tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78369066605715995262024-03-13T13:46:12.802-07:00Conflict 7 - The Troughneil2445http://www.blogger.com/profile/08054182680050832385noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7836906660571599526.post-2498297581114480422011-01-15T12:33:00.001-08:002011-09-04T04:06:30.856-07:00<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">‘The creatures outside looked from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNa551dR6Rc"><span style="color: orange;">pig</span></a> to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqrAeXFc77BFd7Uk6QffwQ50xcLF7iw7zrr8o3zfzcpDUY5P2zAX8QAnMQFw8yeT_mGo5lIIXlN6ewChb1DsbHuPn_cyNHILCxUyB7KazIuTOSE2TrZIy500SkAOau4bB5RT8-zP7hX6U/s1600/pigs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqrAeXFc77BFd7Uk6QffwQ50xcLF7iw7zrr8o3zfzcpDUY5P2zAX8QAnMQFw8yeT_mGo5lIIXlN6ewChb1DsbHuPn_cyNHILCxUyB7KazIuTOSE2TrZIy500SkAOau4bB5RT8-zP7hX6U/s320/pigs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">George Orwell, <i><span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=George+Orwell%2C+Animal+Farm&x=10&y=21"><span style="color: #ff6600;">Animal Farm</span></a></span></i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">‘This cannot just be national anymore. We must have global supervision... </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>The age of irresponsibility must be ended</i>. We must now become that new global order <i>founded on transparency, not <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7639031.stm"><span style="color: #ff6600;">opacity</span></a></span></i>.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My emphasis.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Gordon Brown, speaking in the <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">US</country-region></place> about the Autumn 2008 financial meltdown. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS;">.</span><br />
<div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">Gordon Brown's final years in office were pervaded by a 'permanent air of chaos and crisis', according to former Labour chancellor Alistair Darling - BBC <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14778802"><span style="color: orange;">link</span></a>.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">‘Multiplication is vexation,</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Division is as bad;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The Rule of three doth puzzle me,</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">And Practice drives me mad.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Elizabethan nursery rhyme by mathematician John <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://cdn.optmd.com/V2/76976/175773/index.html?g=Af////8=&r=www.rhymes.org.uk/a61-multiplication.htm"><span style="color: #ff6600;">Napier</span></a></span>, dated 1570</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">‘I did maths at school and for one year at university but I don't think I was ever very good at it - and some people would say it <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6589263.stm"><span style="color: #ff6600;">shows</span></a></span>.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">A decade into his role as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown stumbles his response to questioning by Jordan Beaumont, 13, on Chorlton High School’s pupil-run television station in 2007.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After one year of university level mathematics – and not one day’s professional experience in banking or high finance - Mr Brown was in charge of the nation’s budget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bankers grinned as they reached for their calculators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the 2009 </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">bank bailouts, figures released by the independent <i>Office for National Statistics</i> revealed British debt stood at £2,000,000,000,000 (two trillion).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To close the hole in public spending, the Government borrowed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because during the fat years, they’d squandered everything…</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Z7bsE4XHwYqfc52GzjyiLKzClezQ20LEaotjAI5zyP4Lt4p0SAXTAcDUhg9-IdQ34U5IfhLM3o609EeHKiiFcdAutvh9P0NgL3ON988iiTslNxiRrgeqdcKYcHbPfJRJySJcjER_EBY/s1600/Stock+exchange.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Z7bsE4XHwYqfc52GzjyiLKzClezQ20LEaotjAI5zyP4Lt4p0SAXTAcDUhg9-IdQ34U5IfhLM3o609EeHKiiFcdAutvh9P0NgL3ON988iiTslNxiRrgeqdcKYcHbPfJRJySJcjER_EBY/s320/Stock+exchange.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> including, against Bank of England advice, 395 tons of gold <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://www.bbcworldnews.com/pages/Programme.aspx?id=209"><span style="color: #ff6600;">bullion</span></a></span> – more than half the British reserves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The price was at a 20-year low ($290 an ounce – in 1980 it was $835), sent spiraling a further 10% because of his announcement – dealers bid down prices at the pre-announced auctions. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> In April 2011 it was $1,518.30 an <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13438179"><span style="color: orange;">ounce</span></a> (£918.70). In September that had risen to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/14726461"><span style="color: orange;">$1,900</span></a> (£1,171).