturbing. It is a sinister move by a police force which acts as though it is above the law. It is disquieting in such troubled times for a law enforcement agency to actively undermine the Rule of Law. It needs to be added to the ever-lengthening list of sins committed by our 'premiere' force.

Heads should roll - and swiftly. Failing that, the Met should be disbanded and another force set up without all the corrupt, bent, fascist and dangerous officers.

2011-10-18T09:11:00.000+01:00

Occupy Wall Street movement

This movement is just a month old. Inspired by events in the Arab Spring and the Indignados of Spain, it has struck a chord around the world. Over 900 cities had demonstrations and occupations over the weekend. The Financial Times, not known as a liberal bastion, came out in support in a leader article yesterday.

"Today only the foolhardy would dismiss a movement reflecting the anger and frustration of ordinary citizens from all walks of life around the world … the fundamental call for a fairer distribution of wealth cannot be ignored." (The American dream )"has been shattered by a crisis brought about by financial excess and political cynicism. The consequence has been growing inequality, rising poverty and sacrifice by those least able to bear it – all of which are failing to deliver economic growth......The cry for change is one that must be heeded." The FT agrees that rising inequality is not only unjust, it is also a recipe for economic disaster.

The occupiers of the steps of St Pauls agreed a communal statement. "We refuse to pay for the banks' crisis. We do not accept the cuts as either necessary or inevitable. We demand an end to global tax injustice and our democracy representing corporations instead of the people. We want regulators to be genuinely independent of the industries they regulate. We support the strike on 30 November and the student action on 9 November, and actions to defend our health services, welfare, education and employment, and to stop wars and arms dealing. We want structural change towards authentic global equality. The world's resources must go towards caring for people and the planet, not the military, corporate profits or the rich."

Most folks would agree with those sentiments. There are opponents such as Richard Littlejohn, writing in the Daily Hate, who castigates the protestors for drinking Coca-Cola and using the internet. He derided the protestors as, “The usual gormless rent-a-mob you always find on these anti-globalisation demos — Toytown Trots from Mickey Mouse universities, social workers, lecturers, full-time mature students and Swampy wannabes.” No sign of a massively overpaid, smug, nasty and arrogant columnist among them. He did agree that the banks were getting away with it. He wanted the protest to be lead by the owners of small businesses struggling to get credit to help their enterprises to thrive or even survive.

James Harkin writing in The Independent is also not convinced. “The banks were only the beginning of it. Unless these new anti-capitalists find a way to hitch their demands to the interests of the rest of the population – the 99 per cent they claim to speak for – they're stuck in a self-righteous bubble. And until they do so, their tirades against greed reek of the worst kind of Victorian self-righteous puritanism. It used to be that workers occupied factories, but now these sons and daughters of the bourgeoisie have seen fit to occupy the space outside a church. If there's a spectre haunting capitalism today, it's nothing more than its own self-loathing.”

Bit harsh that ‘self-righteous bubble’ and ‘self-righteous puritanism.’ The principles emerging from the St Pauls occupiers are a good place to start the debate. There is a deal of unfocussed anger around the world . Political parties in hock to the powerful corporations and financial sectors do not speak for the majority. There is a vacuum between the leaders and the lead. It is both an optimistic sign and a worry that people are starting to act. Optimistic because real positive change can be generated on a world-wide basis. A worry because there is a danger of turning to the simple solutions so beloved by fascists. The current crisis has some horrible parallels with the 1930’s which need to be borne in mind.

2011-10-17T20:31:00.001+01:00

The Monsal Trail

Walking this stretch of path cum trail used to be an intermittent delight and an occasional frustration. Several of the tunnels along the old Manchester - London railway line had been sealed with enormous metal doors. They resembled something left on the cutting room floor from 'Lord of the Rings.' Diversions from the trail included a stepping stone path along the River Wye - impassable after heavy rain.

Tunnels sealed in 1968 when the railway line closed have been opened this year making the Monsal Trail a delight to walk and cycle. Running from Blackwell Mill on the Wye valley to its conclusion at Coombs viaduct, 1 km south of Bakewell station, the route takes in the best of the White Peak. The length is just over 9 miles. The trail passes through several Nature Reserves. Parking is available at either end and at a couple of places en route (Millers Dale, Hassop). There is also a large cafe and bookshop at Hassop station, originally built as the Duke of Devonshire’s personal station to service Chatsworth House.

The Midland Railway engineers who built the line through this wonderful scenery did a terrific job. Not everyone agreed. Among them was John Ruskin. He was not impressed when the railway opened in 1863. He went on at some length about the wonders that had been destroyed by ‘Railway Enterprise.’

He concluded, “You enterprised a railroad through the valley - you blasted its rocks away, heaped thousands of tons of shale into its lovely stream. The valley is gone and the Gods with it, and now every fool in Buxton can be at Bakewell in half an hour and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton; which you think a lucrative process of exchange - you Fools everywhere.”

Thanks to £2.5 million from the Department of Transport, the route has been re-opened this year with the longer tunnels having lighting and an improved surface installed. A there-and-back cycle ride takes approximately 2 hours riding steadily.

