Author: Daniel Margrain

I graduated in 2001 with an Upper Second Class Honours degree in Human Geography and Social Policy. I then successfully completed my masters in Globalisation, Culture and the City at Goldsmiths, London. I am a massive fan of the musician Neil Young. My favourite book is Murder In Samarkand by Craig Murray. My favourite album is Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and my favourite film is Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso. I have traveled widely and fell in love with Cuba and Madagascar. My other interests include politics and current affairs and social and urban theory.

Toby Young Regurgitates Old Labour Myths In Order To Denigrate Corbyn

· 2 Comments ·

In a debate on yesterday evening’s Channel 4 News (August 11) between Toby Young and Owen Jones, the former was aghast at the prospect of a Jeremy Corbyn victory in the forthcoming Labour Party leadership election campaign.

For the metropolitan elite, who Young speaks on behalf of, any notion that Corbyn could actually be victorious is invariably met with incredulity, derision or mockery.

Corbyn’s runaway lead in the polls, and the fact that he continues to pack out halls to capacity in rally after rally, is simply mystifying to people like Young. In a typically patronising fashion, the right-wing journalist was aghast at how Labour Party members could possibly support Corbyn.

Such support “beggars belief”, he said. He continued: “How many elections does Labour have to lose when it puts up a left-wing leader in order for the message to sink home”? Here, he is perpetuating the myth discussed here and here that left-wing leaders are unelectable.

He then made a reference to former Labour leader Michael Foot’s lack of apparent popularity in an attempt to bolster his argument. But again, he was dealing in myth rather than reality. A commentator on Craig Murray’s blog by the name of Bevin put Young straight on the matter:

“What happened to Foot’s campaign in 1983 was that a large part of Labour’s leadership seceded calling the Labour platform extremist and Marxist. This had the effect, amongst other things, of confusing much of Labour’s traditional support.

Occurring at the same time as a massive media campaign celebrating the SDP and its purported radicalism – ‘breaking the mould of British politics’ – it divided the Labour vote and handed the election to the unpopular Tories.

Then there was the Falklands effect. The notion that Foot was defeated in a straight contest with Thatcher and that his mild socialist policies were rejected in favour of her hard right programme is nonsense.

His position was sabotaged by a well financed and carefully co-ordinated campaign to split the Labour party, by a right wing faction that has, since the 1940s, relied upon US governmental patronage on condition that it use every weapon to thwart those in Labour opposed to the Cold War and in favour of nuclear disarmament and peace.

Those who actually recall the history of the period will confirm that both within the Labour party and in the broader population, nuclear disarmament, getting out of NATO and declaring British independence from the US were very popular policies.

The membership of the Labour party was overwhelmingly in favour of the left. The proto Blairites and the Grosvenor Square groupies invariably relied on block votes from the authoritarian Union leaders at the party’s annual conference. The membership of the Constituency parties always supported the left. And so did most Trade Unionists and Labour voters.

When predicting the result of the next general election it would be best to understand that, for the great majority of the electorate, the coming five years are likely to see the NHS going the way of free education, a housing crisis which will see large numbers of working families, once again, living in crowded slums, an enormous increase in unemployment and a radical decline in living standards. A return to Victorian conditions.

Any politician who can offer an alternative is likely to do better than those declaring that nothing can be done, which is what the Blairites say. That any such politician will be crucified in the media, slandered and misrepresented goes without saying.”

Heart Out To Tender

· Leave a comment ·

George Osborne is set to sell off more public assets than every privatisation of the past two decades combined.

In what has been dubbed the “Great British Sell-Off”, the chancellor is set to flog off public owned stakes in Royal Mail, RBS and other organisations – raking in a one-off windfall of around £31.7 billion in 2016/17.

This is more than the total of £31.7 billion raised by all privatisations since 1993. It would also be the largest amount of money raised through the disposal of public assets in any 12-month period in modern history.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey described the findings as “the sale of the century” and accused Mr Osborne of “rewarding the Tory party’s friends in the city in a spectacularly lavish style”.

He said: “These are public assets belonging to the taxpayer, held in trust for the future for the benefit of the many, not for the financial gain of a rich city elite.

“George Osborne is being utterly irresponsible and inconsistent. On the one hand he announces £12 billion of cuts, the pain of which will be felt by the most vulnerable, on the other he rushes through the RBS sale and in the process loses out on a £14 billion return to taxpayers.