</span></span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;">.</span> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tory treasury shadow secretary Philip Hammond said it was a ‘staggering display of economic incompetence.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Despite this, and with breath-taking self-assuredness, the former Prime Minister still jostled for the top IMF job in 2011. Current PM David Cameron poured cold water on the attempt to post his incompetent forbear as boss of a largely distrusted New World Order banking machine - BBC <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13438179"><span style="color: orange;">link</span></a>. Unsurprisingly, former confidant and 'Labour' leader Ed Miliband said Mr Brown was 'emminently qualified' to fill the post, which had been held by an alleged <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1388208/Dominique-Strauss-Kahn-like-gorilla-Actresss-sex-claim-IMF-chief.html?ito=feeds-newsxml"><span style="color: orange;">rapist</span></a> now bailed pending trial. Lovely people, the powerful. Neither Mr Brown nor Mr Miliband has even worked in a high street bank, let alone the high finance sector. One would do well to think of a worse-qualified person to run the intergovernmental organisation overseeing the global financial system. It would be as far-fetched as the guy who ordered the sexing-up of the Iraq dossier becoming the Middle East Peace Envoy. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">‘</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Dear Chief Secretary, I'm afraid there is no money. Kind regards - and good luck! <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8688470.stm"><span style="color: orange;">Liam</span></a>.’</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Still having to keep our attention on the back row of dunce Class 5D, we see the unkempt Liam Byrne, former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, sniggering as he scribbles a note to the new teacher on his last day of school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the New Labour experiment shuddered to a halt, the architects of the mess climbed into their shiny new cars and sped away to their smartly </span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">refurbished town houses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tens if not hundreds of thousands of traditional Labour voters had been thrown onto the scrapheap during a spending splurge never before seen – leaving us with the biggest deficit in the G20.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">And the bullion story in those days of transparency?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The New Labour government responded to <i>Sunday Times</i> requests to disclose the advice given to the Treasury at the time:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘We have decided that it is not in the public interest to release further <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1655001.ece"><span style="color: #ff6600;">information</span></a></span>.’ </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Since 2003, <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">China</place></country-region> doubled its stocks of bullion to over a thousand metric tonnes).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll bounce that one by you again…</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">‘The age of irresponsibility must be ended…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must now become that new global order founded on transparency, not opacity.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">‘…it is not in the public interest to release further information.’</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">There were many more cases of ‘opacity’ – Brown’s Budgets were met with rapture by the tame lobby journalists (who don’t rock the boat because their exclusives would end).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the years progressed, and fudging jargon was revealed to be private sector pension raids and the like, the happy trilling of the domesticated lobby <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/82525.stm"><span style="color: #ff6600;">cage-birds</span></a></span> became subdued as they waited for economists to examine the details; a news editor's roasting works wonders on the shrill trilling of the spoon-fed pathetic hacks of the lobby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The incestuous relationship with Alistair Campbell’s team of prostituted hacks, known as the government press office, was cooling.</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhJIMxI0hOrZJ-JYAgWAvgIAoTw0417WlfvIVDeh_rOinUdeeLElmcmwt-0JneSK0npdKcu9QUTmEQTq2FfJt6Ftx9-NZW72fNinL8X4AO9dXQFZLwQrUXkXhL3dqdZ8N22mOouLPLsTQ/s1600/shark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhJIMxI0hOrZJ-JYAgWAvgIAoTw0417WlfvIVDeh_rOinUdeeLElmcmwt-0JneSK0npdKcu9QUTmEQTq2FfJt6Ftx9-NZW72fNinL8X4AO9dXQFZLwQrUXkXhL3dqdZ8N22mOouLPLsTQ/s320/shark.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What sort of people use strangulated language like ‘opacity’ anyway?