Four Horsemen Appear before Paralament

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse appeared before a parliamentary committee today to apologise for laying wasted to many countries economies and destroying many thousands of jobs.

One of the horsemen, named only "The Shred" said sorry, and that he was only following his orders which was to make as much money as possible, no matter the consequences.

The trial continues...

Or something like that!

In the only opportunity to find out the why and wherewith all of how our two financial institutions nearly collapsed, the former Chairmen and Chief Executive's of Halifax/Bank of Scotland (Dennis Stevenson and Andy Hornby) and The Royal Bank of Scotland (Tom McKillop and Fred Goodwin) appeared in front of the House of Commons Treasury select committee. Essentially, these are some of the people to blame for the current recession.

From what I gather, the edited highlights are thus, they are all really sorry, but did not foresee the credit crunch, until the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September (a year after Northern Rock first fell into trouble in this country). The ABN Amro deal was described as a "bad decision" by Fred Goodwin, which was a bit of a no Sh** Einstein moment. When Barclay's felt that they had lost ABN Amro, they probably thought that if they were not going to get it then RBS would have to really pay to get their hands on ABN. Though I do know people who think that Barclays weren't really interested in ABN Amro, but more interested in the possibility of hurting one of their competitors. If that is the case boy had they succeeded.

I do suspect however that the four bankers did get off lightly, the questions put by the committee were not difficult ones, and the bankers easily evaded giving too much away of what happened. They did point out that they have been punished, as they have lost out when the value's of their shares declined, Goodwin mentioned that he alone has lost £5 million. Sorry, but I'm sure that they can afford it (Andy Hornby is still being paid £60000 a month), there are pension funds, and small scale savers who have comparatively lost out on a larger scale than they ever could. These people should try and say that to the 2300 people who Goodwin and McKillop's former employers are going to make redundant.

The four bankers were allowed to make their false apologies, and then not answer the really controversial questions. I'd like to see how they fare against someone of the callibre of Paxman, who would get the much sought after answers, rather than the preening parlamentarian's.

The Racism Revival

Its funny how thing’s pan out. Who’d have though that the use of an old BNP slogan by our dear leader, would have blown up in his face the same week as the offspring of one of our former leaders used a racist phrase. Would you adam and eve it! This on the back of Harry Windsor’s use of the P-word, though I was more offended by various Royal a*se-lickers sorry, Correspondents continued use of the P word on television.

Firstly, British jobs for British workers and all that. When Brown, as I understand it, misquoted his own speech at the Labour conference in 2007, he must have known that the phrase would come back to bite him in the posterior. The finest politician of our age, according to our subservient press, using BNP slogans which UKIP would happily use, is such a crushing blow to Brown’s credibility.

What is surprising is how this has come back to the fore. Workers at the Linsey Oil Refinery walked out when sub sub contractors of the French Oil company Total brought in Spanish and Portuguese workers, over the heads of local workers. The local workers have reacted with dignity, resisting calls from the BNP, and correcting the media at every turn over what the dispute is about. This is in spite of the opposition from the government, with Peter Mandleson warning against protectionism, and as I have pointed out, a media keen to peddle the angle thatthis is about generic “British jobs”. Well surely IREM (the Italian company who’s contract stipulated that their own workers rather than local workers should be used) are propagating a king of protectionism. Pot… Kettle anyone.

Mandleson’s handling of the whole affair has been completely unsatisfactory, preferring to blame the workers for walking out than think about the bigger picture. This is something that no Labour politician should think about doing, especially at a time when New Labour are tanking in the polls. But then again, having spent the last 12 years shunning their former core constituency, what really do these workers expect. Brown, Mandleson and Blair should have been brought back to core Labour values a long time ago, rather than let them get to peddling BNP slogans.

Whether the BNP, or more pertinently UKIP gain some electorial dividend over this (and it is hard to think that they wouldn’t, the BNP are experts in the black art’s of spin), New Labour have scored a massive own goal by misrepresenting their own supporters.

This is something which Thatch wouldn’t have done, and the daughter of Thatch (left) stuck her size 8’s right in it this week. She is reported, backstage at the BBC’s “The One Show” (where she is a contributor), to have referred to a tennis player as a “gollywog”. If she referred to the tennis player I think that she did, not only was it racist, but mind-numbingly disrespectful of arguably one of the best Tennis players of this decade, and one of the leading sportswomen of this decade to boot.

One of the things that supporters of Thatcher seem to have missed is that workplaces up and down the country are duty-bound to be sensitive to their co-workers. Where I work, we have diversity training, which this kind of situation is not seen in a positive sight. The BBC, despite what some of their detractors say, has done the right thing.

