More Privatisation, More Cover ups, Less Accountability.

One of the most alarming aspects of increased privatisation of services will, undoubtedly, be the increased number of cover ups by the private companies involved. Whereas State funded institutions such as the Police Service or the NHS would continue, irrespective of any scandals they may become engulfed in, to provide services, private companies such as Serco or G4S know full well that any scandal could lead to a lost government contract, or being excluded from tendering for future contracts, the share price dropping, or the worse scenario, the company going into liquidation.

When the stakes are so high, the need to close down dissent, silence whistle blowers and protect the interests of the company over the interests of the public will always take precedence. After all, company executives will always consider it paramount to protect their jobs and high salaries before investigating and disclosing any wrongdoing or malpractice that could affect others. There are no morals in business.

The current government, itself, is becoming a proven practitioner of preventing and deterring scrutiny of its activities and muddying the waters with falsehoods and lies that are used to cover up poor performing departments. Cameron, Osborne, Duncan Smith and Schapps, have all been reprimanded recently for distorting the truth and telling the public lies, in an effort to disseminate information, cloud the facts and cover up incompetent performances. If supposedly upstanding public servants are prepared to brazenly lie in interviews and speeches to protect vested interests, what chances have whistleblowers got against determinedly self interested companies who put high salaries, bonuses and share prices way above the concerns of, say, an asylum seeker or an elderly person being mistreated, whilst in care?

Karl Rove, the political strategist who put George W Bush in the White House on two occasions, came up with a chilling statement, criticising their opponents. He described them as people from the ‘fact based community’. To translate, he was describing opponents as people who used facts and the truth to prove a point when he apparently considered it acceptable to make up the truth to fit the agenda. It is a tactic that is being adopted by this current government, Duncan Smith, the Department of Works and Pensions minister in particular.

Add into this mix, the cuts in legal aid, which will prevent anybody, without the necessary funds, to access the law for cases that involve employment and unfair dismissal, clinical negligence, education, personal injury and cases that involve poor housing and debt and you realise that the majority will have no access to justice at all, while powerful multi nationals and corporations, any business or any individual in fact, that has the financial clout, will be beyond the law and able to act with impunity. Justice will only be for the wealthy. This is the authoritarian corpocracy we are sleep walking towards, a return to Victorian times, when the poor were considered as no more than a cheap expendable labour resource without any rights. Not even considered human by the wealthy elite.

Government Hypocrisy and Dog Whistle Politics.

The Criminal Prosecution Service, on behalf of the government, has just pulled a political stunt, announced that people found guilty of benefit fraud may receive upwards of 10 years in prison.

--- meanwhile, former RBS Chief Executive Fred ‘the shred’ Goodwin, one of the main architects of the economic crash, is currently spending his days playing golf or tinkering with his fleet of classic cars, while scratching by on his £700,000 pension.

--- meanwhile banking executives involved in the Libor scandal are still banking and still benefitting from massive bonus payments.

---meanwhile MP’s , including the current Prime Minister and the current Chancellor of the Executive, found guilty of misappropriating thousands in taxpayer money, are still well paid MP’s and have faced no criminal sanctions at all.

---meanwhile people responsible for miss-selling Payment Protection Insurance have faced no criminal proceedings whatsoever.

---meanwhile MP’s are still working the expenses system by flipping their houses and making massive profits as well as employing their spouses and other family members.

---meanwhile multi-nationals and corporations are still brazenly refusing to pay billions in taxes earned in this country while using this country’s sophisticated and organised  infrastructure to facilitate large profits.

---meanwhile large private companies are abusing government contracts by miss-reporting performance figures and bogus accounting, thus defrauding the taxpayer of millions, whilst receiving no other punishment than the threat of exclusion from further tendering opportunities for future contracts.

It’s another example of dog whistle politics, probably organised by the Aussie mongrel and, I daresay,  soul mate of Karl Rove, the tory’s political strategist, Lynton Crosby,  It’s clear whose side this government is on, and it ain’t the poor, the unmarried, the gay, public sector workers or people who do not own property. If the government wants to create a culture of responsibility and social justice, I suggest it starts by cleaning up its own back yard first, before commencing on another round of headline grabbing, anecdote based, scaremongering and scape goating, in another desperate and pathetic effort to prevent Tory voters deserting to UKIP. People are becoming weary of it.