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To use words like ‘opacity’ instead of ‘secrecy’ is itself secretive; it immediately excludes those outside their world of jargon and insider-speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think of Tony Blair’s squirming use of the word ‘totality' when in a tight spot over Iraq.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These people are pros – not at running a country, not at organizing and galvanizing – but at chairing meetings, <span style="color: #ff6600;"><span style="color: #ff6600;">smarming</span></span> their way up poles, and swerving accusations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we choose them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For more on this theme, read Eamonn Butler’s excellent <i><span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+rotten+state+of+britain"><span style="color: #ff6600;">The Rotten State of Britain</span></a></span>. </i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">‘I have spoken to the chief executive of RBS, and made it quite clear - and he agrees - that no-one associated with these huge losses should be allowed to walk away with large cash bonuses.’</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7877161.stm"><span style="color: #ff6600;">Darling</span></a></span>, blusters his way on the <i>Andrew Marr Show</i>, February 8, 2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Royal Bank of <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Scotland</place></country-region> had a £20 billion taxpayer bail-out.<i> </i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">‘There are no rewards for failure.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Gordon <span style="color: orange;">Brown </span>on the 2008 banking fiasco, February 9, 2009.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Aged just 50, RBS chief Sir Fred Goodwin retired to the South of France, accepting £342,500 a year of public money – he had been entitled to over twice that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Officially; the bank was in the black so he was entitled to his pension. Because it was bailed out by us. As for accepting a smaller pension: a</span>n act of humility?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bluster of the politicians amounted to nothing; it was his own decision, urged on by national vilification in the media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> The politicians were talking bluster and hot air.</span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyqPob830kQIqhsdVv4NMeJu1cuOzNbGhE_GkLxuUguf1GZP8RL0zhYocAU0joVhgopn7m2V72b616owSwRBSbzTNl2We9wCj7brFz3HnWw64j-1LgYcYoBw6OGDExfwNx-z5gY9lquSY/s1600/Gerkhin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyqPob830kQIqhsdVv4NMeJu1cuOzNbGhE_GkLxuUguf1GZP8RL0zhYocAU0joVhgopn7m2V72b616owSwRBSbzTNl2We9wCj7brFz3HnWw64j-1LgYcYoBw6OGDExfwNx-z5gY9lquSY/s320/Gerkhin.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I believe that banking institutions are more <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dmPchuXIXQ"><span style="color: orange;">dangerous</span></a> to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around (the banks) will deprive the people </span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>fathers conquered. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixD-vaJ6gRcz8_wGAjdPv5XqadnXUnFCXrheeHORcZsHGXcQZGzR9zyKJA3-XLrspoywqk7KP88anZhtGcDZEcbx4-ywcA2LJco4tXfkopfaeigURoG6aVXcb2e451QA8yFfUX4TXylhg/s1600/steps+john.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixD-vaJ6gRcz8_wGAjdPv5XqadnXUnFCXrheeHORcZsHGXcQZGzR9zyKJA3-XLrspoywqk7KP88anZhtGcDZEcbx4-ywcA2LJco4tXfkopfaeigURoG6aVXcb2e451QA8yFfUX4TXylhg/s320/steps+john.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">This photo: John, a former Royal Engineer’s sergeant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His home that night the steps at <place w:st="on">Charing Cross</place> station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just down the road, for less than a pound, he can find warmth and solace in a cup of tea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At McDonalds…</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">‘Have we said hello to the policeman, children?’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Ronald <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/obs_6apr97.html"><span style="color: #ff6600;">McDonald</span></a></span> at <place w:st="on"><placetype w:st="on">Tower</placetype> <placetype w:st="on">Gardens</placetype></place> Play Scheme Centre,</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Tottenham, August 23, 1996.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ronald was invited to the annual ‘Fun Day.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGaU22DRJrPp3xCD-dr7OROjTHnBLK1IaFMvKhcA5PcELXhsUg1r9uDyb6z8-hrhK7as2l1WBkL_5vGQVwKIO365axht_JOu0gmNPbFom21k2Vopzt6Om3_BadpnIeKZHQJdZb3WGEU8I/s1600/mcds+yellow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGaU22DRJrPp3xCD-dr7OROjTHnBLK1IaFMvKhcA5PcELXhsUg1r9uDyb6z8-hrhK7as2l1WBkL_5vGQVwKIO365axht_JOu0gmNPbFom21k2Vopzt6Om3_BadpnIeKZHQJdZb3WGEU8I/s320/mcds+yellow.jpg" width="203" /></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">‘McDonald’s founder, Ray Kroc, believed that ‘A company only has the right to operate in a community when it is prepared to contribute to it.’