Saturday, 31 October 2009

Halloween Madness

Autumn is now well upon us. Tomorrow, we are forecast to have wind and rain as well as the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.
Today is Halloween. For many years, in fact for most of my life, this has had no significance whatsoever. The idea of Halloween had its origins in Celtic traditions and as such, it is not surprising that there was little interest - at least in England. There have been attempts to attach it to religious traditions but there is little to support this. It seems that Halloween has been taken on-board mainly in the USA where the tradition was started by the Irish in the 19th century. But, of course, if there is a marketing opportunity to make some money it should be promoted as much as possible. Now there are whole towns in America that are decorated with ghosts and devils and dark lights and stuff picked up from a defunct ghost train. Halloween parties and events proliferate and everyone spends more money on decorations and costumes. The Americans are entitled to do what they like, of course, but now all the spin and sell of the whole Halloween things has hit us here. The shops are filled with tacky Halloween costumes and TV promotes the thing with Halloween programmes and - worst of all - we are subjected to kids knocking on the door to demand "Trick or Treat". Apparently, I am now required to give them money or chocolate or other goods. And if I do not? There are many instances of people being attacked, having their cars vandalised or having bricks thrown through their windows. This, truly, is an American import we can do without.
For the last few days I have gone into Tesco's supermarket to be greeted by staff wearing plastic devil horns and today, I was served by a grown man wearing a pig's head. We could not communicate. He could not hear me and his words were lost somewhere inside the mask. What is the point of this nonsense. Is the world gone mad? Jack Straw said that he objected to Muslim women wearing a Burka when he met them because he could not see their faces. I feel the same about Tesco staff serving me while disguised as pigs.
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Friday, 30 October 2009

Advisors Must Tell The Government The Truth

As a non-user of recreational drugs I look on the drugs world as a fairly independent observer. Internationally, government policy on recreational drug use is as mess. It is a mess because the policies of almost all governments are based on a head-in-the-sand attitude and a fundamental belief that the further application of a policy of prohibition, a policy that has had an undiluted, unmitigated, robust, well-documented record of complete failure, will ultimately be successful. In some ways it is touching that so many politicians are ready to plough on with a policy in spite of the continuing record of abject failure. Of course, it can be argued that such a track record has seldom been sufficient to deflect most politicians from any policy. It didn't during WWI in spite of slaughter on the Western Front. Fundamentally, the majority of politicians are gutless and will not take on the international establishment to fight for the application of a policy on recreational drugs that may in some way be connected to reality. Another problem is that politicians are not prepared to admit to Joe Public that an objective of totally eliminating recreational drugs is for ever doomed to failure.
The failures of international drugs policies is becoming demonstrated ever more forcefully all around the world. The slaughter of drug gang members in many countries - particularly in Latin America - the devastating effects on the lives of ordinary people in these countries and the sometimes almost total collapse of law and order, are now becoming matters so serious that new policies will have to be introduced. To a great extent the international policy on drugs has been dictated by the USA and Europe - the leading consumers of the drugs - but now it is the presidents and prime ministers of these Latin American countries who are coming together to formulate new policies for regulation of drugs, which will finally be close to legalisation. In the last 50 years the international spending on the war on drugs has been collosal yet the achievements have been so little. Of course they tell us about every massive drugs haul yet the street price of drugs does not increase. Consumption goes up but price does not, so we have to conclude that an ever decreasing percentage is being intercepted. It has been estimated by some that the international market for drugs amounts to $300 billion at street prices.
The UK has, of course, a confused policy that has its origins in the Labour and Tory governments of the 1960s and 1970s signing up to Richard Nixon's war on drugs. Nowhere has this been more ridiculous than in the matter of cannabis. First they downgraded it from Class B to Class C and then a couple of years later re-classified it back up to Class B. This was done during the watch of Home Secretary, Jacquii Smith - she of the box room in Bermondsey and the five bedroom second home - when she completely rejected the advice of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Quite what is the purpose of an advisory council of experts paid for out of the public purse if the advice is going to be rejected, is well beyond my comprehension. The world of Whitehall is cluttered with civil servants who, apparently, need lots of advisory quangos to allow them to function; one wonders how many others provide advice that is routinely ignored?
The head of the Advisory Council was Professor David Nutt who has said publicly that the government was wrong to re-classify cannabis as a Class B substance. He accused ministers of devaluing and distorting evidence and that drugs policy was now becoming a matter of politics I say that Professor Nutt was head of the Council because today he has been sacked by the present Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, who said that he had lost confidence in David Nutt's advice. Of course, it has been a common failing of this dead-leg government that the only information and advice they want is that which fully supports the preconceived ideas of the government. Professor Nutt said that his sacking was a serious challenge to the value of science in relation to the government. He said also that he was not prepared to distort evidence in order to provide the government with a moral message. I can see that. Governments are for ever intent on "sending the right message". Usually, this cop-out is used when they have no proper concrete evidence to support their case and finally fall back on moral exhortations.
Drugs policy needs a fundamental overhaul but I see precious evidence that it will happen.
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Thursday, 29 October 2009

