Not content with focusing public ire on those social spongers who have the temerity to be unemployed or disabled, government has scored a great populist coup, and caused great rejoicing in the land of the tabloids, by decreeing that it is quite acceptable to kill burglars with machine guns, rocket propelled grenade launchers, tactical nuclear weapons or any of the other items the British householder keeps by them for such an emergency.
But if a burglar were to strip my home of its entire contents, it would not reach a tenth in value of the money that is going to be taken from me in taxation by government for the rest of my life to fund the bank bailouts in which my cash was given to reckless and incompetent bankers to cover their gambling losses.
Not only have they taken all my money, the majority of the money I shall be paying to cover it for the rest of my life, will consist of interest to the bankers because the government borrowed at interest from the bankers the money it then gave gratis to the bankers to bail them out.
And, as doubtless you will have noticed, nothing changed. No reduction in massive salaries and bonuses, no split of casino from high street banking, no transaction tax to deter multiple speculative trades. A million more unemployed, but none of them investment bankers – they have however sacked over a hundred thousand mostly female staff from their high street branches, which were the only sensible and profitable bit of the operation. No bankers in jail, not even for LIBOR fraud. Quantitive Easing, or printed money, is given not for infrastructure projects to produce growth, but given to banks to improve their liquidity. They do not lend it on to companies but pay it to themselves, as bonuses.
Forget burglars. Shoot a banker.
As I se it, the reason why New Labour bailed out Northern Rock was not for the sake of the bankers but to prevent millions of core Labour supporters losing their savings, and consequently the party losing a large number of seats in parliament.
In a democracy, a ruling party that does this sort of thing should be voted ou8t of power. And so they were.
You see, democracy in the UK works just fine. 🙂
Gamblers?
“Trader turned neuroscientist explores risky highs”
LONDON | Wed Oct 10, 2012 6:29am EDT
(Reuters) – When John Coates was on a winning streak during his days as a trader at Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, the narcotic-like “high” he experienced was so powerful he was determined to find out more.
So after 13 years on trading floors on Wall Street he moved to the neuroscience labs of Rockefeller University in New York and of Britain’s Cambridge University.
Here, the trader turned neuroscientist has been bent on uncovering the brain biology behind that high, what it did to him, and what it’s probably doing to those he left behind.
What he’s come up with, after several years reading up on animal studies and some interesting experiments with spit, is that risk taking is driven by a “winner effect” – a hormonal mechanism in which each competitive victory leads to more wins.
“The narcotic high was as powerful as anything I have ever felt,” Coates said in an interview during a medical conference in London, describing the experience of making huge profits and big bonuses at some of the world’s largest banks.
And as other experts in psychiatry and neuroscience at the conference agreed, the consequences of a winner effect gone out of control can lead some to become power-corrupted politicians, cruel military dictators and even surgeons who like to play god.
Continues
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/10/us-neuroscience-risk-idUSBRE8990GR20121010
Me, I’m interested in the “experiments with spit”. As far as I know, the figures Neil quoted about Irish citizens, up top, are correct. And it’s all to pay back French and German (and British) banks who took a gamble on the famous ‘Celtic Tiger’ and lost. But who have to be paid back anyway – according to our bendy-backed Government. Have you ever seen a more weak-willed-looking PM than Enda Kenny? (Featured recently on the cover of Time magazine with the title, ‘The Celtic Comeback’.) I call him the cardboard man.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/the-celtic-comeback-enda-kenny-makes-cover-of-time-magazine-3250794.html
Oops, sorry, this time I put in TWO links. Entirely my own fault.
When will they ever learn?
When will they e–ver learn?
You couldn’t fucking make it up!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/10/bbc-review-liberal-bias
Mary, Brian, your comments are right on the button. I just wish there was an alternative social-networking site with the pull of Facebook that was not a tool for information-gathering. I think I’m one of the few who use it for politicising. But I use it for social contact too. Most of my friends steer clear of politics. I like to thing they are boiling with disgust under their skins. But who knows?
G Edward Griffin “The Creature of Jekyll Island” http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&v=Q93R5EQVOLI
You don’t need more than a revolver to finish off those responsible for the fractional reserve banking system and the subsequent tyranny we are now living in.
They are responsible for and the real owners of the European Union and Globalisation is their scheme.
@Jives “You couldn’t fu**ing make it up!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/10/bbc-review-liberal-bias”
– Oops, we’re off-topic here, but can’t resist commenting:
“A Daily Mail [the paragon of even-handed political and social comment] leader column last week accused the BBC of double standards, claiming it “consistently attacks Christianity (though never Islam)”
Excuse me, but doesn’t the BBC usually refer to Muslims as “Islamic militants” (or “Islamists” – a term inherently critical and negative) and heavily-armed far-right-wing Jewish illegal occupiers (of Palestinian territory) as “settlers” (“settlers” sounds so peaceful, doesn’t it?
No, you couldn’t make it up, but Orwell saw it coming!
The web is of course ubiquitous, wall to wall, wherever – and Facebook inherits the same reach, the same congruous birthmarks; the nature of the beast, to use or abuse.
Thus it is negative to kick up a fuss about a 600 million user weblog called Facebook except to expose those who capitalise on that massive reach to invalidate the synergy of team glue, the marriage of a common vision, be it playing games, idle chat or eliciting support and guidance.