</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So in every country where we do business, we strive to make a valuable contribution at both a national and local level…</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So all our franchisees are encouraged to ‘put something back’ by involving themselves and their staff as much as possible in local events, schools, community groups and organisations and to raise funds for local charities.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">McDonald’s <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/static/pdf/aboutus/franchise/McDonaldsFranchiseBrochure.pdf"><span style="color: #ff6600;">Franchising</span></a></span></span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">(brochure for potential franchisees)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">‘It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from regard to their own interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We address ourselves not to their humanity but their self-love.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Wealth of Nations</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> (1776) book 1, chapter 2</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Scottish philosopher and economist Adam <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=adam+smith+wealth+of+nations&x=11&y=15"><span style="color: #ff6600;">Smith</span></a></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">‘We sold them a dream and then paid them as little as possible.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Ray Kroc, founder of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V168xofxgu0"><span style="color: orange;">McDonald’s</span></a> empire</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_TogCgdYfeLQrgwgWKRk1_JYLPnoXV3lW2jlq4GOpCWf-XdRcuuAhZEii1bbojwhHDBwH8S3BFkEXDB5x-scLTQg3EUqrbFAYsQFcIW2AglnQ0vxBYBCM_4tVNE1rBCGkjBrGYGR2L8Q/s1600/mcds+riot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="322" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_TogCgdYfeLQrgwgWKRk1_JYLPnoXV3lW2jlq4GOpCWf-XdRcuuAhZEii1bbojwhHDBwH8S3BFkEXDB5x-scLTQg3EUqrbFAYsQFcIW2AglnQ0vxBYBCM_4tVNE1rBCGkjBrGYGR2L8Q/s400/mcds+riot.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Outside the damaged <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcPvHkXfqoc"><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">London</span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>McDonald’s restaurant on <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Whitehall</city></place> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>during the May Day 2000 anti-capitalist riot…</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Among the few demonstrators who</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Ffq4un-pZRyuRXJuzhyV4GA873MFXxDjmO0u4XiLf-07Y2IdBDJ-mqrlwo7i739HI5Ob8381_f4BiRIlfsoYldP3o-biBzuP2GzxXDlth-KVy-2jYrIpK103P1KDWt5HET5KqkicwgY/s1600/mcds+two+-+sky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Ffq4un-pZRyuRXJuzhyV4GA873MFXxDjmO0u4XiLf-07Y2IdBDJ-mqrlwo7i739HI5Ob8381_f4BiRIlfsoYldP3o-biBzuP2GzxXDlth-KVy-2jYrIpK103P1KDWt5HET5KqkicwgY/s320/mcds+two+-+sky.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">always turn out are the black clad young <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkiMF_p6pok"><span style="color: orange;">anarchists</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is ironic that the </span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">real anarchy in the <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">UK</country-region></place> is in the heart of the system; people in government, town halls and the banking industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The self-serving powerful are encouraged by our apathy.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">anarchy</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1y3l_JuZ6s9mhvtADKuLKZN7spEto2czcv9mRXm69qwMVGc9cycfKAA2VSFSv0G76n_lmX3FF_1AtfPBXy9zp-bA1eekwR5WEEToM2vThsuS0p6y3Xh6PzdfghUgLJyo50paghHf2lak/s1600/chris+megaphone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="241" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1y3l_JuZ6s9mhvtADKuLKZN7spEto2czcv9mRXm69qwMVGc9cycfKAA2VSFSv0G76n_lmX3FF_1AtfPBXy9zp-bA1eekwR5WEEToM2vThsuS0p6y3Xh6PzdfghUgLJyo50paghHf2lak/s320/chris+megaphone.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anarchist professor Chris <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSv4XZSR5ZI"><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Knight</span></a>, of <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53674491031#!/photo.php?fbid=1820037509184&set=o.53674491031"><span style="color: orange;">Meltdown</span> </a>2017</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> • <b>noun</b> <b>1</b> a state of disorder due to lack of government or control. <b>2</b> a society founded on the principles of anarchism. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> — ORIGIN Greek <i>anarkhia</i>, from <i>an-</i> ‘without’ + <i>arkhos</i> ‘chief, ruler’.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Compact <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Oxford</city></place> English Dictionary</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><em><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></em></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">‘It is the death of the spirit we must fear.<br />
To believe only what one is taught and brought up to believe,<br />
to repeat what one has been told to say,<br />
to do only what one is expected to do,<br />
to live like a factory-made doll,<br />