Clarkson Is A Twat...

The BBC's motormouth motoring maverick strikes again. Promoting Top Gear in Australia, Jeremy Clarkson said...

"He (Kevin Rudd, Australias PM) genuinely looked terrified. The poor man, he's actually seen the books.
"(In the UK)we've got this one-eyed Scottish idiot.
"He keeps telling us everything's fine and he's saved the world and we know he's lying, but he's smooth at telling us."

Now Clarkson IS a twat, and deserves a lot of the brickbats he is going to get for the one-eyed Scottish part - jeez he is perceptive. But to call for his head, its really a but passe. We seem to have lost any perspective on anything contriversial that is uttered by any employee of the BBC. I wonder if there are so many sensitive souls out there, why the torches are not out for Guido Fawkes, who's insults for our dear leader range from "One-Eyed son of the manse" to just simply "Prime Mentalist".

Completely agree with him over the last part though.

UPDATE: 22:20 - Just seen the full quote, strangely he retracts the "idiot" part but not the one -eyed Scottish part. Bit of a brain fade there.

Wanted... For Undermining Democracy

Now, let me get this right. The country is going down the tubes, we are becoming more and more of a laughing stock with every passing day, while our dear leader fiddles about in his deckchair rearranging exercise, while not doing anything to really help things. Like give the bankers the dressing down that they soooo richly deserve.

Then news appears about these jokers, and they are. But then maybe we are for putting up with an antiquated second chamber for so long. Whatever, these people, that is (clockwise from top left) Thomas Taylor (Former leader of Blackburn Council), Lewis Mooney (former Kirkaldy MP), Peter Snape (former midlands MP) and Peter Truscott (another former MP), deserve to be expelled from our democratic processes.

We need people to stand up for our interests, not the interests of the highest bidder. It feels apt that this is one of the key themes of late on this blog, and here we are again on my 100th DFP post. I feel that the next 100 are not going to be happy ones either.

Predictions for 2009

Normally at this point there should be some sort of predictions about how the year is going to pan out. Unfortunately I am rubbish at predictions, I thought Muse would win the Mercury Music prize a couple of years ago. Watching other members of the commentariat and the blogosphere has convinced me to get back on this particular horse, so here goes.

Our economy will not get out of recession this year, things will get worse. I suspect that Brown will not go for an election before the Council Elections in England or the European Elections, which makes the earliest date for an election July 2nd. I have made this prediction before, but I think that Cameron will win the next election, with a majority in single figures. The next election will be a good one to lose.

Can’t wait for that Lib Dem election victory then!!!

Did You Miss Me?

Sooo… what has been happening while I have been busy with work, because some of us on the blogosphere actually live in the real world, and have had writers block. Well…

The main news over Christmas and New Year has been the latest chapter in Israel and Palestine’s small local dispute. This is a complex dispute, which has its roots in history and our country wanting to do the right thing after the Second World War. What it has been played out on the media as is a huge playground spat, with he said, she said allegations flying all over the place. If the Hammas leaders and the leaders of Israel want to wage war, who am I to stop it, hey I would personally fill out the forms nominating these people for the Darwin award. Just leave the innocent out of your playground squabbles.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to one and all, and i hope 2009 will be better than 2008.

Normal service on Dispatches... will be resuming soon. Once the writers bloc disappears.

Green-Gate

The scandal now known as "Green-gate" really is the most spun, useless and obtuse scandal in British political history, with so many people spouting opinions, when in possession of so few facts. This seems to have developed into the media's favourite game of find a scapegoat... and hound them.

Yes, the arrest of the Conservative MP, Damian Green was heavy handed, perhaps our politicians should be made aware that no our police are not particularly good at their job, but they were following up a valid complaint about a security leek (in their own cack handed way). In any case, the civil servant involved has broken the rules by passing those documents to Green. He deserves the outcome of any disciplinary procedures which may or may not be ongoing.

What is particularly distasteful is the hunting of the Speaker, Michael Martin. Not sure whether he is good at his job, but since so many people up to this point have been found wanting, why focus on one person. Especially using such racist terminology as "Gorbals Mick", which for example, the Daily Mail writer Quentin Letts first used on Martin when he was first elected.

In the past month, we have had the high profile failure of a social services department come to light, our Police, gradually being shown to have been unable to spot and stop a mass serial killer, while our Bankers are on the verge of getting away with causing the biggest economic downturn due to their greed. And this is what vexes our chattering classes. Time for a reality check boys and girls.