“This is money that could have been spent on infrastructure investment, education and health for the benefit of all.”

TaxPayers’ Alliance chief executive Jonathan Isaby called the statistics “striking”, and stressed the Treasury should not use sell-offs as a substitute for planned spending cuts.

“It is welcome that the Treasury is looking to maximise revenues to fill Britain’s financial black hole, but sell-offs can’t be allowed to replace the spending reductions that Britain needs over the long-term.

“Every deal must deliver the best possible value for money for taxpayers, but it is good to see that an active chancellor is pushing ahead with selling off assets that can sit very happily – and typically operate more efficiently – in the private sector.

“He should look at every bit of government and, where sales of organisations, assets or land are appropriate, push on. People often say we should keep these assets for a rainy day – a £1.5 trillion and growing debt burden counts as a downpour.”

Mr Osborne began his programme of sell-offs this week when he authorised the disposal of £2.1 billion of shares in RBS.

Further sales are planned for the next few months, including the Government’s remaining 30% stake in Royal Mail, estimated to raise £1.5 billion, and shares in Lloyds totalling around £12.9 billion. The privatisation of £2.3 billion of student loans, along with assets from the former bank Northern Rock and other sales, would bring the total for 2015/16 to £31.8 billion.

The Press Association’s analysis also reveals that:

  • The figure of £31.8 billion for 2015/16 is roughly one fifth of the total amount raised by all privatisations from 1979 to 2014 (£151 billion).
  • The previous 12-month record was set in 1991, when proceeds from the sale of government stakes in BT, National Power, PowerGen and regional electricity companies in Scotland raised £22.5 billion.
  • The sale of the Government’s remaining shares in Lloyds, estimated to bring in £12.9 billion this year, would be the single biggest privatisation since the sale of British Gas in 1986, which raised £20.3 billion.
  • Nigel Lawson is the chancellor who raised the most money through privatisations, selling off around £73 billion of public assets between 1983 and 1989. Other chancellors to have presided over a large number of sell-offs include Norman Lamont (around £24 billion) and Ken Clarke (£23 billion).
  • During the Labour governments of 1997–2010, only £6.4 billion of public assets were sold, including National Air Traffic Services in 2001 and British Nuclear Fuels Limited from 2006–9. Note: all figures are today’s prices, calculated using RPI.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/george-osborne-flog-more-public-6200948

Equality And Social Justice – Cameron Style

· Leave a comment ·

The mainstream media today confirmed the Tories commitment to equality and social justice with their announcement of their plans to ensure that UK citizens aged 18-22 are (in line with anti-EU discrimination law), to be exempt from the same rights to tax credits, child benefit and housing benefit as their immigrant counterparts.

Government lawyers have stated: “Imposing additional requirements on EU workers that do not apply to a member state’s own workers constitutes direct discrimination which is prohibited under current EU law” (1).

So, apparently, in order to be compliant with EU law, UK citizens within the 18-22 age group must forgo these benefits on the basis that it’s discriminatory because immigrants are not entitled to them.

But instead of raising the bar by insisting that both UK citizens and immigrants within this age range be entitled to benefits on an equal basis, the Tories have decided to lower it by insisting that neither group are entitled to anything. In other words, equality in the gutter as opposed to equality at the dinner table.

The reason so many immigrants – many of whom risk their lives –  want to come here is because of the perception that the UK is a relative economic powerhouse. However, any cuts to benefits will not deter people who are primarily motivated by the need to improve the lives of themselves and their families as a result of perceived greater work opportunities this country allegedly offers.

The government have done nothing to dispel myths that the UK is a land of milk and honey. This would suggest that their plan to cut welfare across the board in order to adhere to EU law was planned. As blogger Mike Sivier put it: “The migrant situation is a crisis of the Tories’ own making and they are using it to hammer their own fellow citizens” (2).

So what next do the government have in the pipeline you might reasonably ask?

The Tories are ideologically opposed to the welfare state. This latest move is, I would suggest, part and parcel of their intention to get rid of it altogether by stealth. It’s a remarkable state of affairs when our only hope out of this morass appears to be Jeremy Corbyn.

Tough Tories

· Leave a comment ·

Mr Amin hatched a scheme to persuade the English Defence League (pictured) to announce an inflammatory march against a new £18million ‘mega-mosque’

Employers who take on illegal immigrants will apparently face new sanctions under the law. Immigration Minister, James Brokenshire said companies “will be hit from all angles” (1) with raids and checks concentrating on building sites, cleaning firms and care homes.

