THIS, THAT.... AND THE OTHER

I read a headline in the local paper on the way home tonight. It seems that a local bank clerk misappropriated £7,000 over the last year from his employers. He has been sent to prison. 

I wondered as I read it (in the shop, because I'll never buy another D C Thomson publication after they took a full page ad from the Wiggy-Trump man) if it was entirely fair that this poor lowly-paid guy should go to prison for stealing £7,000, while Fred and his mates at RBS, Halifax, Northern Rock, etc, ad infinitum, cost us tens of billions of pounds ...and they all got bonuses and pay rises and Fred got a pension that would feed a small African country. Not a lot of justice here, is there?
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Liam "Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there's no money left. Kind regards – and good luck!"  Byrne, author of the staff handbook "Working with Liam Byrne", and so, self evidently, a complete prat, has announced that if Labour come to power in 2015 in the UK (or whatever may be left of it) they will cut welfare. 

I doubt there will be any to cut so vociferously have Osborne and Duncan Smith cut, so I wish him luck trying to take war widows pensions. because that's all there will be left. 

Oh,and as Dean so rightly says, it's Social Security". Welfare is a patronising term designed to make the recipients feel like beggars. That's why they all use it.
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The Right Honourable and Noble Baron ffoulkes, that aristocrat of noble lineage dating back as far as, ohhhh....2005, has used his place in the House of the Living Dead to announce that Alex Salmond is a liar, and that he is guilty of "transgressions".

That drew gasps, apparently, even from the fossil life found in that chamber. When asked to elaborate on the nature of the "transgressions" Mr Foulkes became coy and coquettish and said he would tell the questioner later.  Bet he can't wait!

Now it is possible that Merry Baron had had rather too much liquid with his last meal, or possibly in place of it (he has that kind of reputation), but surely there is someone in the chair, the Presiding Officer, maybe, or whatever it's called in aristocratic terms, who is still alive and listening to the "debate". 


Is it not their place to point out that whilst parliamentary privilege allows you to say whatever you want in parliament without the fear of being sued, you really have to carry it through; not just say "I know some terrible things about...." 

So do tell us, George. 

Has he eaten all the children, or painted a Saltire over the front of Holyrood palace? 

This is pathetic campaigning delivered from hatred, and it's just the kind of unpleasantness that will result in divisions after 2014. The Better Together team need to do ...erm...better. A lot better.
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To their eternal shame, Labour politicians and activists – members of the so-called ‘Scottish’ Labour Party – are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Tories, the party of Margaret Thatcher and the current Cabinet of multi-millionaire Hooray Henrys (and the spineless Liberal Democrats), in a united front aimed at preventing Scots from running our own country.

By their actions, the Labour Party in Scotland – every single member who takes part in the ‘Bitter Together’ campaign – are stating, without equivocation, that they would rather see the Tories continue to govern Scotland from London than allow Scots to elect their own government in an independent country.

Let’s be absolutely clear about what the Scottish Labour Party is saying: they would prefer David Cameron governed our country by remote control from Westminster, than have a Labour First Minister in an independent Scotland.

The Tory-Labour-Lib Dem partners in the anti-independence campaign have nothing positive to say about their British Union. Their entire agenda revolves around waving the Union flag, arguing that because we have much in common with the people of England we should just let whoever they elect run Scotland, and attempting to scare Scots into believing that, alone amongst the peoples of the world, we are the only ones incapable of governing our own country.

So says Scotland's Socialist Voice. And it's true. These Crypto-Tories  must all be hoping for seats in the House of Lords. Heavens, if it gets any bigger they will have to get rid of the Commons to accommodate them. Think of the loss that would be!

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I was reminded, reading Scot Goes Pop just now, that I should have, and meant to include a link to Wings Over Scotland's post about becoming a professional site. The Rev Stu tears the Better Together argument up, and flushes it without trace, in a way that I can only dream of doing. He spends a vast amount of time researching and writing his pieces, like the professional journalist he is. But that takes time, and as a freelance journalist, he has to do other things to pay his mortgage and put food on his family (as George DubYa would have it). I don't agree with all that he writes, and I wouldn't expect to, but there is no doubt at all that he does a first class job. I've happily donated, as has Munguin (out of his pocket money). Respect to both Rev Stu and James, for sterling work for independence.

WHAT WAS THAT TWINGE?

Sometimes, even I have to feel sorry for some indecently rich people. And between chuckles this morning when reading this article, I am sure I could detect just a wee, tiny, infinitesimal twinge of sympathy... or maybe it was lumbago, who knows.

Fred Goodwin, Fred the Shred, and to Gordon Brown and his cronies ‘SIR’ Fred was, until a couple of years ago, a lucky man. Doubtless he had some talent and a lot of drive, having risen from relatively humble beginnings to be the chairman of Scotland’s biggest company, and one of the UK’s big banks (having taken over Williams and Glynn and National Westminster Banks, the latter of which was three times its size).

He was even knighted in 2004 for services to banking, despite, or perhaps because of his ruthless management style which saw him “shred” companies, paring them to minimum staffing levels and maximum profits. Oh, how little they knew!

Well, we all know what happened then. We all know, because the prime minister of the day told us. It all started in America, spread around the entire world, and landed here, in Britain, and North Britain.

Of course those of us with more than one working brain cell knew that that was the usual pile of rubbish that Brown was apt to blether*. What we knew was that in many parts of the world banking and bankers had been allowed to get out of hand; they believed that they had found magical ways of making gold, latter day alchemists if you will... but alchemy is a science that belongs in the 17^th century world of “Captain Face”, “Subtle” and “Dol Common”** or maybe even today’s “Harry Potter”. And, as had happened before, it all came crashing down.

And because Freddy boy and his bank had been in the forefront of the alchemy, the seeming possessor of the philosopher’s stone that turned base metal into gold, he came crashing down the harder when the whole banking Ponzi scheme fell apart.

But in the way of these things, Fred picked himself up, dusted himself off, and despite, or maybe because of the intervention of the then Minister for the City, Paul Myners, he trotted off abroad and into the sunset with his knighthood, a pension of gigantic proportions and the prospect of another job in the offing, while the British taxpayer was left with a multi-billion pound bill to pay for the credulity or, stupidity perhaps, of its leaders...and bankers.

However, not all has been rosy for Goodwin, despite his fortune. The size of his pension was revealed as being £700,000, not a bad amount for steering a company downwards to be worth approximately 2% of what it had been worth a few years previously, causing outrage. Then someone used parliamentary privilege to reveal that Freddy was one of the super rich who had paid for a super-injunction. In this case to hide the fact that he had been having an affair with a Royal Bank colleague (supposedly promoted by him well above her level of competency), and as a result of which his wife booted him out of their house.

And now a new book about him, written by two Tory MPs (but politically neutral) promises to be a good read. Finally, and worse still, it will be serialised in a national newspaper... so we’ll all get to know all Freddie’s dirty secrets.

Now anyone feeling twinges?

*Scots word meaning “talk rubbish”

** The Alchemist: Ben Jonson.

Pic: Fred Goodwin... smirking...