to lose confidence in one's independence<br />
and the hope of better things -<br />
that is the death of the spirit.’</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Tokutomi <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://www.mayfly.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Words_of_Wisdom/Spirit_Roka.htm"><span style="color: #ff6600;">Roka</span></a></span> (1868-1927), Japanese writer and philosopher </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">(quoted in JL Carr’s</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmwm8mgJI7MK7zCfeYdx15O7n2xl8a9NoI9zTY1ZqcXEjkfasNs1CI6kavu-50_kz5HQgnUQt-iI9TuktvauUAfjS3ti87KE1a4h0nNlvu_6td60J6vT_XvlEaZ8aSrej9kgatC0hB-Hs/s1600/hippy+chick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmwm8mgJI7MK7zCfeYdx15O7n2xl8a9NoI9zTY1ZqcXEjkfasNs1CI6kavu-50_kz5HQgnUQt-iI9TuktvauUAfjS3ti87KE1a4h0nNlvu_6td60J6vT_XvlEaZ8aSrej9kgatC0hB-Hs/s320/hippy+chick.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Parliament Square's Democracy Village <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/neil-jackson/sets/72157623566504249/"><span style="color: orange;">protest</span></a>, Summer 2010</td></tr>
</tbody></table><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The Harpole Report)</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><i><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">As the great lie is revealed – prosperity for all – and the youth turn away from the TV and it’s celebrity dream-bubble, the streets will once again be a scene of energy. As the storm gathers, so we will see new lines drawn between the cosy political elite and the connected generation, dismissive of the game-shows and drivel that dimmed the minds of their contented forbears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hunger is a powerful driving force…</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;">.</span> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Public sector chiefs and MPs live in a protected bubble characterised by massive consumption and sleaze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beneath them in our caste-stratified society lies an idealogically-sound layer of apparatchiks, management bureaucrats also rummaging about in the public purse, riding comfortably along on the UK-PLC gravy train.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the most topsy-turvy example of double-standards is the case of Richard Laing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boss of the government-owned agency tasked with eradicating world poverty (no-one can accuse the bankrupt people of <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Britain</place></country-region> of low ambitions), </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Mr Laing of CDC Group PLC pocketed nearly £1 million of our money in 2007 </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">'CDC has long abandoned any interest in poverty reduction. CDC is focused instead on wealth creation for the affluent, including its own chief. This is a travesty of its original mandate.’’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">John <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1175252/Extraordinary-1m-salary-man-pay-fight-poverty.html"><span style="color: #ff6600;">Hilary</span></a></span>, executive director of <i>War on Want, </i>points out the obvious<i></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFewfLcJ5hFsLJu72_XVEo3L6jLl490zX20CWVcAGDBsZcCD_pw8WRILkae1w5lqZSvZpwZApzOHZtSdG556XNbsigQoj-Wk80TcB2-2rlRyK8Kswrwf3oLVQLftIRDfqHCVdIqHRGB_Q/s1600/allenton+street.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFewfLcJ5hFsLJu72_XVEo3L6jLl490zX20CWVcAGDBsZcCD_pw8WRILkae1w5lqZSvZpwZApzOHZtSdG556XNbsigQoj-Wk80TcB2-2rlRyK8Kswrwf3oLVQLftIRDfqHCVdIqHRGB_Q/s320/allenton+street.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But do these well-heeled managers do a good job?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That depends on who asks the question. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">NHS managers, from the point of view of chief box-ticker, do a fantastic job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Praise must go to the bright young things when they re-classified hospital trolleys as beds after ordering the wheels removed (box ticked: provide more beds), switched treatment priorities from time-consuming serious ailments, such as cancer, to the trivial, such as bunions (box ticked: provide higher successful patient turnover) and re-defining corridors as wards (box ticked: provide more wards).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The list goes on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In one extreme case a hospital manager had staff writing to patients asking when they would be going on holiday – and then promptly set that time for the operation, knowing the patient would be unable to attend (box ticked: offer more operations)</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Is it wrong that taxpayers pay the wages of people who's devious tricks are aimed at cheating... taxpayers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does it matter that the pool from which these people drawn – the politicos, the managers - is so narrow?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Middle-class conformists with a university background, eager to please their bosses even if that means being cruel and unfair? A chilling reminder of the 'managers' of the 1940s.