Apparently, the government intends to use a multi-pronged attack using HMRC, the tax office, the health and safety executive and the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (the body that issues licenses to employment agencies and gangmasters within the agricultural industries) in an attempt to tackle employers who break the law in this way.

But is this merely another illustration of government grandstanding and the use of soundbites in exchange for any serious commitment to tackling the issue? A Freedom of Information request found the Home Office had issued almost £80m in fines but collected just £25m. The figures show that more than 8,500 penalties totalling £79,300,000 were issued between 2008/09 and 2012/13, but two-thirds of that total remains uncollected (2).

In 2009/10 the number of employers fined for using illegal immigrants stood at 2,254. By 2013/14 (the latest available figures) the number had been reduced to 2,090 (3). The government would claim that this is a success. But Labour and the unions say that this merely shows that the problem is going undetected because a lack of resources because of cuts, hence the need for the crackdown.

Unite, the country’s largest union, argue that the scope and powers of The Gangmasters Licensing Authority need to be expanded to prevent abuses that amount to modern day slavery (4).

They said that if the government was really serious about this crackdown it would expand the remit of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority to include more sectors other than just agriculture. And they would give it more money. In fact, it’s funding was frozen in 2010 (5).

The gangmasters when contacted by Channel 4 News about the supposed government crackdown didn’t know anything about it (6). A poll of Border Force employees revealed 98% ­questioned thought staff shortages were stopping them making all the checks they should (7).

Meanwhile, on the back of Cameron’s description of migrants as a ‘swarm’ (8), Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond defended his use of the term ‘marauding’ when describing the immigrants at Calais who are trying to access the tunnel their (9).

This narrative fits in with the government’s perceived crackdown on rogue employers who take on illegal workers. In reality, the appearance of toughness has more to do with appeasing their right-wing constituency in an attempt to win back former Tory voters who deserted the party for UKIP prior to the last election.

Benefit Palace: Eight Months In The Life Of A Minor Royal

· Leave a comment ·

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

The UK version of a Kardashian, Princess Beatrice, has been been spotted taking to the water on Roman Abramovich’s £1 billion super yacht, Eclipse, which is docked off the Spanish coast near Ibiza. The Royal, who has racked up seventeen holidays in eight months since giving up her 20k a year role at Sony, began with a trip to see the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix back in November.

She has chalked up three skiing holidays on top of multiple hot weather breaks and repeated trips to New York where she visited her sister, Eugenie. In November, she visited the United Arab Emirates for a “business engagement” with her father, the Duke of York (1) that included a lavish party on board a Polynesian themed party yacht.

Later that same week, Beatrice flew to Beijing with her mother, Sarah Ferguson, for a wedding (2). After enjoying Christmas lunch with the Queen at Sandringham (3), Beatrice jetted off to Verbier to stay at her parents £13m ski chalet (4). She then flew off to the Caribbean where she saw in 2015 relaxing on a yacht belonging to billionaire Lakshmi Mittal (5).

Having made a quick trip back to London to hand in her resignation letter to Sony, she spent time on another yacht in the company of, among others, comedian Jimmy Carr. After a double holiday in the Caribbean, she took a trip to New York.

In February this year. Beatrice flew back to Verbier where she attended a St Valentines day party with her boyfriend in the company of Prince Harry and Princess Eugenie (6). She then went off for another skiing holiday, this time in Colorado where all four dined with US investor, Jerry Murdock who helped land her boyfriend with a plum job at taxi firm Uber.

In April, Beatrice went back to her parents place in Verbier. After spending a short time with them, she clearly felt that she needed another break from all the hard work. So she decided to fly out to Florida for her twelve holiday in five months (7).

Beatrice was subsequently spotted in the Gulf State of Bahrain as a guest of it’s Prince (8), whose father helped put down pro-democracy protests. So nice people to hang out with!.

In May, she flew to Florence (9) before jetting off for her third Caribbean jaunt where she was photographed lounging on a beach in Great Guana Cay (10) that’s home to just 150 people. It is also blessed with a five and a half mile stretch of sandy white beach, virgin forest, pristine coral reefs and beach-bloated, useless minor Royals with no taste, too much money and a hugely inflated opinion of themselves.

Isn’t it about time, dear reader, that all mainstream media outlets began to ask searching questions about the activities of the benefit scroungers at Buckingham Palace? They might begin by asking how a man with a modest naval pension can afford a £13m property and pay for regular private jet flights?