Some facts to end with:

Amount of money estimated to be lost through benefit fraud per year: £1.9bn

Amount of unclaimed benefits per year: £ 12bn

Amount of money lost through tax avoidance per year: £25bn

Amount of money estimated to be lost through tax evasion per year: £32bn

Crisis Appeal.

Reader, your help is needed. Within the next two years, a mammal, only indigenous to Britain, could become extinct. This is a unique mammal, as it was once warm blooded, but has now evolved into a cold blooded creature. It once roamed Britain from the windswept coasts of the south west to the cold and rain lashed highlands of the north-east. But now, large swathes of its once heavily populated habitat are empty. Environments, such as university campuses, NHS hospitals, food banks , disabled centre’s and areas suffering severe deprivation, where this mammal would frequently be seen grazing and making promises they were sure they would never have to keep, are now virtually free of sightings.

This species, that once lived on a diet of hummus and veggie burgers and could easily be spotted by its familiar plumage of beard (male and female), brown or mustard coloured corduroy trousers and loose knit cardigans, has now, in an attempt to survive, widened its diet to feasting on the poor, constantly breaking promises and dumping its once proudly held principles of fairness and opportunity for all, whilst now sporting a boy band haircut and an Armani suit. Sightings have diminished and are restricted to brief glimpses within the Westminster area of London, normally as it speeds past in a government limousine.

Can you help reader? Within two years, Rattus LibDemus could be no more. Although it does not have the charisma of the panda, or the majesty of the white rhino, even though its proclivities are unpleasant, with its penchant for supporting secret courts, its inclination to support the tory’s in their constant attacks on the poor, its appetite for privatising the NHS, it’s liking for tax cuts for the rich and starting a war in Syria, its failure to prevent Gove the Education Minister from returning education to the 1850’s, while simultaneously selling our schools to speculators and profiteers and lying about tuition fees, and it’s abject failure in preventing the tory’s from demonising the poor and committing their crimes against the underprivileged and vulnerable. If you can help save this once noble species, Please don’t!!!!!!!!!!! Just stay well out of it.

Prince William.

I see Prince William is following the family traditional of giving up work and taking the rest of his life off. He’s decided to live a life on benefits. Apparently, he is taking on the role as a ‘working royal’, which is a made up job, meaning he will open the odd factory every now and then and perhaps visit a biscuit factory, but really he will be dossing about, being entertained on yachts by the wealthy, or spending his time blowing innocent animals to pieces with his chinless mates, on the grouse moors of Britain. Perhaps following in the footsteps of his brother and having a go at that pesky protected species the Hen Harrier.

Here was a great opportunity to start to modernise the royalty and drag them into the 21^st century, by William working a proper job until he became next in line. Perhaps, he could have used his geography degree and become the first Royal weather presenter. But I suppose the apple never fall’s far from the tree.

Scottish Independence.

The best recruiting sergeant for the ‘yes to an independent Scotland’ campaign is the Tory party. The ‘yes’ campaign seem to be basing their argument around North Sea oil and a rational hatred of the tory’s and all the while the tory’s continue on a path of attempting to impose reactionary and regressive policies upon the United Kingdom, that only benefit the 1%, then the number of people joining the ‘yes’ campaign will increase and the Scottish Sun will be able to claim “ it woz the tory’s wot won it”.

Yankee Crocodile Tears.

When innocent Pakistani civilians are killed by American drone attacks, the deaths of children in particular, are often classified, to keep the true civilian death statistics suppressed, as being either dogs or farm animals. It’s a shame the deaths of Pakistani children are not treated with the same level of respect by the Americans, as the deaths of Syrian children apparently are. I suppose if you’re John Kerry or Barack Obama and you see an opportunity for some insincere emotional blackmail, for the purposes of facilitating US foreign policy, you have to grab it when you can, no matter how stinking the hypocrisy is. I wonder how they explain to their own children that they actively sanction the murder of innocent children for a living. They must feel so proud.

“Grief is the price we pay for love.”