British democracy has lost its meaning. The political and economic system has come to serve the interests of a tiny elite, vastly wealthier than the run of the population, operating through corporate control. The state itself exists to serve the interests of these corporations, guided by a political class largely devoid of ideological belief and preoccupied with building their own careers and securing their own finances.
A bloated state sector is abused and mikled by a new class of massively overpaid public secotr managers in every area of public provision – university, school and hospital administration, all executive branches of local government, housing associations and other arms length bodies. All provide high six figure salaries to those at the top of a bloated bureaucratic establishment. The “left”, insofar as it exists, represents only these state sector vested interests.
These people decide where the cuts fall, and they will not fall where they should – on them. They will fall largely on the services ordinary people need.
Meanwhile we are not all in this together. The Vodafone saga only lifts the lid for the merest peek at the way the corporate sector avoids paying its share, hiding behind Luxembourg or Cayman tax loopholes and conflicts between international jurisdictions – with which our well provided politicians are very happy. The often excellent Sunny Hundal provides a calm analysis of the Vodafone case here:
Let me tell you something else about Vodafone. Vodafone took over Ghana Telecom three years ago. They paid an astonishingly low price for it – 1.2 billion dollars, which is less than the value of just the real estate GT owned. The value of the business was much higher than that, and there was a substantively higher opening bid from France Telecom.
The extraordinary thing was the enormous pressure which the British government put on Ghana to sell this valuable asset to Vodafone so cheaply. High Commissioner Nick Westcott and Deputy High Commissioner Menna Rawlings were both actively involved, with FCO minister Lord Malloch Brown pressurising President Kuffour directly, with all the weight of DFID’s substantial annual subvention to Ghana behind him.
What is the point of DFID giving taxpayer money to Ghana if we are costing the country money through participating in the commercial rape of its national assets?
And why exactly was it a major British interest that Vodafone – whose Board meets in Germany and which pays its meagre taxes in Luxembourg – should get Ghana Telecom, as opposed to France Telecom or another company? Was privatisation at this time the best thing for Ghana at all?
This Vodafone episode offers another little glimpse into the way that corporations like Vodafone twist politicians like Mark Malloch Brown around their little fingers. It mioght be interesting to look at his consultancies and commercial interests now he is out of office.
BAE is of course the example of this par excellence. Massive corruption and paying of bribes in Saudi Arabia, Tanzania end elsewhere, but prosecution was halted by Tony Blair “In the National Interest”. BAE of course was funnelling money straight into New Labour bagmen’s pockets, as well as offering positions to senior civil servants through the revolving door. Doubtless they are now doing the same for the Tories – perhaps even some Lib Dems.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/01/jack_straws_cor.html
It is therefore unsurprising the BAE were able to write themselves contracts for aircraft carriers which were impossible to cancel and that their New Labour acolytes were prepared to sign such contracts. It is, nonetheless, disgusting. Just as it is disgusting that there is no attempt whatever by the coaliton to query or remedy the situation. There is no contract in the UK which cannot be cancelled by primary legislation.
Meanwhile, bankers’ bonus season is upon us again and these facilitators of trade and manufacture are again set to award themselves tens of billions of pounds to swell the already huge bank accounts of a select few, whose lifestyle and continued employment is being subsidised by every single person in the UK with 8% of their income. This was because the system which rewards those bankers so vastly is fundamentally unsound and largely unnecessary. Money unlinked to trade or manufacture cannot create infinite value; that should have been known since the South Sea Bubble.
Yet even this most extreme example of government being used to serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful at the expense of everyone else, has not been enough to stir any substantial response from a stupoured, x-factored population, dreaming only of easy routes to personal riches, which they have a chance in a million of achieving.
Conventional politics appears to have become irretrievably part pf the malaise rather than offering any hope for a cure. But political activity outwith the mainstream is stifled by a bought media.
I see no hope.
Don’t lose hope in the sense that coherent strategising and organised collective action remains our only weapon. It may well take a mass collapse to engender the latter. But if people are ready, it will have direction and theory. It would have to involve both middle and working classes. We are moving into an Ancien Regime situation. There seem to be no Jeremy Benthams in the power structure any more.