“The Royal Family is still guarding secrets that we the people should know about”, says the Guardian.(11).Three guesses as to where they get all of the cash to fund their extravagant lifestyles from. Answers on a post card.

The Children Of Gaza: If I Wasn’t There

· 2 Comments ·

Earlier today I visited an exhibition in London commemorating the killing of 500 Palestinian children by the Israeli IDF forces in last years Operation Protective Edge. The show, entitled, ‘If I Wasn’t There’, as part of the Gaza In Gaza exhibition at the P21 Gallery (until 22nd August) (1) was an extremely moving experience.

The show focuses on 400 individual pictures that depicted an activity or action Palestinian children might of undertaken had they lived through Protective Edge. The pictures were made on behalf of those who died – and thus their voices – simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

‘If I wasn’t there I’d be riding a horse’. ‘If I wasn’t there I’d be doing the gardening’. ‘If I wasn’t there, I’d be measuring how much I had grown’, were just three of the 400 themes on display. Artist Majdal Nateel, who lives in Gaza, uses images drawn on cement bag fragments to bring home to devastating effect the innocent young lives stripped of their potential by the inhumanity and illegality of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people.

During the latest Israeli phase of ethnic cleansing that inspired the exhibition, the artist was working for the U.N and alongside children in shelters. “When I draw I like to think like children as if everybody in all the cities were happy”, says the artist. “I am dedicating my artistic tools to talk on behalf of the children who lost their voices simply because they were here, or there….. If I Wasn’t There’ is about this: if I hadn’t been here, then maybe my mother would now be brushing my hair or making my favorite food, maybe my clothes size would have changed and maybe I wouldn’t be just a statistic broadcast on the news.” (2).

The canvas Nateel uses is highly symbolic as it represents fragments of the few cement bags (cement is a precious resource in Gaza) given out to the families whose thousands of homes were bombed. These, in addition to the scores of schools and nurseries in Gaza, still lie in ruins.

The intention of the artist is to elevate the plight of the children killed above the euphemism of collateral damage regularly attributed by power to those who die in conflicts. Nateel’s direct critique of war follows in a long tradition going back to at least the naturalism of Goya in the early 19th century but perhaps even more aptly to the symbolism of Picasso in the 20th. This exhibition deals head on with the impact war has on human beings.

Public Coffers Hammered

· Leave a comment ·

 Impressed: An image provided by West Ham which shows how the stadium could also be used as a concert venue after the Games

The new English Premier League football season begins today. As as life-long West Ham United supporter my expectations for a successful season are typically low. If the Hammers finish in a top eight position and have a good cup run I’ll be happy. With our move away from our spiritual home at the Boleyn into the Olympic Stadium at Stratford, east London next season, it’s imperative that we maintain our premier league status.

With a new manager and former player (who appears to be finally attuned to the  entertainment ethos of the club that the fans demand) in place, all is relatively good on the playing side of things. As far as the fans are concerned, off the park shenanigans are good too given that those who run the club plan to substantially reduce season ticket prices in an an attempt to fill the stadiums 54,000 capacity – a model that other clubs are encouraged to adopt (1).

But here’s the problem. West Ham United are paying just £15million towards the £272million cost of converting the Olympic Stadium despite the fact that, should the club still be a Premier League next year, it will – under the terms of a new TV deal – be entitled to a payout of at least £99million (2).

Small business people, many whom whom run their businesses on extremely tight margins, might be wondering how the elite within football, like multi-millionaire lady Brady, who brokered the deal are apparently immune to the kind of market forces that the former are compelled to adhere to?

As far as the super-rich with contacts to the top echelons of political power – whether they be premier league chairmen or City bankers – are concerned, it would appear that the kind of business risks the rest of us are prone to, is not applicable to them. The Premier League football racket is akin to the banking racket.

The Benefit Sponging Elite

· Leave a comment ·

Last night another row erupted after it emerged that hedge funds rushed to gamble on RBS shares falling in value after government plans to start selling its stake were leaked last week. (file image)

I was in my local cafe earlier today and nearly choked on my bacon sandwich at the sheer audacity of the banksters. I happened to glance over at the adjacent table at the copy of the Daily Mail somebody had left open. I generally detest this rag, but have to admit that every now and then it does come up with the occasional nugget.

