Banker Robbers Still On The Loose
If I considered it as the plot for my next novel, I would discard it immediately as being completely unbelieveable. It is outrageous. The story of the way the banks have wriggled and wormed away from their responsibilities is the biggest scandal the world has ever seen.
The Very Worst
Today the shameful figures are revealed of the number of complaints that our high street banks receive. See here. It is an appalling litany of failure and disrespect of customers. Complaints are at the very bottom of their priorities. They are inefficent. They have bonus systems that discourage staff from accepting complaints. Santander, which so many used to know as the Abbey or Alliance & Leicester, cannot manage to answer even half of its complaints within two months! It is shocking. It hasn’t got better since we all bailed them out. It’s got worse. Oh, except for the bonuses. They just get bigger and bigger all the time.
These problems, affecting the modest balances of ordinary people, may seem trivial in the context of the billions that the banks have already cost us but they are not. They are crucial. This is real money belonging to real people and needed to pay real bills. It’s not the cocaine, champagne, Ferrari fantasy of some City boy ponce. These figures indicate precisely the contempt, the utter disregard which bankers have for us even though it is we, ordinary people, who have been called on to rescue them from their catastrophic mistakes.
Actions Not Words!
Where is Vince Cable now? He is the biggest disappointment of the coalition government. His brave words as recently as the LibDem conference are all hot air. He has let us all down. His promises were empty.
We want the banks split up so that they are no longer too big to fail. Only today, in Ireland they are realising that their nation is still held to ransom by its bankers. So is ours.
We want retail and transaction banking separated entirely from casino investment banking so that there can be no more threat to our economy from the spivs and gamblers. We don’t want any of these sharks anywhere near our money. John Diamond, the putative new head of Barclays has made a £100 milion fortune on the back of the taxpayer and the banking crisis. He is not a fit and proper person to be in charge of a British bank. The government should ban him immediately.
Wide Boy Spiv
Late last year the Office of Fair Trading let the banks off a £40 billion hook. These were the extortionate charges illegally debited from customers’ accounts over the previous six years. See here. This was in addition to the £850 billion cost of the original bailout. See here.
How much more are they going to get away with?
When will David Cameron, Nick Clegg, George Osborne and Vince Cable stop dithering?
Stop the banker robbers now!
Ed Miliband
Family Trauma
I’m rather proud of the two brothers. Be as cynical as you like, it must have been a dreadful time for both of them. They have behaved as gentlemen, with great honour and dignity. They have risen above the snide provocations of the press. I thought David’s determination to stand well clear to give Ed a clear run was a noble and sincere act. He will return as an elder statesman. He will become an ever more important figure in British politics.
I’m more than happy to see a new broom in Ed. The Labour Party needs a fresh start. I think he’ll try to be his own man. He’ll try to shed all the baggage and forge his own path. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. I wish him well because I do believe that a strong opposition is a good thing. The inside information I have, from the heart of Ed’s campaign team, is that in reality he’s way to the right of David. We’ll see!
The Labour Leadership
Four Men And One Woman In A Sinking Boat
I suppose I should get my six ha’porth in, if that’s the correct expression, before the result is announced.
The very entertaining More 4 programme, Miliband Of Brothers, finally corrected my spelling last night. There may be two brothers but there’s only one “l”. I’ve been getting it wrong all the way through this thoroughly underwhelming campaign. At least it will be all over this afternoon. Then we’ll be treated to the appalling spectre of Gordon Brown making a farewell speech. Farewell and good riddance I say. The worst British prime minister in my lifetime. No doubt about that.
David Miliband is the obvious choice. He has the gravitas that you would expect from an ex-foreign secretary but I fear that he will be yesterday’s man by the time of the next election.
Ed Miliband has most of the qualities that his brother offers but with a spark of individuality that I think would serve his party well. If I was a a Labour supporter, wanting to see the party succeed, Ed would be my choice.
Andy Burnham can be very proud of the campaign he has run. He is coherent, honourable, very telegenic and, I should think, every Labour mum’s toyboy fantasy. He hasn’t got a hope in hell.
Ed Balls? Now as a Tory he gets my vote. What a total plonker! He would be disastrous for the Labour Party but it would make wonderful entertainment for the rest of us. I can dream!
I’m very fond of Diane Abbott. Along with all my fellow political junkies I love the Michael & Diane sofa partnership on “This Week”. They’re the real stars of the show, forget the leering old lothario in the corner. Trouble is, Diane isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. In fact she’s probably the bluntest in the entire kitchen so I’ll be looking forward to seeing her back on the sofa with Michael next Thursday.
The Pope’s £838,000 Spin Doctor
Monsignor Media
It isn’t even the Pope paying his salary. It’s the British public. It isn’t even his air time he’s giving away. It’s the British public’s.
The Public Sector Pay Scandal
There are very few things in politics that are simple. This is an exception. The principle, implied by Panorama, that no one in the public sector should be paid more than the prime minister seems very sensible to me.
I already knew that BBC senior executives enjoy vastly overinflated pay but the fact that Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC, gets £838,000 per annum is shocking. It is particularly hard to take after the absurd spectacle of the Pope’s visit. The leader of a very minor church, presently mired in appalling scandal, has enjoyed a bonanza of free, round the clock, TV, radio and internet promotion. I didn’t know but it turns out that Mark Thompson is a rabid Catholic. He has a nerve to run his own private campaigns at our expense! This is too much!