Voting BNP?

After my enthusing over a dark autumn day we have moved on to an Indian Summer. The weather has been beautiful these last few days with temperatures not far from 70F and some bright sun shine. It is all caused the met office tells us, by warm air coming up from the Mediterranean. But it's good and we should enjoy it while it lasts.
The big political talking point in the last week has been the appearance of Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party on BBC Question Time. Much has been said about this programme and the fact that a representative of an extreme racist party was allowed to appear. The programme did not followed a normal format with questions about many items in the news. This programme was a set up to attack Nick Griffin and the BNP. The audience was quite extraordinary and certainly not representative of ordinary society in this country. I did not think that either of the other politicians, Jack Straw and Chris Huhne, performed all that well. Jack Straw particularly was very shifty, refusing to answer several questions that attacked this governments record on immigration control. It now seems - we hear via a leak - that Tony Blair and Jack Straw deliberately engineered massive immigration in order to manufacture a "multi-cultural society" and to brand the Tories racist. If this is true, it is yet another sad indictment of the worst government in my lifetime. It may be that Nick Griffin did not perform all that well on Question Time but the publicity for his party has been extraordinary. The fact is that the three main parties have consistently refused to discuss the matter of immigration and population control. This in a week when it has been revealed that population is set to rise to 71.6 m by 2033 and that 66% of this increase will be as a direct result of immigration. With statistics like these the BNP will continue to get support and if the only way we can get the problem of immigration to be addressed is by voting BNP, I for one, will be voting BNP - even if they are racist and nazi.
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Sunday, 25 October 2009

Autumn in Suburbia

This morning began beautifully. Many would not have thought it beautiful. It was dark still, even at 8.30 am; a breeze was blowing and rain was falling leaving distinct puddles on the ground. The garden was a picture of autumn. The rain was refreshing all the plants after several weeks of limited rain. The weather has been mild so far in September and October and autumn has been dragged out. Today was a landscape of glorious colour. The grass and evergreens were proudly showing off their rich green colours - no submission to a winter of barren branches for them. The dogwood and the Virginia creeper were rich copper brown, the leaves starting to fall; within a few days they will be bare, shut down until the spring brings out new shoots. The silver birch had been the first to shed its leaves - as it always is — and the small yellow brown leaves were scattered around like confetti over the whole garden. Some flowers were still hanging on providing flashes of red and yellow and white in the steamy dampness. For a short time the sun would break through and the colours glowed and shimmered in the breeze, drops of water glistening on leaves and branches.
Up the back of the house climbs the ivy inter-mingled with wisteria growing higher and higher, now reaching into the cladding to more firmly keep its hold on the structure. But soon it will be cut back its progress slowed until the spring. The wisteria holds onto its leaves still but soon it will give up the fight and the wiry leaves will fall.
A robin and a sparrow poked about among miniature leaf piles, rattling around for some rich morsels of food. As they poked and prodded, they flicked dead foliage into the air, scratching the ground intent on their tasks.
Clouds scudded across the sky sometimes grey and very threatening but only a steady light rain fell, trickling across leaves and stems, over rocks and bundles of stones, through cracks and crevices, rustling as it went. The birds flew away and the scene settled again as the quiet autumn slumbered on. Devoid of grandeur but poetic nevertheless. Yes, it really was beautiful.
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Wednesday, 21 October 2009