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfn2uZQnLu1rtqetZgJ7jG9SIfBRy_lOs9gntPi7PggwauR-iCViO9xNZTSYdVZGPFVDzxYrYpFfeiMSpF4aE_EbXg6rZ3Cev1qDE1Q3WikJKSlgRzURk2tof1be_Z8Yp4-UaSCl-BfF4/s1600/pigs2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="316" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfn2uZQnLu1rtqetZgJ7jG9SIfBRy_lOs9gntPi7PggwauR-iCViO9xNZTSYdVZGPFVDzxYrYpFfeiMSpF4aE_EbXg6rZ3Cev1qDE1Q3WikJKSlgRzURk2tof1be_Z8Yp4-UaSCl-BfF4/s320/pigs2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Town hall mandarins discuss their wages </td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the MP’s fiasco, nothing was learnt about openness and honesty at any level of politics…</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">‘Given the current climate we would like to be a little more circumspect about disseminating [councillors’ expenses] at this time.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Summary findings of the Local Government Association’s survey of councillors’ allowances, released in the middle of the MPs expenses debacle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus the media uproar over the sleaze and omission had been studied by another strata of frivolous tax-graspers, this time the Town Halls. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In plain English – stay hunkered down till the smoke clears.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_FAQxATi_krCewQiyLDPiATOlN4YEXndBFEfkJBvHXOutgNwS0a08hOBB8-1Xpla_9RA9dGOCAaEu2nKsibKiguFkSA59nfjM38dXfTXk1tgxnIh1GHm6d8BJ_fFCDc_zvSpkpZ_z0CE/s1600/Cleaner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_FAQxATi_krCewQiyLDPiATOlN4YEXndBFEfkJBvHXOutgNwS0a08hOBB8-1Xpla_9RA9dGOCAaEu2nKsibKiguFkSA59nfjM38dXfTXk1tgxnIh1GHm6d8BJ_fFCDc_zvSpkpZ_z0CE/s320/Cleaner.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First in the firing line - essential services</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Stoke City Council: </span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Cycling City Project Officer x2 <i>£21,519 - £23,708.</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;">.</span> </span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> 'This is an exciting opportunity for up to two people with a strong interest in cycling to work in the Cycle Stoke team at Stoke-on-Trent.’</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Advertised by <i>The Guardian</i> during May 2010</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">‘</span><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">700 jobs to be axed in bid to cut £33m from city council budget’</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">…</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">[Stoke’s £200,000-a-year] council chief executive John van de Laarschot said:… ‘We are facing a much more difficult situation than any of us had originally hoped for.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Reported by Iain Robinson in the<i> Stoke <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/713-JOBS-AXED/article-2825036-detail/article.html"><span style="color: #ff6600;">Sentinel</span></a></span></i>, November 2, 2010</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Difficult indeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Ever noticed how public sector vehicle fleets - minibuses, work vans and the like - are all spankingly clean and brand new, with fantastic flashy corporate logos (and boy do they spend money on their branding and logos!)? It's because of the Magic Wand of taxpayers cash. If you don't spend it this year, you <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8b3963VRW4"><span style="color: orange;">lose</span></a> it the next one.</span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As would the slashing of local government non-job ads be for<i> The Guardian’s </i>owners and shareholders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps mindful of their bosses monopolising a niche market (as <i><u>the</u></i> chosen advertisers of barmy roles), <i>Guardian</i> hack Rachel Williams was quick to defend her bosses revenue stream, picking through the mountain of Five-a-Day and community walking co-ordinators, enforcement officers and bin police, health and safety advisors and all the other dogmatic busy-bodies to trumpet one odd-ball post we are told is necessary…</span></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0T7-A07F-YLTyqEvhrYsRcDiqctGaEj7wTjdguQnxCjc9xKMJKEiZANEu9o8asAg39qcSNtmyt68x4j8HUpjbCYGJxmZ3TaXoE_2xnJ-Q8a4ZHXPxNmRCU6JEIQUjQKTNDFZqDv5rioA/s1600/g20+street+riot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0T7-A07F-YLTyqEvhrYsRcDiqctGaEj7wTjdguQnxCjc9xKMJKEiZANEu9o8asAg39qcSNtmyt68x4j8HUpjbCYGJxmZ3TaXoE_2xnJ-Q8a4ZHXPxNmRCU6JEIQUjQKTNDFZqDv5rioA/s320/g20+street+riot.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">G-20</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">‘</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">His (Cheshire West and Chester Council waste strategy awareness officer Jody Sherratt’s) role involves helping to increase recycling and cut waste – saving the borough money – by making sure residents know not just exactly what can be recycled (and how) but also, critically, what the overall benefits of doing so are….’