That should be the spirit of the web; void of soul we are not human, deficient in kindness, mercy and compassion.
Some of its reporters put awkward questions to politicians and even try to insist on straight answers. Hence, it is leftwing.
And compared with our American mentors, this country is a hotbed of revolutionary Marxism. Even the BNP.
CCTV wherever you go,whether outside or in shops/venues.
Facebook and other so-CIA-l media data-mining everything.
Over 700 Govt agencies able to tap/surveill you.
Google etc tracking every click you make.
Google street view.
Apple/Samsung etc in your home and pocket;listening and watching through your mobile/TV/radio.
And that’s only the stuff we know about.
WTF is going on???
Don’t have to shoot them ALL. Bankers are like boars; shoot one and the rest get the wind up.
Here in Barcelona, a few centuries back, we had a spate of bent bankers. Laws were passed, and one banker was beheaded for fiddling the scales. Normality was immediately ressumed!
http://antique-banks.blogspot.com.es/2012/06/banking-in-catalonia-in-fourteenth-and.html
Sorry if it seems my surveillance rant seems OT but the point i was trying to make in relation to this thread was that there seems to total surveillance (Total Information Awareness) everywhere except where it’s really needed i.e.the boardrooms and Westminster.
Of course i’m not naive enough to think this was exactly the plan…
Tory backbencher Douglas Carswell introduced his Financial Services (Regulation of Deposits and Lending) Bill on 15 September 2010.
The aim of the bill – introduced under the ten minute rule motion – is to prohibit banks and building societies lending on the basis of demand deposits without the permission of the account holder.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_commons/newsid_8995000/8995686.stm
“WTF is going on???”
Looks like someone is into control. Now who can that be? Who is paying off the politicians, who owns the media? Who makes billions on wars? Who have a megalomaniac psychopathic desire to rule the animals in human form? Not the bankers, or…?
And what is the political ideology of those bankers? Zionism. There you go.
So a blog which devotes much time to praising the sanctity of life and condeming the British and American governments of almost routine murder now calls for the murder of their fellow citizens and lynchings? I am constantly amazed at the new depths which the author and those who share his opinions can sink to. Utterly pathetic, yet quite funny for those of us with a more rational disposition.
Heh, try the “liberal bias” in this recent corker:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19786929
I keep meaning to post that to the Media Lens board – the angry bias in that one is surely worthy a complaint, even if it goes nowhere.
@IK5, you think if you provided to Craig his imaginary householder arsenal, plus Fred The Shred tied to a post, that our host would pull the trigger? I don’t.
But I do think the banking class has a lot to answer for. Try as I might, I couldn’t find anything about that in your post just now. Perhaps if I get a magnifying glass on the last full stop, something cogent about that will be written there, in very small text?
😉
Jon – I actually thought that was pretty neutral. Which bit did you object to?
“fellow citizens” implies some sort of communality of interest and behaviour, doesn’t it? And no-one was advocating lynchings. A trial under established laws regarding theft and fraud, followed by a public judicial execution would be quite sufficient.
IK5
“So a blog which devotes much time to praising the sanctity of life and condeming the British and American governments of almost routine murder now calls for the murder of their fellow citizens and lynchings? I am constantly amazed at the new depths which the author and those who share his opinions can sink to. Utterly pathetic, yet quite funny for those of us with a more rational disposition.2
How was your sense of humour bypass? I bet you’re a hoot at a party.
“I am constantly amazed at the new depths which the author and those who share his opinions can sink to.”
Check out this infographic. It’s about laughter and how it’s good for you.
http://www.bitrebels.com/lifestyle/health-benefits-of-laughter-infographic/
The roots of many problems do appear to lie in the banking system. If you haven’t already, I heartily recommend you read Web of Debt by Ellen Brown.
Very melodramatic, Craig. The final cost of the bank bailouts will not be very large, assuming of course that the government’s stakes in Lloyds and RSB are sold for a reasonable price and that the guarantees are not called upon.
I am intermittently amazed at people who are constantly amazed. Requires intense concentration on object of amazement while maintaining correct uniform level of amazement. Sir, I salute you.
You mean like Northern Rock, James C? The auditors reckon that the taxpayer is out of pocket by £2Bn on that one alone.
Thought for The Day:
Give a man a gun & he can rob a bank; give a man a bank & he can rob the World.
Jives,
I had a similar argument I believe with Dave Davis(pseudonym) in WebCameron, on civil liberties, that is until I read this:
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/toryleadership/files/dd_answers_to_cfi_questions.pdf
All is not what it seems to be and Davis is struggling to grip the mettle even though he supported the civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch and in January 2010 he spoke with Tony Benn at the official launch.
bigbrotherwatch.org.uk
We are a somewhat private and cautious nation which can present difficulties when advocating a ‘One mind Won Victory’ approach to route and KO the execrable minds of the false democratic value proponents who confuse Judaism with Zionism and overlook the suffering of many past and present.
I find transparency is key. To look the bastards in the face presents a problem to them.
The world of the ‘others’ is waterlogged by deception, permeated by lies. They cannot survive in this world or in the next where in fact one mind, one conscious is indeed de rigeur and victory.
Wow!, Craig,
Exactly!
Dragonly drollery…lol
@ Mark Golding,
Thanks for the link and your,as always,astute thoughts.
I’ve always thought DD was a straw-man,the token Tory sop to the civil liberty issues.