Being Able To Read

It is a long time since I learned to read. In fact, I can hardly remember not being able to read. I do remember my time at St George's School and that classroom with the roaring open fire in winter and the old blackboard in the corner with an alphabet and little drawings on it that helped us to learn. A is for Apple. B is for Ball. C is for Cat. D is for Dog. And so on. Beyond picturing that, I have always been able to read. From my youngest days my parents bought books for me and I read them avidly, lost in worlds of engineering and history. In September 1949, my father took me to the Isle of Man for the Manx GP motorcycle racing when I was only 8 years old. Apart from watching the races, we travelled around the island on the quaint IoM railways, going to Ramsey, Port Erin and Laxey. On the Friday, the weather was typical IoM and mist and drizzle came in off the Irish Sea gripping the island in a chilly dampness. Dad bought a book for me to read as we visited various tea and coffee shops and ate our fish and chips at lunch time. Some of the time we just sat under the covered walkway along the promenade. I still have that hard-backed book, "The Emperor's Bracelet" written by Manning Coles - an author, who was, apparently, two people. It was a full length novel about Romans and I got through all of it before I went to bed.
Being able to read and write is so absolutely fundamental to learning that to have to say so seems unbelievable. But this appalling mish-mash that passes for education in this country achieves so little that many children leave school at 18 almost functionally illiterate - in spite of their having impressive lists of GCSE passes. Sir Terry Leahy, the boss of Tesco, has complained about the quality of people applying for jobs in his company. He tells us that he is having to set up teaching systems to lay the very foundations of literacy that should have been learned at or before age seven. Also, it is my own experience that many young people have poor reading skills. One London recruitment agency has confessed that it has been seeking graduates from Hungary to fill vacancies in the UK because they have a better understanding of English and English grammar. Too many British young people, unable to rise above the standards of text messaging, were unable to express their thoughts clearly, concisely and without ambiguity. Some weeks ago, we learned that 25% of students entering a university had never read a book. Is this credible? How can anyone arrive at the doors of a university and not have read many, many books? Surely, there can be no greater indictment of the failings of teaching in English schools than a suggestion that Hungarians can read and write our language better than we can.
Without a literate population, we, as a nation, will just sink ever lower in the international pecking order. If we are to have any real economic recovery - and it is a big if - we must make things again and that will require a technically competent workforce, with good quality engineers and scientists. That can only be done if all of our children are literate from an early age.
Oh, how badly we have been governed over so many years. Is there a will to make Britain Great again? Will our citizens once again be able to travel around the world and see structures and buildings and railways and cars and so on and be able to say "We built that!"
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Friday, 16 October 2009

MPs Remain Out Of Touch


This week our wonderful MPs have returned after their 82 day break for rest and recuperation. I think they may have hoped that during their absence the expenses scandal would have gone away, but it has not. The expenses investigator, the grand inquisitor, Sir Thomas Legg, has made up his mind what is reasonable for MPs to have claimed for cleaning and gardening and anything beyond that he has told them they have to pay back. His investigations have revealed more horrors and yet more MPs will be standing down. So far he has not tackled the matter of mortgage fraud - claiming from the tax-payers for houses that they do not live in; flip-flopping between first and second homes to get maximum benefit and then selling at a profit without paying capital gains tax. This is an area where money numbers are large. Apologizing - as Jacquii Smith did - is not enough.
Another matter from the first week back in Westminster that I must comment on is Afghanistan. While MPs were sunning themselves on the beaches for those 82 days, another 37 soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, fighting an un-winnable war with inadequate numbers and inadequate equipment. It is worth remembering that the Russians with 250,000 troops could not control Afghanistan. Yesterday, Gordon Brown had to stand up in the House of Commons and read out the longest list of military deaths in many years and to express his regret at those deaths. And as he did so, the Commons emptied. Have they no shame? Can they not understand some things are unarguable. These men died fighting for their country in a war that has been supported by both Tories and Labour and yet our representatives did not have the decency to sit and listen to the roll call of death and at least give an impression of regret.
They don't get it even now. After the constant reminders that they are out of touch; that they have fiddled their expenses [not all of them]; that none of them has gone to Wootton Bassett to show some concern about the constant parade of coffins holding dead soldiers repatriated via RAF Lyneham, almost every other day of the week; that now they do not even have the decency to listen to the Prime Minister out of courtesy - at least - and out of respect.

