Politics

[rockfreak]

Recently I saw in the broadsheet press the saying: "Children should go into school through the same gate." As indeed they would in most other developed European nations. It reminded me of an Old Blue called Michael Marland who was just leaving CH as I was joining in the mid-50s. Marland went on to become headmaster of Woodberry Down Comprehensive in Finsbury Park, a not very affluent part of north London and not far from where I grew up. Indeed, in the post war era, you might have said it was pretty rough. I believe that his contribution to education was the development of pastoral care in the state sector. In 1970 I met a teacher from an Islington Comprehensive and Marland's name came up and he said how respected Marland was in the educational profession. Isn't it astonishing (well I think so) that over half a century after the Butler Education Act we are still discussing our fractured education system of grammars, private schools, comprehensives, academies, free schools. etc, etc, etc, ad nauseum? Or maybe you public school snotbags are not discussing it. This is what disturbs me about Christ's Hospital.

[Mid A 15]

What do people make of the 'Corbyn' shenanigans?

[jhopgood]

Along with Brexit, the politicians seem to be out of step with the public.

[rockfreak]

As far as Corbs goes, Labour may have made the fatal step of throwing the election of leader open to the party membership. After all, if the Tory party leadership was thrown open to its loony membership you'd probably see all sorts of strange, wild west, right-wing, free market, Europhobic fish up for election. Bill Cash perhaps, or John Redwood, or Peter Bonehead, or Douglas Khasi. The Tories have always run a tighter ship, based on the instincts of the parliamentary party rather than the membership. Indeed in 1963 the ship was so tight that it came down to Macmillan, on his sickbed with prostate trouble, doing the Old Etonian number and fingering fellow grandee Alec Douglas-Home as his successor.
Things have come up to date a bit since then but the Tories have always appeared to do these things with a bit less blood letting than Labour. Not as democratic of course but maybe shorter, sharper, and less likely to give the public the impression that they're a bunch of clueless, shambolic, anarchic wallies. But at least Corbs' following has shown that there's an appetite out there for a return to a more egalitarian, social democratic style of capitalism and that Blairism is now seen for what it was - a diluted form of Thatcherite neoliberalism. But Corbyn plainly isn't a leader, and in this day and age of 24-hour news, hostile, (largely) right-wing press coverage, and an electorate with the attention span of a goldfish who would rather be watching Strictly, you need the communication abilities of a Blair to connect with the public. Is Owen Smith the answer? Who knows. One thing I think we can safely say is that it's better to be the Opposition for the time being than the party that has to negotiate Brexit.

[rockfreak]

Freaky turns attention to Ireland today in his letter to the Guardian (1 September, "What Apple's tax bill tells us about capitalism"), taking a swipe at the long-term inherent weaknesses of the so-called Celtic Tiger model, which now looks more like a Celtic Pussycat that has been dragged up out of the well. It's six years since UK Uncut started doing direct action and it's good to know that the EU at least is actually doing something about tax avoidance. It worries me that a Britain detached from Europe will simply go further down the road towards what some call a Freeport economy - slashing taxation to attract trade (any trade), slashing employment rights, slashing contract law, failing to control the City, privatising further, and generally envisaging us as Dodge City on the North Sea. After all, the City of London is to some extent already an onshore tax haven.

[sejintenej]

Rockfreak has got it wrong. There is NO tax avoidance but merely tax redirection. As for the claim that there is avoidance that is libellous

I wonder if he has any money in ISAs which is a perfectly legal and recommended method of tax reduction. In the case of Apple and others they simply negotiated with the Dial to exchange Irish tax for reduction in the tax paid in Ireland, an increase in tax paid in their home country and an increase in employment in Ireland.

It seems pretty typical to make such allegations without admitting that tax IS being paid at full rates even if the Dial doesn't get it

[rockfreak]

Banker Brown, Banker Brown,
Just when you think he's left town,
You turn and get in quite a state
To find he's rigged the Libor rate.

[sejintenej]

Banker Brown, Banker Brown,
.........
To find he's rigged the Libor rate.