Answer your own daft request why don’t you Krauty…
the Pilger article
http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2010/11/pilger-britain-british
How come we have not heard any of this before. Its been going on for decadesa apparently.
Oh diddums, this makes Bernie Madoff an amateur.
http://www.thedailybell.com/1493/HSBC-and-JP-Morgan-Face-Lawsuits-for-Precious-Metals-Manipulations.html
Thanks for the Daily Bell link, Ingo. Can anyone tell me anything about this website? Here’s a link for our Irish contributors:
http://www.thedailybell.com/1504/Internal-Contradictions-at-EUs-Heart.html
If the Daily Bell site doesn’t scroll nicely for you, try blocking the rather nice background image.
Best quote from the Pilger article:
“When Britain was officially bankrupt at the end of the Second World War, the government built its greatest public institutions, such as the National Health Service and the arts edifices of London’s South Bank.”
Right. With a loan from the U.S. Which wasn’t paid off until the 1980s.
Loons, all you you.
Actually wasn’t paid off until a few years ago.
What’s my “race”, Larry? What’s my “race”? My “race”, because of which, according to you, I have been “socially promoted”? Can you define what my “race” might be, Larry.
When the comment allegedly by you appeared in relation to “ragheads”, and which led immediately to stern censure (and rightly so) by Angrysoba, after persistent questioning, you claimed, a number of months later, that it hadn’t been you after all.
I accepted your explanation because I’m that kind of guy – I give people the benefit of the doubt, sometimes to breaking-point.
I break my suggested rulke of not engaging with you in order to pose this question to you: According to you, what is exactly is my “race” and why might I have been “socially promoted” because of it?
So what’s the explanation this time, Larry?
I never used the term “raghead.” If I did so, Angrysoba would have every reason and right to chastise me. I didn’t see either the use of the term or Angrysoba’s rebuke.
who is this CUNT Larry from St. Louis always talking 5hit. Someone send him to Iraq please so he can get killed
1) But you claimed that someone else wrote it under your name. How could you claim this when you’d never seen it? I am confused.
2) Angrysoba, help us out here, would you, there’s a good man. I’m sure everyone here recalls Angrysoba rebuking the poster who went under the monicker, ‘Larry from St Louis’ for using the term “raghead”. It’ll be find-able on one of the threads from some months ago.
3) Can you define, please, what you meant by my “race” and your assertion that I was “socially promoted” because of my “race”?
Thank you for responding.
John Pilger’s website is down at the moment – under construction.
He has a new film coming out that will go on release on 13 December and will also be shown on ITV. The War You Don’t See.
http://thelinc.co.uk/2010/11/pilger-reveals-the-war-you-dont-see/
Showing at the Soho Cinema + a Q&A
http://www.curzoncinemas.com/events/special_event/the_war_you_dont_see_qanda_john_pilger
The War You Don’t See [Advised 16]
Director: John Pilger
“But you claimed that someone else wrote it under your name. How could you claim this when you’d never seen it? I am confused.”
I was informed later on (from you, probably) that someone had written that in my name. I would assume that I was informed of this subsequent to it having been written, as time moves in one direction.
I question your ability to think as a doctor because you think Roderick Russell’s complaints are grounded in the real world. Clearly it’s not the case that MI5/MI6 is following him because he once quit a job. He writes crazy letters-to-the-editor and letters to MPs, and he believes that those constitute evidence for being targeted. (We’ve been through this before). I can’t believe that the typical doctor that Britain graduates would not immediately see through the mind of a very sick individual like Roderick. Therefore, I was wondering if you were socially promoted because of your race – by that, I mean whatever box you check – and ultimately at the end of your education it was quite obvious to everyone that you didn’t quite have the credentials to be a medical doctor.
If you’re getting at the fact that race is a silly concept, I’d mostly agree with you. We all share the same genome.
However, race does matter when the government does give promotional preferences to perceived members of perceived minorities.
As I understand it, the UK does not have – and has never had – either de jure or de facto affirmative action policies. Certainly not in the field to which you refer.
It is not possible to establish a diagnosis of psychiatric illness on the basis of the information which you provide.
Many people hold many beliefs and views about the government and other matters. It doesn’t automatically mean that they are mentally ill. For example, Alfred holds views with which I and most other scientists (and most others) would disagree on ‘race’, but it doesn’t mean that he is mentally ill.