On Wednesday, MPs of all parties got together in a meeting to discuss a matter of concern to all. What you may ask? The economy? The recession? The Postal strikes? Afghanistan? None of these. They got together to unite in an attack on Sir Thomas Legg, his review of their expenses and his demands that they do the decent thing and pay up.

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Thursday, 15 October 2009

Operating A Cutting Board

The other day I bought a cutting board from Ikea. Basically, it is a piece of wood. It came complete with an instruction manual spreading over four pages and in eighteen languages. It cost £5. Compare this with a computer system, which normally comes with no instructions at all. Sure they include literature supplied by various component suppliers and a CD of any software installed [if you are lucky]. But instructions about the computer, the sockets on the back, etc - nothing. The computer would be £500+.
It's a funny old world.
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Wednesday, 14 October 2009

No More X Types

It's a funny old world. Those of you interested in Jaguar cars will have noticed that the X Type will discontinue manufacture at the end of December. It is effectively there already, since Jaguar now just make them to order. Now that Jaguar have broken their links with Ford it seems that they want to expunge any remaining traces of their involvement with a mass car manufacturer - although it is a job to square this with the tie-up with Tata. The X Type has been badly handled by the marketing department right from the start. It did not sell as many as Jaguar said that it would; not because there was much wrong with the car, rather it was slagged off by all and sundry because it used Ford bits. Lots of manufacturers use parts from big companies like Ford because it makes sense. In spite of everything the X Type has consistently been Jaguar's best selling car. Now - lo and behold - What Car's JD Power owner satisfaction survey reveals that the now 9 year old X Type placed second behind the Lexus IS but ahead of the much promoted BMW 3 Series and the Mercedes C Class. The Jaguar was liked for being solid, reliable and economical and with good service from Jaguar dealers. In the overall satisfaction table it placed 17th out of 101 cars. The BMW had air conditioning problems and the Mercedes owes its high place only to the service provided by dealers. This car suffered problems with the engine, transmission, sat nav system, the stereo and the seats. Both of these cars have received much praise from the motoring press at the same time that they have been attacking the X Type for containing Ford bits. I have found that everyone who actually has owned an X Type likes it. I certainly do. But from December, it will be no more.
Now, we learn that Jaguar is going to bring out another small car but, it seems, it will be a small sports coupe that will cost an arm and several legs. There is a big demand for one of these, is there? I still feel that they should have produced a new X Type small saloon and estate car using parts from the latest designs. However, current thinking is that they could never compete with BMW, so they will give up and go for the niche market. I am always dubious about niche markets. If there is a niche market with a serious demand for a product, you can bet your last dollar that someone else will start to make a competitor.
We will have to see. The XF sells well and the new XJ may sell well. It is a limited market for cars that cost over £50,000 and the XJ will face some stiff competition.
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Saturday, 10 October 2009