The Trail has three distinct sections. Leaving Bakewell, the scenery is classic undulating farmland and gentle valleys filled with many trees. Emerging from the first tunnel under Monsal Head is delightful and marks the beginning of the dramatic limestone scenery. The trail goes across a viaduct over the River Wye as it loops within a matured gorge. An adjoining embankment provides a superb viewpoint. Industrial archaeology is now to the fore with the Cressbrook Mill (rebuilt in 1815 after a fire ) in the valley on the right. This is followed soon after by Litton Mill. Built early on in the industrial revolution, the mill became notorious for the worst excesses of the age. An account by an orphaned apprentice in 1832 exposed the cruelty and inhuman treatment of child workers at the mill. Not only did the child workers endure beatings, incredible long hours, starvation and avoidable accidents, they also risked their lives. There were many mortalities. The owners hired orphans so no-one would miss their dying or campaign to improve their conditions. They even spread the burials around so their number would not be tallied. it took a long time for their wickedness to be exposed. Not only were the owners cruel and heartless, they were also inept, going bankrupt in 1826.

The final section just after Millers Dale station, is the most grand. There are the remains of several massive quarries here which add a further dimension to the journey. The trail follows the Wye as it curves through an increasingly lowering gorge with a couple of tunnels through limestone spurs and bridges high above the road and river. A favourite for climbers, the cliffs are dramatic and impressive.

The trains are all long gone. Imagine the Pullman express speeding to London though these limestone cuttings on a wet and windy night with smoke and sparks flying. It is all so peaceful today. The scale of the undertaking survives without its harder edges. The trail has been softened by the maturing growth of a variety of trees and other plants along the route.

Ruskin would probably approve.

2011-10-16T15:02:00.000+01:00

Werretty, a can of worms.

A rather large stone has been turned over. The Werretty affair has revealed a lot more than some powerful people wanted. Dragged into the daylight are the values and actions of a rightwing group who aim to control the way the world operates. By pumping significant amounts of cash into quasi-charities and front organisations they seek to influence governments.

What is becoming clear, much to the disgust of these shadowy figures, is just how influential they are in the present government. In addition to having Baroness Thatcher as a patron, Hague, Osborne, Gove and Grayling have all been members of the Atlantic Bridge Advisory Board. Funnily enough, Hague was keen to put some distance between himself and Werritty when challenged about it today. Odd that. That’s politics for you. Best mates one week - a pariah the next.

Throw Mossad into the pot and it all becomes very Smiley-esque. Just who is running the UK and who is really behind policy decisions? Ordinary voters do not have one iota of the influence these hedge fund operators and arms dealers* have.

The government will find the collateral damage from this affair hard to contain.

It is a reminder to voters just what a sleazy, sneaky and nasty party the Tories are.

Just what sort of people become arms dealers? Car manufacturers make cars in the knowledge that across the world thousands of people will die in car accidents. But that is not their purpose. They aim to move people around as safely as possible and work hard to reduce danger by introducing crumple zones etc. An arms dealer knows he is selling weapons with the sole purpose of killing people. They will try and dress it up as ‘defence’ but the bottom line is killing people. They make money out of the misery of others. They rate among the nastiest specimens on the planet.

2011-10-15T10:15:00.000+01:00

The B’stard’s are back!

One of the features of the Fox affair has been the way the airwaves have been filled by the rightwing of the Tory Party. Their qualities include an undimmed loyalty to ‘their’ man and the bottle to go to various studios to defend the indefensible. The line they have adopted remained largely consistent until Fox resigned. “He apologised, made mistakes, not a hanging offence, nothing untoward had gone on, effect on our brave boys, media storm, harrumph, harrumph.”

Once Fox resigned the tune shifted slightly. The media were clearly identified as being mainly responsible for the downfall of such an honourable man. These antediluvian creatures represent parts of southern England. They do not exist north of the Midlands. They have a sense of being robbed of their right to rule by the LibDems. The fact that the Tories did not win the last election has still not penetrated their heads of oak. They are a reminder of just how bad the Tories can be.

The admirably named Philip Bone appeared on Newsnight and matched his name. Despite massive concerns emerging about Werritty being funded by arms dealers, he stuck to the line with extra patriotism and honour thrown in. Real sick bag stuff. Facts, evidence and rational thought are as nothing to these knuckle-draggers. Even when Gus O’Donald brings out his inevitably incriminatory report they will stick to their guns.

As for Fox? A combination of arrogance, avarice and chutzpah could not prevent his downfall. As Michael Portillo said on ‘This Week,’ “How did he think this remarkable arrangement could go on unnoticed?”

2011-10-12T09:41:00.000+01:00

Dr Fox ‘insinuations’

Throughout this developing scandal there has been an underlying rumble of hints and insinuations. Foxy Dr Fox has muttered about dark forces and smears. As each day unfolds the insinuations grow and are more overt.