I am glad that you agree with me about the concept of ‘race’ and that you have clarified your statement to that extent.
How is the Ottoman Garden?
Gee, larry, epitaphs, what has come over you?
C’mon, you can tell us.
@ All,
A taste of Pilger:-
” Born of the “never again” spirit of 1945, social democracy has surrendered to an extreme political cult of money worship. This reached its apogee when £1trn of public money was handed unconditionally to corrupt banks by a Labour government whose leader, Gordon Brown, had previously described “financiers” as the nation’s “great example” and his personal “inspiration”. ”
The US finacial experience replicated in the UK.
“I can’t believe that the typical doctor that Britain graduates would not immediately see through the mind of a very sick individual like Roderick. Therefore, I was wondering if you were socially promoted because of your race – by that, I mean whatever box you check – and ultimately at the end of your education it was quite obvious to everyone that you didn’t quite have the credentials to be a medical doctor”
This has to be one of the crassest, most gratuitously unpleasant and twisted remarks I’ve ever seen on this blog. Larry from St Louis is banned from this site and with good reason.
Given his rather flustered and clueless responses to anything concerning evidence, I have to question whether he has anything to do with the law.
“I was informed later on (from you, probably) that someone had written that in my name. I would assume that I was informed of this subsequent to it having been written, as time moves in one direction.” Larry from St Louis
The phrasing of this part of the response, its blatant uncertainty, the use of the word, ‘would’ and ‘probably’, would tend to suggest, I would argue, that the person who typed this was not the same person as the one who responded to me over the “raghead” iteration. They are scrambling to get a handle on what I’m talking about.
We already knew this, of course, that the phenomenon is a plural one, and I’m reluctant to spend more time and space exploring the phenomenon.
It’s rather more fun engaging with the spambots, actually. Whoever has been typing them seems conflicted. They’ve typed phrases suhc as “I’m very sorry” and an attempted explantion of ‘Sir John’ [Sawyers], quoting from the speech.
It is important to realise that even the security and intelligence services are not monolithic entities, that there are people working in these organisations who have consciences – otherwise, where would whistleblowers come from? It is our duty to permit those people space to manoeuvre, or at least, for us to be active, where pertinent, in scattering little acorns…
I’m sure people like Craig, Mark (Golding) and Iain Orr (and no doubt others) know this very well – far better than I.
@ Suhayl,
Larry spoke in language “raghead” that would pass in the US on a blog, and not raise the same level of outrage as it has generated here. His “race” reference has put him in a tail spin, and he is trying to right the vehicle to move on.
You are quite gracious Suhayl.
CB
You are gracious Suhayl and you remind me of my dearest friend ‘Jit’ Channa who married a Swiss lady and sadly left Britain – he quite unselfishly saved me from many a ‘bad’ situation.
Get your facts right Larry (not from St Louis) Lend-Lease provided Britain’s war material. Lend-Lease from Canada funded the win in the Battle of Britain. Lend-Lease ended abruptly in 1945 and left Britain wanting.
We asked for a gift from America and got a loan. We have now paid that loan back so sod off from the Chagos Archipelago – India objects to your torture ships stationed there and so do I.
Suhayl: You are worth ten thousand larrys before you have even thought about breakfast, please don’t allow these weak-minded fools to distress you. They only exist to enable more enlightened people to remind real individuals to measure their personal dignity.
The Larrys are nothing but filth you have to scrape off your shoe before entering a worthwhile establishment. The stuff you have to wipe from your bottom so you can carry on undertakings that benefit the world. The trash that needs to be taken out, the filth that needs flushing down the sewer.
This Larry-stuff is terribly unfortunate, but it needs a clinical response. Don’t dwell on it, or sniff at close proximity – just pass it with as little attention as possible, and move on.
Craig. There is indeed no hope for statism, perhaps you are starting to see that now. All governments are this corrupt, most people, unlike yourself don’t get to see it from inside. Your experiences in Uzbekistan aren’t the exception for governments, they are the the rule, the US has openly admitted to torture and nobody has done a damned thing, not even the US citizens.
You now have seen and come to realise the festering evil that is all statism. Let go of the state, do not feed it or support it any more than the laws of the land, enforced with violence, make necessary for you to do so.