Being A Student Is Expensive

A couple of days ago I was given cause to ponder my days in university, nearly 50 years ago, when I read a report by Professor Kelvin Sharpe of Queen Mary, University of London, who, writing in The Times Educational Supplement, thought that it was hardly surprising that today's students were moaning about massive debts when they were living such luxurious lifestyles. Professor Sharpe is nearly ten years younger than I and he has been touring round university campuses to check on just how students live. It is apparent that Professor Sharpe, in his university student days lived a life similar to mine - one of frugal squalor. I did better than many students in Leeds, in that I always lived in approved lodgings but that was never a guarantee of unalloyed luxury. Many others squatted in buildings that were quite Dickensian and would have been demolished once the authorities had cleared out all the students. I had an annual grant of about £230 to £250 per year and with a bit of help from dad and a summer job, I got by OK; as did almost all the other students I knew. My money paid for my lodgings - about £4.00 per week - my books, my clothes, my non-digs food and the beer and fags. Clearly, the success of various governments over the last 50 years in combating inflation makes these numbers sound almost medieval but Professor Sharpe noted that today's student seems to need a laptop computer, a mobile phone, a plasma TV - with Sky box, - two bathrooms [two bathrooms?], a fancy iPod and any other new-fangled unnecessary gadget you care to name. In many university towns taxi drivers lament the student holidays which knock great holes in their takings. As a student, I never, ever, rode in a taxi. The professor found bars and restaurants were filled with students drinking cappuccinos at £2.00 a time and keeping body and soul together with smoked salmon sandwiches.
All of this paints an incredible picture of modern student life. It is an absurd situation. Too many students are sent to useless universities in order to study useless subjects, run up a massive debts while they are doing it and then struggle to find a real job. The Labour government's crackpot education schemes have created the situation. It is made worse, surely, by the obsession with celebrity. In this scenario, everyone is entitled to a Posh and Becks lifestyle without having the abilities of David Beckham to go with it. It is the same with buying houses. First-time buyers set out to buy houses they can't afford, with money they haven't got, supported by banks and building societies that fail to check how they will get their money back. So students want the fruits of success before they even see success on the horizon and wonder why the money supply is inadequate. It's a funny old world.
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Wednesday, 7 October 2009

Get Rid Of Useless Bureaucracy

Today has been a warm autumn day - in fact almost an Indian summer of a day here in the north of England. While rain pours on the south the sun has been shining on Manchester and the Tory Party in their conference. During this week they have been spelling out some details of their policies in government without being too specific in order to give credibility to their claims that they are the right people to form the next government.
It seems that every political party now assumes that they will have to tackle the problem of the ever increasing government deficit in the short term rather than the long. This may or may not be entirely true but it is important that all parties give an indication, at least, of how they will eventually get the deficit down. Most of what they all propose encompasses cuts in services and increases in taxation by one means or another. The problem I have with all this is that it ignores the growth in useless bureaucracy caused by more and more regulations that serve no purpose other than to increase regulation, supervision and documentation. We have vast armies of bureaucrats and quangos passing around juggernaut loads of paperwork in order to allow ordinary people, other bureaucrats and service providers to tick boxes and answer unnecessary questions. We are told that more than 3,500 new criminal offences have been added to the statute book during the life of this useless Labour government. Police spend 50% of their time filling in forms; surely it was never intended to be like this? All the new legislation involves tons of paper and regulations and information documents and copies of dozens of forms and data bases and buckets of money. Whichever party is in office after next year's election should commit to getting rid of all this rubbish and concentrate of providing services, not on Westminster surveillance of the populace. Without such a commitment we will face a situation in which we get rid of the actual services and keep the bureaucrats. Like Jim Hacker's new hospital which had 500 administrators who were over-worked running a hospital that had no medical staff and no patients, we can run the machinery of government to provide no services whatsoever.
The problem is that armies of people work for the government shifting all this paper around and collecting all the data and if we get rid of all this, another million people will be thrown out of work. But we have to do it. We cannot carry on with a situation where the tax burden goes up and up in order to pay for all this stuff. Further the problem is exacerbated by the fact that various governments over the last fifty years have presided over the steady destruction of British industry such that now we make almost nothing for ourselves. In so many ways government - not just this Labour government - have missed one technical opportunity after another to build new industries. We live on wind-swept isles but yet we have only 2% of our electrical energy generated with wind power; the Germans have 20%. Throughout our industries there is example after example of boats being missed so that now our pathetic isle has to rely on assembling other countries cars; buying railway systems from Italians and Japanese; buying telephones from Finland; buying gas from Norway and Russia; buying computer systems from anywhere; buying ships from Europe or SE Asia - now we cannot even overhaul a big ship. The Labour government would rather employ thousands of people to administer a system of supplementary benefits that ensures that 50% of the population gets less pension rather than get rid of the paper shifting and pay everybody the same pension. The daft system used gives nobody any advantage while penalising those who have saved for their retirements.
The Tories may not do everything that I would like but they are at least facing up to the reality of government waste - I hope. After all, it was Michael Heseltine who said - when he was a government minister - that the problem in trying to cut the bureaucracy was that it was the bureaucrats who would be the ones who would have to organise it. And like turkeys voting for Christmas it was not a project that could be guaranteed to succeed.
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Monday, 5 October 2009