For instance, The Sun has a story this morning about a burglary at Dr Fox’s apartment last year during the general election. There was a ‘young man’ staying at the flat who was not mentioned by Tory spinners when the news broke about the burglary, claiming Dr Fox was on his own at the time, as his wife was trapped in Hong Kong by the ash cloud. Dr Fox says he is ‘baffled’ by the omission as he has nothing to hide. He also added that the young man was not Werritty. but someone who he had a few drinks with. The insinuation behind all this is that Dr Fox is gay. He got married while he was embroiled in the Tory leadership race. There were suggestions made at the time that the marriage was a smokescreen to add respectability. Similar claims were made against William Hague.

It would explain why Werritty travelled all over the world to be at his side. It does not explain why Werritty handed out business cards describing himself as an advisor to Dr Fox. It does not explain why Werritty should claim his address in hotel registers as a Parliamentary one. It does not explain who paid for all these jaunts when the man himself is reported to have earned barely £20000. Estimates of air fares alone vary between £50,000 and £80,000. All the hotels were 5* and expensive. Nick Robinson on Today claimed that Dr Fox did not trust his civil servants and wanted a close confidant as a sounding board. Robinson thought Werritty was being paid for this role by a group of right wing supporters. Hmmm. Now why would they do that?

Afghanistan alone is costing UK taxpayers £12 million a day. The MOD has an appalling procurement record with waste and overspend on a colossal scale. All the murky rumblings about gay activities are as nothing when put alongside corruption. All the insinuations about Dr Fox's private life are as nothing when it comes to buying influence.

The incredible ‘arrangement’ between Dr Fox and Werritty made corruption so much more straightforward.

2011-10-10T10:07:00.000+01:00

The Fantastic Dr Fox

Dr Fox has added yet another wriggly phrase to the lexicon of liars. By utilising a line from Blackadder he hopes to throw off the shackles of truth and fact with a cunning plan. “As cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University?”

He apologised last night for, “Giving the impression of wrongdoing.” Savour that ‘impression of.’ It is quite delicious. Think of all the ne’er do wells, thieves and vagabonds who could have walked free from the clutches of the law with a simple, “Sorry your Honour, I apologise for giving the impression of breaking and entering.”

It joins a memorable list:

“Terminological inexactitude.” Winston Churchill using a euphemism for lying.

“Economical with the actualite.” Alan Clarke being interviewed in the Matrix Churchill inquiry.

“I did not have sex with that woman.” Bill Clinton talking about Monica Lewinski

“I misspoke.” George W Bush - several times

"Sword of truth and trusty shield of fair play". Jonathon Aitken v The Guardian

The last is apposite in the current hoo-hah. Tory slimeball Aitken was so confident that his skullduggery would not be found out he went on the attack only to be undone by a receipt proving he was a liar. When the case went to court he entered a guilty plea.

The airwaves have been full of tory chums lining up to tell us what an absolutely splendid chap Dr Fox is and now that he has apologised, all is well inside the political bubble.

Aitken’s financial wrongdoings involved arms dealers and bribery and corruption. Fox’s best mate Wherrety has apparently been acting as a fixer putting arms dealers in touch with the fantastic Dr Fox in off the record briefings without any MOD officials being present. Hmmm. Can anyone spot the similarities?

The Oxford Thesaurus defines ‘Fantastic’ in addition to its usual usage as ‘unbelievable, incredible, implausible and nonsensical.’

The fantastic Dr Fox may convince his bubble mates. He convinces no-one in the real world.

2011-10-09T09:25:00.001+01:00

Stop the War Coalition:£12 Million a Day

That is what it is costing the UK to be involved in Afghanistan. This at a time when the financial sector is on the verge of meltdown. It is obscene and shaming for so much money to be spent in such a brutally futile way. The weak, poor and elderly in our society are paying the price for the vainglorious follies of Blair, Brown and now Cameron. Not forgetting the lives of over 300 troops and uncounted (shame) civilians in Afghanistan.

It is not just the financial cost which has now gone on for 10 years (“Over by Christmas” Jack Straw; “No shots will be fired in anger,” John Reid) it is the lies. As Hetty Blower said at the Stop The War Coalition rally in London yesterday, “I was nine years old in 1914 and when war was declared my father said ‘ Now the lies will begin.’ And so they did and have continued ever since.” For the hard of maths, Hetty is 106 and an inspirational human being.

The corrosion in public trust in governance is accelerated by the avarice of the elites who rule us. This mornings revelation that Fox’s ‘best mate’ was acting as a conduit for arms dealers comes as no surprise. ‘Off the record’ meetings and briefings, all seen as perfectly normal by the slimy Dr Fox.

And let us never forget Tony Blair, so beloved by the Murdochs he became godfather to two little diggers on the banks of the River Jordan while dressed all in white....The same Reverend Blair who forced the Serious Fraud Office to drop their case into massive corruption at BAE and who just happen to be our biggest arms dealers.

With costs of £12 million per day being paid by the taxpayers of the UK it is little wonder that our arms dealers are tucked up in bed with our rulers.

Heard for the first time at a protest, the chant ‘Revolution’ arose during the march down Whitehall. As our crisis deepens, it is a call that is likely to grow.

Now that would bring the troops home!