A few days ago a friend emailed a link to a page of that dreaded comic 'The Mail'. The issue this time was government 'blunders'... ie: big projects that cost £billions (or at least 100s of £millions) and that turn into white-elephants, like the DOME, for instance, or several 'over-ambitious' IT projects that collapsed and ended-up costing - wasting - vast amounts of public money.
The article reminded me of a couple of lottery scams several years ago. One was 'The Churchill Papers' for which the lottery was made to cough-up... what was it: £8million? (I've a feeling it was more). This sum was paid to a member of the Churchill family to hand over 'government' documents, so they could be deposited in the archives of a museum.
The other scam I particularly recall - I'm sure there are dozens that receive less publicity - was the renovation of 'The Albert Memorial', that elaborate monstrosity on the edge of Hyde Park opposite the Albert Hall. The sum involved here, I seem to remember, was £12million. How such a small structure can cost such a huge sum merely to restore is a mystery to me. I mean, to revamp the Sistine Chapel would probably cost considerably less. And this was back in the 90s, remember, when prices were maybe half what they are now.
So then there's the DOME... and PPP (public-private partnership - for deferring 'exorbitant' charges for 'public' infrastructure such as school and hospital buildings) .... and the monumental 'foot-&-mouth' beef bailout of >£1bn. Who needs beef? Since when has beef been essential for survival, especially with BSE etc., which was the result of greed on an industrial scale? What could be more unessential? Shouldn't those who insist on eating beef pay what it actually costs - including insurance premiums to guard against catastrophes like 'foot-&-mouth'?
Returning to that article in 'The Mail': politicians are accused of incompetence, stupidity, and lack of foresight. True enough, it happens frequently, if not constantly, that politicians display breathtaking incompetence and ineptitude. Don't we all know it? But these 'failed' projects, I contend, are the result of the very opposite of incompetence. Like wars, they are inaugurated with complete disregard for failure or success, though perhaps success would be a bonus. What use is TRIDENT? Who is this £100bn white-elephant expected to threaten? Who might it be used against? With eyes wide open, with total awareness, these mad schemes are ALL initiated with the principal view to transferring money. Nothing could be more glaringly obvious the instant you reflect on that ever-appropriate cliché: 'FOLLOW THE MONEY'. The details of the project itself is irrelevant; the policy is: Roll out the projects....
Simply ask: Who gains from these projects? And: Who loses?
Just in case this isn't quite clear, I'll answer my own questions: Fatcats gain, Joe Public loses.
For lottery scams, rather than general taxpayers who fork out, the losers are the very poorest, the most exploited, those who exist close to the breadline, who live from hand to mouth, as the saying goes.... and who, more often than not, do most of the work into the bargain... those who 'man' the offices and factories and call-centres and other slave-holes around the country.
HAVE YOU NOTICED: virtually no-one complains about these vast fiscal fix-ups. Nor does anyone complain about the City Bignut shirkers who land £millions in a day merely by shifting figures on the stock-market. And there's plenty of brokers too who trade for the BIG land-owning and elite classes who get ever richer from this stupendous rip-off. This is how wealth is constantly shifted from the poor who earn it to the idle rich, and in blindingly colossal amounts. YET NO-ONE complains! By some incredible fluke no-one seems to notice any of these scams.
WHAT PEOPLE DO COMPLAIN ABOUT, though, is the so-called 'shirker' who refuses to submit to enforced slavery, but collects a measly £50/week subsistence from the welfare state and survives on the breadline in some hovel. THIS (and a handful of pathetic immigrants) is ALL I ever hear anyone complain of these days.... while what's REALLY going on, what's TRULY significant, are those vast ongoing fix-ups mentioned above.
I guess that's media propaganda for you! The kind of propaganda 'The Mail' pumps out in its mass-market 'opiate' style. And I'm sure politicians are genuinely gratified to see this popular 'comic' accuse them of mere incompetence instead of the monumental corruption of which they're actually guilty.
As an aside: Can you imagine David Cameron recruiting Arthur Scargill as business minister? Because this is the equivalent of what Gordon Brown did as PM when he hired that arch-capitalist Digby Jones. What kind of crooks are these politicians, and their City pals/'clients' who they serve? Beside them, outfits like the Mafia (with their 'juvenile' violence) appear as amateurs. More to the point: what kind of nutters are we who accept their scams? Back in 1997 when Blair was elected in a landslide and immediately declared the Labour Govt would continue Tory policies.... well, if that didn't speak volumes, what would? Now, of course, we all know.... . I mean, one has only to reflect on Gore Vidal's report of how - unlike he witnessed in the 70s when Wilson won an election and the clientelle of the Savoy were moping like children deprived of their favourite toy - of how in 1997 when Blair won they were toasting with Champagne. QED! (quod erat demonstrandum: which was the thing to be proved): 'Tory Blair' was no typo...
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.... OCTOBER