Can I Have A Job?

So, as expected, the Irish voted "Yes" for the Lisbon Treaty. They voted 2:1 in favour, which reflects the economic situation of Ireland more than it really represents the wishes of the Irish people. Interestingly, it was Sinn Fein that, of all political organisations, came out most strongly against. Perhaps they thought that having fought to break from the bonds of Britain they did not want to be tied by new bonds from the EU. The Irish vote is bad for all of us. This much is made clear by the manoeuvring that has started already for various dead or dying politicians to set themselves up for lucrative new positions in this growing monstrosity. Every new post will require yet more armies of paper shifters in Brussels and the people of Europe will forfeit yet more authority and powers to the EU. It is rumoured already that Cheri Blair is house hunting in Brussels. If her self-righteous husband becomes the new EU president, she will carry on her legal activities commuting regularly to/from London. It should be noted that not one of us will be consulted about these new appointments. The EU Old Boys Club will pass the Jobs around giving every useless politician a turn at the top job so that they can each walk away with a good pension and the golden goodbyes to feather-bed their declining years.
The EU will, inevitably, be dominated by Germany and German tax-payers will want their representatives to get them value for the vast sums they pour into the EU coffers. David "call me Dave" Cameron has promised a UK referendum if the Lisbon Treaty has not been ratified by they time they form a government - June 2010 if they win the election. The dead politicians already aboard the EU gravy train will do everything possible to bamboozle the Czechs into ratifying the treaty before the British get the chance to wreck it. The opposition to the EU in Britain is still considerable and no pro-EU group would want to risk a referendum. The EU only accepts referendums when they give the right answers. No member country has ever had a referendum, said "no" and had their way. The French and Dutch rejections of the new constitution resulted in the Lisbon Treaty - that neither country's leaders needed to submit to a new referendum. It was a con trick and everyone knows it was a con trick. But that is the EU. This foul conglomerate; this Tower of Babel; this insult to democracy; this bureaucratic muck heap; this politicians gravy train; this money wasting talking shop. Politicians love it and that alone must be reason to oppose it
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Saturday, 3 October 2009

Is It All Go For Lisbon Constitution?