</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jul/13/eric-pickles-non-jobs"><span style="color: #ff6600;">Guardian</span></a></span></span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">, July 14, 2010</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">A balanced story, <i>Guardian</i>-style. Spelling mistake corrected from the original.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">A society riven with quangos, inflexible and petty jobsworths, college Principals, hospital managers and council chiefs on more than the Prime Minister… the idiocy goes on and on.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To focus on the unelected quangos, spending in 2008/9 – a time of great recession – stood at £46.5 billion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The information was released quietly on the Cabinet Office website as Sir Thomas Legg’s report on MPs expenses was published to front page headlines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another good day to get rid of bad news – our public employee spin doctors were hard at it as usual, earning their wages by obscuring the truth from us; their timing disinformation in itself.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new order founded on transparency was soon put to the test and found wanting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Across the political spectrum, grasping MPs had been exposed for what they were in an excellent, ongoing </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">exposé </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">by the <i>Daily <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/"><span style="color: #ff6600;">Telegraph</span></a></span></i><span style="color: black;">.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Establishment were quick to come to the defence of the crooked – the Archbishop of Canterbury urged a halt to the ‘systematic <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8064828.stm"><span style="color: #ff6600;">humiliation</span><span style="color: purple;">’</span></a> of MPs as the story ran and ran, saying that it could do irreparable damage to public confidence in democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, he wanted secrecy to be maintained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A senior churchman, urging a seedy silence?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely not! Back in your box, church-boy. Look after your own filthy mess of paedophiles and the like.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;"> </span> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MPs expenses were officially published in June 2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And despite having nothing left to lose – all the information having been leaked by then – to the scorn of the people, they still chose to censor…</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;"> </span> </span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCWd-n2JKKLclN8bu_PlCSTbyNmlb_Q5v0tlB_ROwtR2uBF5AtP7vBKNgyIFLmJxeT4SiESRowdExEXz2Hvos9aFJcq1CYHjnsXqS9AlBV8SAh8ipa5O1j-up_e2AzhcBdCW1VyZHOLXI/s1600/Redact.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCWd-n2JKKLclN8bu_PlCSTbyNmlb_Q5v0tlB_ROwtR2uBF5AtP7vBKNgyIFLmJxeT4SiESRowdExEXz2Hvos9aFJcq1CYHjnsXqS9AlBV8SAh8ipa5O1j-up_e2AzhcBdCW1VyZHOLXI/s640/Redact.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Such contempt for the public was immediately reciprocated at grass roots level - the June 19, 2009 edition of <i>The Sun </i>ran the censorship story on pages 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other news outlets treated the story with equal prominence. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the light streamed in through the window illuminating the moats, duck houses and such-like, at last people became angry.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For once, the Fifth Estate, the media, was doing its job rather than obsessing about Cheryl <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a href="http://www.metro.co.uk/explore/people/cole_cheryl"><span style="color: #ff6600;">Cole</span></a> and </span><span style="color: black;">all the other plastic idiots we are told to salivate over</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Democracy swung into action, and the people spoke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The man from the church, trotted out to support his powerful friends, climbed back into his gilded little box (cut from the same cloth as politicians, he lives in a palace and enjoys the services of a chauffeur, gardener and various other servile flunkies).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to <a href="http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/blog/we-remember-mr-cameron"><span style="color: orange;">scrutinise</span></a> the corrupt and powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often as not, those people are one and the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is with these shabby characters at the helm (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">IS</i> there a difference between today's clone-parties?) that we steer into completely un-chartered waters...</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="http://conflictresourcewars.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: orange; font-size: x-small;">Forward</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> to Resource Wars</span></span></div>neil2445http://www.blogger.com/profile/08054182680050832385noreply@blogger.com0