Peter Reynolds

The life and times of Peter Reynolds

Posts Tagged ‘behaviour

Barclays’ Biggest Banker Robber Plans Smash ‘n’ Grab On Britain

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The Unacceptable Face Of Banking

We don’t want Bob Diamond in Britain. He’s to be the next chief executive at Barclays Bank.  See here.  He’s not the “right sort of chap” for us or, if you prefer, he doesn’t have “the right stuff” for Britain.  He’s a wide boy and a high stakes gambler.  We don’t want him anywhere near our banks, our savings or our overdrafts.  Why can’t he just go back to the land of the free and the home of the brave and chowdown with all the other cowboys?  He’s the wrong man for Britain.

It’s people like Bob Diamond who were directly responsible for the banking crisis and for bringing the world’s economy virtually to its knees.   He won all his bets so he’s alright.  Let’s be clear though, it’s his behaviour and those like him that is to blame for the massive cuts that we’re all facing.  He has robbed our parents of their pensions, hamstringed our business world, destroyed our children’s jobs and sabotaged their children’s education.  He is laughing all over his flabby, smug face at our expense.

He’s won a £100 million fortune on exactly the sort of gambling which has destroyed our economy.

Vince Cable should stop posturing.  He was great in opposition but it seems, even in government, all he can do is snipe from the sidelines.

I say, deny Bob Diamond entry into Britain on the grounds that he would be a danger to the country.  Barclays may claim that it has accepted no help from the taxpayer but its exploitative business model depends on blackmailing us with its size and importance to the economy, just like all the banks.

What we needed to do was clamp down hard on their excess, split them into smaller pieces, separate casino investment from banking services, force them into accountable lending policies, severly limit earnings levels and make it clear that they work for us, not vice versa.

We may already be too late.  Britain’s banks continue to be out of control.

The Oil Spill. The Bottom Line. What Obama’s Forgetting.

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BP hired them so it is taking responsibility but…

Catastrophe

…the oil rig was American.

…the crew was American.

…the blowout preventer and other safety equipment that failed was American.

…six of BP’s 12 main board directors are American.

…40% of BP’s shareholders are American.

So when the first black American president suddenly starts calling it “British Petroleum”, a name it moved away from 12 years ago because it simply wasn’t accurate anymore, what is it but blatant racism?

This is shockingly grubby behaviour from a man who I was trusting on his platform of integrity.

He’s blown that idea just as sky high as Deepwater Horizon.  He’s also forgotten who are his and his country’s most steadfast friends in the world.

If the Yankees, who squander the world’s resources and pollute the environment more than any other nation on the planet, think they’re going to stick this one on us, they need to think again.  They need to get their collective brain into gear and start doing something useful.  The anti-British rhetoric that has been coming from the States, from whining journalists and politicians as well as Obama,  is ludicrous, disloyal and not worthy of them.

We are entitled to expect much, much better from those with whom we stand shoulder to shoulder.  When the chips are down we are the only ones you can always rely on.  You are a young nation in the history of the world.  Now is the time to grow up and take responsibility.  Stop passing the buck.

The World Cup Beckons

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The Big Match

I despise football.   I really do.  It’s everything it stands for – the appalling, vulgar display of tasteless, oafish, dare I say “chav” behaviour.  It’s a thin, insubstantial sport populated by overpaid primadonnas who behave appallingly and set a terrible example to youth.

What a pompous old git I am!

It’s a completely different thing isn’t it when it gets infused with the spirit of international competition?

It’ll never be rugby though,  so those that want to see the original, totally uplifting South African story go to the 1995 Rugby World Cup finals.   That was a similar occasion but with a proper sport.  In fact,  go to Invictus, the absolutely fantastic movie which tells the whole story.

I have been taken up by it though.  Africa has a wonderful exuberance and I was caught by the romance of the first match, delighted that South Africa managed a draw.   Then, who could resist a chance to see the French go down?   And go down they did!  Well, they scraped a draw against a 10 man Uruguay side when they were the favourites.  Lovely to watch!

So it looks like I’m hooked in.   There’s nothing else on anyway.  It’s been a welcome relief from the tribes of harridan, conspiracy-obsessed bloggers in the US.  As a Brit, a Welshman living in England, I am grateful to live in a country which has a sense of perspective.   We are not of Europe.  We are certainly not of either the Middle or Far East.  Thank God we’ve got more history than the Americans.  This is still the land of the free.  Nowhere else comes close.

And tomorrow Barack Obama is going to find out whose arse is “gonna get kicked”.  Then maybe he’ll mind his manners and remember who his friends are.

En-ger-land!

Get Real Alistair!

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Scumbag Thief

Scumbag Thief

NO!  You cannot be Chancellor Of The Exchequer, guardian and keeper of the nation’s purse and play fast and loose, anything less than perfection, with your expenses!

“It would be quite wrong to claim on two homes at the same time”.  Those are your words but that is exactly what you did.  The fact that you have repaid around £700 of the service charge is cast iron proof.  It is not good enough for any MP, certainly not you, to fail to manage your affairs in such a way that an advance payment such as this would not be identified and repaid in a timely manner.

You fall far short of the standard that we are entitled to expect of an occupant of your office.

Let us say that this was a housing benefit claim and you were a poorly educated, perhaps only semi-literate individual.  If you had duped two different local authorities as you moved between them and “forgotten” or “overlooked” the money you had been paid in advance, made such a “mistake”, then you would be facing interviews under caution and quite possibly prosecution.

But you are Chancellor of The Exchequer!  This is only one of the difficult questions that you have to answer about your integrity.  What about the flipping?  What about claiming for tax advice on expenses?

To begin with, you should be sacked.  Then there should be a police investigation.

The double standards that you pompous, self-important politicans live by are almost beyond belief.  As each day passes and you grub around in the muck of your own behaviour, desperately trying to justify and excuse your avarice, greed and fraud, so every last vestige of any dignity or public respect evaporates – and you still don’t get it!