The paper does appear of late to be on a mission to undermine Osborne and the Tories. As I alluded to in post on August 4, it was clear that the Tory Aristocrat had garnered some insider knowledge prior to the part sell off of RBS thus providing the opportunity for his mates in the City to, once again, pillage the public purse- this time to the tune of a cool £1bn (1).

This was money which no doubt could have been better spent on bailing out a non-taxable status charitable organisation like, for example, Kids Company run by Camila Batman (and robber?) ghelidjh. Maybe an extra billion added to the £3 million Cameron nodded through to the bankrupt charity would have saved it?

But anyway back to the latest banking scandal. With her insider knowledge and connections as a former City banker, it’s highly conceivable that Treasury minister, Harriet Baldwin. who defended the sell-off, would have advised Osborne on the matter.

The Daily Mail’s Banking Correspondent, James Salmon, revealed that hedge funds rushed to gamble on RBS – a ploy known in the market as ‘shorting’ – “may have generated profits of more than £10 million, This is because the bank’s share price fell in the days before the government sell-off.” (2).

Labour MP John Mann, a member of the Treasury select committee, said: “Yet again hedge funds and bankers are making money and the public are losing out.” (3). A few days ago former City trader, Tom Hayes,was given a 14 year sentence for his role in rigging the Libor interest rate. (4). But he is merely the sacrificial lamb for a much wider and systematic corruption that begins at the very top. The fact that these kinds of abuses are allowed to continue in the context in which people struggling on benefits are jailed for stealing food (5), is the scandal of our time.

The former Republican analyst Mike Lofgren, disgusted with what his party had become, said the following about the economic elite in the United States:

“The rich disconnect themselves from the civic life of the nation and from any concern about its well being except as a place to extract loot. Our plutocracy now lives like the British in colonial India: in the place and ruling it, but not of it ” (6).

He might as well of been talking about the UK, which is basically little more than the 51st state. Osborne and Cameron identify more readily with a transnational elite than with the other people of this nation. The proof is in the pudding. On behalf of this elite, the government gives away a staggering £93bn a year in corporate welfare – a sum bigger than the deficit.(7). It champions the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership; a graver threat to the interests of this nation than Islamic extremism.

And yet there is a iron-cast consensus between the Tories and the Labour hierarchy in terms of their unwillingness to tackle the problem. This explains why the latter distance themselves from the populist Jeremy Corbyn who wants to put and end to this kind of revolving door political cronyism.

The real benefit spongers are not those who feature on low brow documentary programmes, but rather they are the elites who occupy the corridors of the plush buildings within the City of London.

Forgotten British Victims Of Jewish Terrorism

· Leave a comment ·

tn-470801-Exp-edit[1]

On August 1, 2015, members of a newly-formed group Forgotten British Heroes Campaign held a wreath-laying ceremony near Trafalgar Square, London, in remembrance of Jewish terrorist attacks on British servicemen, Crown servants and civilians in British occupied Palestine in the late 1940s. The wreath-laying ceremony was followed by an indoor meeting and film show in West London. The meeting was addressed by Jez Turner ofLondon Forum, Peter Rushton, assistant editor Heritage and Destiny magazine and Lady Michele Renouf, director of Telling Films.

The ceremony recalled the following victims of the Jewish terrorism.

1. The two 20-year-old British Army sergeants, Mervyn Paice and Clifford Martin, who were kidnapped in Palestine by Menachem Begin (latter prime minister of the Zionist entity), head of the Irgun Jewish terrorists, and then on 31st July 1947 were hanged with piano wire in the eucalyptus groves at Netanya. Their bodies were booby-trapped in the hope of killing those who came to cut the bodies down (see picture on top).

2. The 100 British Army personnel, Crown servants and civilians who were murdered by means of a huge bomb planted by the Irgun in the basement of the King David Hotel, Jerusalem, on 22nd July 1946;

3. The murder by parcel-bomb in May 1948, in Britain, of Rex Farran, brother of Captain Roy Farran DSO, MC – an SAS anti-terrorism specialist. Rex opened the parcel addressed to “R. Farran” at the Farran family home.

4. Tthe murder of Walter Edward Guinness (Baron Moyne) DSO, and Bar, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and his British Army driver, Corporal Fuller, on 6th November 1944. The hand-gun assassinations were carried out in Cairo by the Lehi (also known Stern Gang) Jewish terrorist group.

5. The massacre of Arab civilian villagers at Deir Yassin, Palestine, in a combined operation by the Irgun and the Lehi on 10th April 1948 – killing 100 villagers half of them women and children.