Sorry but I never worked on that desk though I did get involved in the Ribor (or should that be the Jibor - we simply called it the 'open desk') rate. I also traded RMB as a sideline to other things and Mao would be most upset if I rigged that.

[rockfreak]

How does Mao come into it? I don't understand. But then a lot of things are confusing to me these days. He used to be Mao Tse Tung when I was younger, then he became Mao Zedong. As in Ze Dong wiz ze luminous nose. Mind you, knowing what we know now about the Great Leader's predilection for the ladies, maybe it was more a case of Ze Mao wiz ze luminous dong.

[sejintenej]

How does Mao come into it? I don't understand. But then a lot of things are confusing to me these days. .

If you buy an iPad then Apple wants to be paid in US dollars but you only have pounds in your pocket and the shop only takes pounds. The shop goes to the bank and the bank takes the pounds and pays dollars to Apple in Dublin or wherever.

For a time it was I who did the bank work selling Ren Min Bi Yuan (aka RMB) to people importing from mainland China. Mao wanted more RMB for his exports so they had ways .......

[rockfreak]

Anyone in any doubt about the intentions and motivations of the modern day Tory party should have had their eyes opened by Nick Clegg's memoirs which record Cameron and Osborne's reactions when Clegg suggested the country needed more affordable housing. Ooh no, they said, you'll just be building houses for Labour voters. Then he suggested a property tax to discourage the oligarchs and the rich from buying as an investment. Ooh no, they said again. These sort of people are our party's biggest donors. Needless to say, these exchanges didn't feature on the evening news bulletins which I imagine were much too concerned with Kate and Wills and their progeny.

[J.R.]

And now, unfortunately, with the Labour party in complete disarray, ther isn't going to be an effective 'opposition' here now for many years.

And if Trumpy Pumpy does get in in the USA, may God help us all !!

[rockfreak]

And now, unfortunately, with the Labour party in complete disarray, ther isn't going to be an effective 'opposition' here now for many years.

And if Trumpy Pumpy does get in in the USA, may God help us all !!

Which brings me back to my original reason for starting this thread - if people aren't prepared to take to the streets in numbers, nothing will change.

[rockfreak]

Freaky does it again. Another letter in today's (22nd) Guardian. This time commenting on William Hague's threats to the Bank of England. Why, I ask, is so much made of the Bank's independence? After all, we had a disastrous boom and bust syndrome in the late 80s/early 90s when the Bank was under political control (by the Tories at that time) and then another around 2007 when it had been given independence. Carney is putting up a robust defence of his position because he believes that the current problems are not of his making. And don't say that street protest can't alter anything. The EU-wide protests (organised in this country by 38 Degrees with whom anniefx and I are connected) stymied the TTIP trade deal, and now there has been enough fuss and protest from gallant little Wallonia to halt the CETA deal in its tracks. These deals claim to remove trade barriers and create wealth but I've been listening to specious claims about wealth creation and job creation for thirty years and all that happens is that a very small cabal of mega rich people get richer while everyone else gets shafted. The downside of these deals is the opportunity of the corporate world to strongarm nation states to their will, along with the erosion of environmental and animal welfare standards. So as far as the EU and Canada go, the walloon has really gone up.

[sejintenej]

These deals claim to remove trade barriers and create wealth but I've been listening to specious claims about wealth creation and job creation for thirty years and all that happens is that a very small cabal of mega rich people get richer while everyone else gets shafted. .

and it got very cold and was always wet.

1 There was absolutely no reason why you should not have been a member of that cabal and done it honestly.
As for everyone else geztting shafted, you were not brought up in a back street hovel on the banks of an open sewer called the Lagan. No gas, food when we could get it, no state help, no NHS, no jobs and terrified to go 400 yards up the road because them people were the wrong religion. No electricity, no heating and it was always wet.
It still rains but now the house has been done up - it even has a bath instead of a tin one in the yard, the Lagan has been cleared up, the cobbles in the street have been covered - a very nice little street with jobs 50 yards round the corner. Shafted? we are a d**n sight better off that when we were young and CH certainly helped me to be able to grab the chances which appeared sporadically. IMHO all these inches in the newspapers and demnstrators are too often peeps trying to make a name for themselves and get money like that KIDS woman.