‘The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.’
.
.
‘This cannot just be national anymore. We must have global supervision...
The age of irresponsibility must be ended. We must now become that new global order founded on transparency, not opacity.’
My emphasis.
.
Gordon Brown, speaking in the US
.
.
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 link.
.
‘Multiplication is vexation,
Division is as bad;
The Rule of three doth puzzle me,
And Practice drives me mad.’
.
Elizabethan nursery rhyme by mathematician John Napier, dated 1570
.
‘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 shows.’
.
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. 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.
The bankers grinned as they reached for their calculators. After the 2009 bank bailouts, figures released by the independent Office for National Statistics revealed British debt stood at £2,000,000,000,000 (two trillion).
To close the hole in public spending, the Government borrowed. Because during the fat years, they’d squandered everything…
including, against Bank of England advice, 395 tons of gold bullion – more than half the British reserves. 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. .
Tory treasury shadow secretary Philip Hammond said it was a ‘staggering display of economic incompetence.’
.
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 link. 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 rapist 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.
.
‘Dear Chief Secretary, I'm afraid there is no money. Kind regards - and good luck! Liam.’
.
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. 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 refurbished town houses. 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.
.
‘Dear Chief Secretary, I'm afraid there is no money. Kind regards - and good luck! Liam.’
.
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. 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 refurbished town houses. 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.
.
And the bullion story in those days of transparency?
The New Labour government responded to Sunday Times requests to disclose the advice given to the Treasury at the time:
.
(Since 2003, China
I’ll bounce that one by you again…
.
‘The age of irresponsibility must be ended… We must now become that new global order founded on transparency, not opacity.’
.
‘…it is not in the public interest to release further information.’
.
.
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). The first time. 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 cage-birds 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. The incestuous relationship with Alistair Campbell’s team of prostituted hacks, known as the government press office, was cooling.
What sort of people use strangulated language like ‘opacity’ anyway? To use words like ‘opacity’ instead of ‘secrecy’ is itself secretive; it immediately excludes those outside their world of jargon and insider-speak. Think of Tony Blair’s squirming use of the word ‘totality' when in a tight spot over Iraq. These people are pros – not at running a country, not at organizing and galvanizing – but at chairing meetings, smarming their way up poles, and swerving accusations. And we choose them. For more on this theme, read Eamonn Butler’s excellent The Rotten State of Britain.
.
‘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.’
.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, blusters his way on the Andrew Marr Show, February 8, 2009. The Royal Bank of Scotland
.
‘There are no rewards for failure.’
.
Gordon Brown on the 2008 banking fiasco, February 9, 2009.
.
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. 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: an act of humility? The bluster of the politicians amounted to nothing; it was his own decision, urged on by national vilification in the media. The politicians were talking bluster and hot air.
.
‘I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous 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 of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.’
.
.
This photo: John, a former Royal Engineer’s sergeant. His home that night the steps at Charing Cross station. Just down the road, for less than a pound, he can find warmth and solace in a cup of tea. At McDonalds…
.
‘Have we said hello to the policeman, children?’
.
Ronald McDonald at Tower Gardens
Tottenham, August 23, 1996. Ronald was invited to the annual ‘Fun Day.’
‘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.’
So in every country where we do business, we strive to make a valuable contribution at both a national and local level…
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.’
.
McDonald’s Franchising
(brochure for potential franchisees)
.
‘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. We address ourselves not to their humanity but their self-love.’
.
Wealth of Nations (1776) book 1, chapter 2
Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith
.
‘We sold them a dream and then paid them as little as possible.’
.
Ray Kroc, founder of the McDonald’s empire
Outside the damaged London McDonald’s restaurant on Whitehall
.
always turn out are the black clad young anarchists. It is ironic that the real anarchy in theUK
always turn out are the black clad young anarchists. It is ironic that the real anarchy in the
.
anarchy
 |
| Anarchist professor Chris Knight, of Meltdown 2017 |
— ORIGIN Greek anarkhia, from an- ‘without’ + arkhos ‘chief, ruler’.
.
Compact Oxford
.
.
‘It is the death of the spirit we must fear.
To believe only what one is taught and brought up to believe,
to repeat what one has been told to say,
to do only what one is expected to do,
to live like a factory-made doll,
to lose confidence in one's independence
and the hope of better things -
that is the death of the spirit.’