It is past mid-day Saturday, 3rd October, and all the signs are that the Irish will have been successfully bullied into voting in favour of the EU Lisbon Treaty. This would make it certain that the politicians of the EU would be given the extra powers they need to run our lives and to appoint an un-elected president. This is typical of the democratic aberration that is the EU. It is corrupt, incompetent, wasteful, interfering and unnecessary. It is the quango to end all quangoes. The expenses scandals of our MPs are small beer when compared to the vast excesses of Europe. Now this Lisbon Treaty - the rejected constitution by another name - will be passed into law without any country, other than Ireland being allowed to vote on it. Too many votes on anything in the EU can lead to too many wrong answers.
Ireland has been overwhelmed by pressure applied by the EU and its officials and buckets of advertising in favour of this nasty document. But also, Ireland has severe financial problems resulting from over-extended banks and the credit crunch and now needs EU money to help with the recovery. In these circumstances, it was always likely that they would vote "yes" second time around - and they have squeezed some concessions out of Brussels.
How can anyone take seriously this corrupt monstrosity that is the EU? It creates jobs for Belgians but for years and years it has been unable to get any accountants to sign off its annual accounts because they are mired in corrupt payments and practices. And they get away with it - year after year. No company operating anywhere in the EU would be allowed to carry on trading year after year without submitting properly audited accounts - but the EU does. And no-one bothers.
Another aspect of the Lisbon treaty, which is at best is merely distasteful, is the suggest going the rounds that Tony Blair is likely to be appointed to be the first president. Apart from the fact that I do not believe that this slimy politician should be allowed ever again to impose his self-righteous hypocrisy on us, he will be appointed without a single person outside the Brussels cabal being allowed to offer an opinion or a vote. The new president will have a comfortable lifestyle - very important to Blair - with a salary of £270,000 per year and an expenses allowance of nearly £60,000 per year. When he leaves the job, he will get a golden good-bye of £500,000 and a pension of £57,000 per year - which added to his ex-PM's pension of £70,000 per year [inflation proof] - plus financing of his private office as an ex-PM. These and his other incomes should allow him and dear wife Cheri to continue to live in the luxury to which they have become accustomed. The only potential spanner in the works is that the EU may insist that he gives up his other money-making activities and that may be too much for this now exceedingly rich man.
Makes you think what a useful beast the European Union has become and why so many politicians think it is a wonderful thing. Peter Mandelson as an ex-EU commissioner was entitled to substantial pay-offs when he became Gordon Brown's Lord High Everything Else, - including a transitional allowance of £78,000 per year for 3 years and a pension of £31,000 per year. Without the EU how else could we guarantee the financial comfort of sacked, retired and temporarily unemployed MPs?

Why does no-one protest?

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Friday, 2 October 2009

Our Bonuses Are Constrained

Well, it's good to know that Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has persuaded the big banks to sign up to a voluntary code of conduct on the matter of bonuses for bankers - in line with agreements reached at last week-end's G20 meeting. Will it make much difference to the obscene amounts of money paid to executives and investment bank traders? Of course not. Already, the signs are that investment banks are going to make huge profits this year - just 12 months after they were bailed out by the tax-payers of the western world - and these huge profits will translate into huge payments to staff. Politicians of all governments and all persuasions have promised to take action against the banks but it seems that they lack either the will or the ability to actually do it. In the general public, many people complain about excessive bonus payments but, unlike me, few seem to be absolutely livid. Is it just that people do not understand how monstrously OTT payments to staff are? As I have said many times, it is not just a handful of workers in investment banks being over-paid, it is the whole damned lot of them. Lord Turner of the FSA has said that most of what they do is socially useless and yet they take home sums of money way beyond the wildest dreams of avarice of any ordinary person.
I will repeat the facts about Lehman Bros. At the time of their demise in September of 2008, they had 24,000 employees world-wide and in 2007 - their last full year of trading - they were paid, ON AVERAGE, $320,000 per annum - not including bonuses. These bonuses added, ON AVERAGE, another $200,000 to their annual incomes. These figures are typical of investment banking and it is totally and utterly wrong that they be paid so much. It is claimed that the have special expertise that justifies such payments - yet, these were the very people who brought the whole international financial systems crashing down. It may be that they were just totally incompetent. But, more likely, it may be that they lost the plot completely because all that they were concerned with was their own enrichment. I think that this is the case and unless they are totally constrained from doing the same thing again, they will do it again. What they have been doing over many years, is robbing ordinary people of their money and their jobs in order to maximize their own remuneration. It is wrong and it has to be stopped. One fundamental action that could be taken would be to split high street clearing banks from investment banks. Then if the investment banks fail, let them go to the wall; do not use state funds to bail them out. This will be resisted by the banks but the two activities must be separated. We cannot have investment banks operating on the basis of heads, they win; tails, we lose.
Mr Darling's agreement will make no difference to pay rates as all forms of remuneration are redefined to avoid the constraints of the government, the FSA and the Bank of England.
For many years now the City [London] has been allowed to do what it likes while various governments have presided over the steady destruction of our wealth creating industries to the point that we are now a third world state - a contracting economy. Let the hedge funds go to Switzerland or the Cayman Isles; let the investment bankers go to New York. Let us rebuild our country to make things that the world needs rather than have an economy that relies on massive debt and the crumbs that fall from the tables of the super-rich bankers and their impenetrable speculations.
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