He is at the top and is the very worst of a deeply depressing list of excess and vanity. I am sure that many of these people are very able and skilled in their profession. If and when they choose to go into the private sector they may well make millions. While in the public sector, every single one of them should be very grateful for the privilege to serve.
The argument about market forces, put forward by the leader of Liverpool City Council, is just a weak excuse. If he really believes it then he needs to think again. Believe me, real market forces will sort this out, no problem. We will still get the very best in senior positions if we recruit properly. Successful people will seek to make their name in the public sector first, in prestige positions, then move on to make their fortune.
I say increase the prime minister’s salary to £250,000. These gestures of senior politicians cutting their own pay are meaningless and impress no one. Make that the maximum that anyone in the public sector can earn. Enforce it immediately. All salaries to be trimmed to that level from 1st October. I see everything in favour of this and nothing against.
The BBC’s Absurd Level Of Coverage Of The Pope
This has been another grave error of judgment by the BBC.
According to the 2001 census there are 4.2 million Catholics in the UK. According to the 2005 Church census, just 887,000 are regular worshippers. Does this justify the absurd level of wall to wall coverage we have had to endure over the last four days?
It looks totally disproportionate to me. More like some sort of subversive attempt by religious zealots to impose their superstitious beliefs on the rest of us.
If any other group can prove nearly a million regular supporters in the UK will the BBC guarantee equivalent coverage?
With 96 straight hours of guaranteed airtime, whoever you are, whatever your “act”, you’ll easily be able to fill Hyde Park and venues all over the country. You’ll make a fortune!
My Tribute To The Pope
Without kind permission of Crosby Stills & Nash but with enormous gratitude.
CATHEDRAL
Six o’ clock
In the morning I feel pretty good
So I dropped into the luxury of the Lords
Fighting dragons and crossing swords
With the people against the hordes who came to conquer
Seven o’clock
In the morning here it comes I taste the warning
And I’m so amazed I’m here today
Seeing things so clear this way
In the car and on my way to Stonehenge
I’m flying in Winchester cathedral
Sunlight pouring through the break of day
Stumbled through the door and into the chamber
There’s a lady setting flowers on a table covered lace
And a cleaner in the distance finds a cobweb on a face
And a feeling deep inside of me
Tells me this can’t be the place
I’m flying in Winchester cathedral
All religion has to have its day
Expressions on the face of the Savior
Made me say
I can’t stay
Open up the gates of the church and let me out of here
Too many people have lied in the name of Christ
For anyone to heed the call
So many people have died in the name of Christ
That I can’t believe it all
Now I’m standing on the grave of a soldier that died in 1799
And the day he died it was a birthday
And I noticed it was mine
And my head didn’t know just who I was
And I went spinning back in time
And I am high upon the altar
High upon the altar, high
I’m flying in Winchester cathedral
It’s hard enough to drink the wine
The air inside just hangs in delusion
But given time
I’ll be fine
Open up the gates of the church and let me out of here
Too many people have lied in the name of Christ
For anyone to heed the call
Too many people have died in the name of Christ
That I can’t believe it all
And now I’m standing on the grave of a soldier that died in 1799
And the day he died it was a birthday
And I noticed it was mine
And my head didn’t know just who I was
And I went spinning back in time
And I am high upon the altar
High upon the altar, high
Paradise Valley
Heaven On Earth
It’s that time of the month again!
No, no, no ladies. Happy times! Another walk in Paradise Valley. See here.
The Catholic Church – Fount Of Greatest Evil For 2000 Years
Evil Personified
The Crusades.
The Inquisition.
Witch hunts over hundreds of years.
The oppression of the poor.
Oppression of the Jews.
Abuse of children by bishops, priests, nuns, monks and Church officials over hundreds of years.
The theft of land and property.
The mass deception of humanity for financial gain.
The cover-up of guilt and responsibility for all these things.
The prohibition of contraception to those who know no better and so are consigned to poverty, starvation and death in their millions.
The prohibition of abortion, even to women whose own lives are endangered.
It’s an appalling total of evil, misery and death. Frankly, I doubt that Islam even comes close.
Yet we entertain, revere and pander to Pope Benedict, this embodiment of the greatest source of evil for 2000 years filled with agony, suffering and death! Our leaders fawn over him as if there is some significance other than his depths of wickedness.
Even under the terms of his own doctrine he is a blasphemy, a craven idol, a personification of God. I thought these were sins!
I’d be prepared to overlook his membership of the Hitler Youth, even his dilatory attention to the child abuse scandals and his complicity in the cover-up. As an old man, I’d be prepared to forgive all of his personal failings but he holds himself up as the Church itself. He is utterly condemned.
It is nothing less than an outrage that he pollutes our shores, invades our nation, sullies our national consciousness with his presence. His kisses on our babies are filth. His deception of our people is an abomination.
Get him out of my country NOW!
Alcohol And Cannabis. Putting Drugs In Perspective.
I am not a fan of embedding YouTube clips unless they’re about films or music. I’ll make an exception for these two though. They make a very important point very powerfully.
The first is a very short US TV commercial with an anti-drugs messsage. The second is a witty, incisive stand-up routine that knocks the pomposity, arrogance and stupidity of our drug laws for six.
Peter Reynolds 