.
To believe only what one is taught and brought up to believe,
to repeat what one has been told to say,
to do only what one is expected to do,
to live like a factory-made doll,
to lose confidence in one's independence
and the hope of better things -
that is the death of the spirit.’
.
Tokutomi Roka (1868-1927), Japanese writer and philosopher
(quoted in JL Carr’s
 |
| Parliament Square's Democracy Village protest, Summer 2010 |
.
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. Hunger is a powerful driving force…
.
Public sector chiefs and MPs live in a protected bubble characterised by massive consumption and sleaze. 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. Perhaps the most topsy-turvy example of double-standards is the case of Richard Laing. The boss of the government-owned agency tasked with eradicating world poverty (no-one can accuse the bankrupt people of Britain
.
'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.’’
.
John Hilary, executive director of War on Want, points out the obvious
But do these well-heeled managers do a good job? That depends on who asks the question.
NHS managers, from the point of view of chief box-ticker, do a fantastic job. 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). The list goes on. 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)
.
Is it wrong that taxpayers pay the wages of people who's devious tricks are aimed at cheating... taxpayers?
Does it matter that the pool from which these people drawn – the politicos, the managers - is so narrow?
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.
 |
| Town hall mandarins discuss their wages |
.
‘Given the current climate we would like to be a little more circumspect about disseminating [councillors’ expenses] at this time.’
.
Summary findings of the Local Government Association’s survey of councillors’ allowances, released in the middle of the MPs expenses debacle. Thus the media uproar over the sleaze and omission had been studied by another strata of frivolous tax-graspers, this time the Town Halls.
In plain English – stay hunkered down till the smoke clears.
 |
| First in the firing line - essential services |
Stoke City Council: Cycling City Project Officer x2 £21,519 - £23,708.
.
'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.’
.
Advertised by The Guardian during May 2010
.
‘700 jobs to be axed in bid to cut £33m from city council budget’
…[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.’
Reported by Iain Robinson in the Stoke Sentinel, November 2, 2010
.
Difficult indeed. 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 lose it the next one.
As would the slashing of local government non-job ads be for The Guardian’s owners and shareholders. Perhaps mindful of their bosses monopolising a niche market (as the chosen advertisers of barmy roles), Guardian 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…
.
As would the slashing of local government non-job ads be for The Guardian’s owners and shareholders. Perhaps mindful of their bosses monopolising a niche market (as the chosen advertisers of barmy roles), Guardian 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…
 |
| G-20 |
‘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….’
.
The Guardian, July 14, 2010
.
A balanced story, Guardian-style. Spelling mistake corrected from the original.
.
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.
To focus on the unelected quangos, spending in 2008/9 – a time of great recession – stood at £46.5 billion. 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. 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.
.
The new order founded on transparency was soon put to the test and found wanting. Across the political spectrum, grasping MPs had been exposed for what they were in an excellent, ongoing exposé by the Daily Telegraph. The Establishment were quick to come to the defence of the crooked – the Archbishop of Canterbury urged a halt to the ‘systematic humiliation’ of MPs as the story ran and ran, saying that it could do irreparable damage to public confidence in democracy. In other words, he wanted secrecy to be maintained. A senior churchman, urging a seedy silence? Surely not! Back in your box, church-boy. Look after your own filthy mess of paedophiles and the like.
.
MPs expenses were officially published in June 2009. 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…
.
.
Such contempt for the public was immediately reciprocated at grass roots level - the June 19, 2009 edition of The Sun ran the censorship story on pages 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Other news outlets treated the story with equal prominence. As the light streamed in through the window illuminating the moats, duck houses and such-like, at last people became angry.
Such contempt for the public was immediately reciprocated at grass roots level - the June 19, 2009 edition of The Sun ran the censorship story on pages 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Other news outlets treated the story with equal prominence. As the light streamed in through the window illuminating the moats, duck houses and such-like, at last people became angry.
For once, the Fifth Estate, the media, was doing its job rather than obsessing about Cheryl Cole and all the other plastic idiots we are told to salivate over. Democracy swung into action, and the people spoke. 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).
We need to scrutinise the corrupt and powerful. Often as not, those people are one and the same. And it is with these shabby characters at the helm (IS there a difference between today's clone-parties?) that we steer into completely un-chartered waters...
.
Forward to Resource Wars