Instead support and promote voluntary mutual beneficial association and action that does not force itself on others, like the state does.
Right now, voluntarism is stifled by the media, because they have numbers on their side, but choose it anyway, because change is never going to happen (peacefully, always peacefully) any other way. Even if it doesn’t happen in our lifetime, you can be a part of it’s gestation. Put your hope in that.
Larry, fuck off you cunt!
“What’s my “race”, Larry?”
Afghan-Pakistani, apparently!
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth5688A1010f0421D601nXm1C28A1E
PS, I like the hat.
Woolas – odious, rancid little creep
Fall of former UK minister exposes Labour’s fascist election strategy
By Yvonne Ridley
6 November 2010
Yvonne Ridley views the demise of former British Minister of State for Borders and Immigration Phil Woolas against the background of the Labour Party’s racist and fascist election strategy under suspected war criminal Tony Blair and his successor, the now defeated ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
So, former British government minister Phil Woolas has finally been rumbled for playing the race and religion cards in a political game which has fuelled Islamaphobia in the UK.
Two high court judges have ruled that his election as MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth is “void”. Woolas was brought before the court on accusations of stirring up racial hatred and seizing on anti-Muslim sentiment in Oldham by claiming that his rival endorsed a Muslim campaign to remove him.
“Odious, rancid little creep”
http://www.redress.cc/global/yridley20101106
“Get your facts right Larry (not from St Louis) Lend-Lease provided Britain’s war material. Lend-Lease from Canada funded the win in the Battle of Britain. Lend-Lease ended abruptly in 1945 and left Britain wanting.”
I wasn’t talking about Lend-Lease. I was talking about the Anglo-American Loan Agreement.
And Canada saved Britain in the Battle of Britain? Not the U.S.? Is that what they teach you at school?
Courtenay Barnett: “Larry spoke in language “raghead” that would pass in the US on a blog, and not raise the same level of outrage as it has generated here.”
Your best argument against me is that someone impersonating me used the term “raghead.”
Courtenay, Mark, Glenn, thanks all very much for your solidarity and good sense. Much appreciated.
Alfred, I’m glad you dig the hat! You’re obviously a man with good taste. Thanks also for posting the link to the BC (in this context, that’s ‘British Council’, of course, not ‘British Columbia’ or ‘Before Christ’!); it’s a good piece by James Proctor.
Somehow, I don’t think the 2:52am post was actually posted by angrysoba; it’s not his style at all. Perhaps he would be able to enlighten us in this respect.
So, back then to democracy, corruption, etc.
Have a great day/night!
Two easy larry, its the cheapest get out clause you can come up with.
Unless you denounce this alledged imposters vile use of words, and say so, you are not only banned, but toast!
More stewing this morning, Coulson has been interviewd again, a lot of smoke emitting from Downing Street, but David Cameron does not feel the heat of a fire.
Why is that? what does Andy Coulson have on Cameron/the police, that he can hold on to his job?
Are his ‘abilities’ to use scanners and other surveillance equipment not make him a better candidate for the MI’s?, surely his abillities are wasted.
As for the two rosy cheeks of the law, Andy, you have to slap it a little harder, it has become so used to being abused by people in authority, that it has become insensitive and thick skinned.
God, what a stench this Lib Con pact already emits!
Thanks, ingo and MJ, too! What great spirited-folk you all are!
Weird goings on here in Norwich.
This morning a contingent of Riot/terror police in full outfits were deployed in Norwich’s Berstreet area, the red light district.
No explanation was given to the BBC locally, or the papers, they just appeared menacing and in full regalia.
I rang the Bebbe and asked, they are as perplexed than the public.
My wife rang me and said they were milling around fully armed and scary to look at.
Now if this was an exercise, I would have expected these storm troopers to inform either the Beeb or the local papers, they did not, so it must be something real and emminent.
Unless of course, Norwich has been singled out for pre xmas scare tactics, goading the shopper sinto spending that little bit more, maybe they are on a retainer,Lol
But such sinister use of the police, our servants is scary for the general public, my missis did not want to walk up to them and ask whether its an exercise or what.
I shall keep you informed as to what comes of it. Thanks god I declined going into Norwich with her, otherwise I would have challenged them with the inevitable consequence.