On the day, a letter was delivered to the Israeli Ambassador in London, Daniel Taub, recollecting the details of the above and other Zionist crimes which continue until this day, and demanding, among other things, that Israel pay compensation to the families of the victims of Jewish terrorism, build a ‘Museum of Zionist Terrorism’ in Jerusalem and institute courses about Zionist terrorism in Israel’s schools as a warning to future generations.

The letter was signed by Martin Webster, Richard Edmonds, Jeremy Turner, Lady Michèle Renouf, and Peter Rushton.

The above article was posted by courtesy of Rehmat’s World at:

http://rehmat1.com/2015/08/04/forgotten-british-victims-of-jewish-terrorism/#comment-10781 

Banking Racketeers Set For Another Windfall

· 1 Comment ·

A sign is displayed outside of a branch of The Royal Bank of Scotland in central London, Britain May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Neil Hall

The UK Chancellor’s announcement that he plans to sell-off £2 billion worth of the 79 per cent stake the government has in RBS over the coming fortnight is, according to Unite national officer for finance Rob MacGregor, “recklessly irresponsible”(1). RBS shares that stood at £6.88 in 2007, are now valued at £3.30 (2). It should be noted that the shares have not been offered to the people who bailed out RBS, that is us, the taxpayers but to the Tories’ city friends.

The decision by Aristocrat Gideon Osborne, who seems set to be next in line to take the reins of PM from his friend David Cameron (3), and who promised action on tax avoidance (4), despite the fact that his family business has avoided tax (5), is defended by Treasury minister, Harriet Baldwin. Why would she defend the sell-off which will result in a £1bn loss to taxpayers, you may ask?

Well, it could have something to do with her connections within in the banking racket. Having joined investment bank JP Morgan Chase in 1986, she then became managing director and Head of Currency Management at their London office in 1998. She left the bank in 2008, after more than two decades with the bank (6). Maybe she has advised Cameron to get shot of the RBS millstone before his transition to PM.

The chief architects of the RBS collapse, Fred Goodwin and Sir Tom McKillop seemed to have disappeared into the ether.

To sell these shares when business is slow, many are on holiday and the stock market depressed, means its the opportune time for these scoundrels to defraud us for the second time round, which of course is really what this latest scandal is all about.

If, after this latest act by the page boy to his dads banker friends in order to further the interests of the banking racketeers, won’t have awaken the masses from their slumber, then I fear nothing will. There is no clearer illustration we are being taken for a ride than the governments collusion with the bankers as highlighted by this sell-off.  Austerity amounts to the raiding of the public coffers to bolster the pockets of the super-rich (7).

As economist Andrew Fisher alludes, this is clearly an ideological and dogmatic move by Osborne, not a financially pragmatic one:

“Banks that owe their continuing existence to public funds should be acting in the public interest — investing in the productive economy, reducing the margins between their lending rates and savers’ rates, and ending the fat-cat bonus culture at the top, while underpaying and laying off cashiers at the other end.”(8).

The Financial Times reported yesterday (August 3) that Osborne wants to flog off £32bn worth of public assets by the end of the financial year, as part of a strategy to reduce the role of the state that will do nothing to stimulate growth (9). The £32bn worth of public asset stripping that is to include the Met Office, Ordnance Survey and air traffic controller Nats, breaks even Thatcher’s record (10).

We are not in this mess because politicians are stupid but because of the cozy relationship that exists between them and the bankers who the latter lobby on behalf of (11). The Guardian outlines how it all works. A commentator on Craig Murray’s blog argued that:

“The entire RBS saga is a scam from start to finish:

• All banks make huge profits by lending prodigiously.
• Concentrate bad debts in a few banks.
• Instill ‘too big to fail’ meme.
• Order politicians to ‘nationalise’ compromised banks at huge cost to tax-payers.
• Continue injecting billions until ‘nationalised’ banks have paid off the lion’s share of bad debt.
• Sell bank back to bankers at knock-down price” (12).

Another commentator from the same blog makes another apt point:

“Note the bastards didn’t buy voting shares in RBS: the taxpaying sucker didn’t even have the opportunity to reform the bank. Lovely little restructure: the retail arm goes to another retail bank for a knockdown price (W&G may not have been too wise buying it even then), while the crooked division ends up divvied up between hedge funds. And lives to cheat another day” (13).

Don’t forget dear readers, we are all in it with the aim of getting the deficit down.