Two for Tea

Dispatches from Middle England

March 24, 2009

When Staying Within the Rules is not Enough

by Tim Neale @ 01:09. Tags: , , , , ,
Filed under Sleaze

This week, another British Government Minister is in trouble over expenses. Work and Pensions Minister Tony McNulty is facing an enquiry over housing expense claims.

The facts are not in dispute. As reported by The Mail on Sunday newspaper, Mr McNulty has claimed over £60,000 (US$87,000) since 2002 of “second home allowance” on a house in which his parents live.

This allowance of up to £24,000 ($35,000) a year goes to MPs who live outside of inner London. It should cover the cost of staying away from their main home when carrying out parliamentary duties.

Mr McNulty has been claiming for the house in his constituency of Harrow East, which is about 11 miles from The Houses of Parliament in Westminster, hardly an arduous commute.

Mr McNulty actually lives in Hammersmith with his wife, only eight miles from his “second home.” Hammersmith is even nearer to Westminster than Harrow.

Mr McNulty told Sky News that he had been claiming money for the home when he had been working a couple of days a week.

He said that he still used the house regularly, especially on weekends. “I think I can do my job more effectively having my base in the constituency,” he said. However, the house is just minutes away from his constituency office.

He also said he had stopped claiming the allowance in January because interest rates had fallen so much that he could afford to pay the mortgage from his salary alone.

Opposition Conservative MP Greg Hands has lodged an official complaint with Parliament’s standards commissioner.

Mr McNulty claims correctly to be within the rules regarding MP’s expenses. He also claims to be within the spirit of the rules. Not many people outside of the House of Commons would agree with him here.

The allowance is clearly meant for those MPs who could not easily travel home to their constituencies at night, not for some one who could cycle the distance.

This is yet another example of the UK’s elite playing fast with other people’s money. As long as it within the rules, it is OK. But, guess who makes the rules.

There used to be little tolerance for such behaviour in British public life. The logic being, that tolerance of petty corruption produces a culture in which major corruption can thrive.

How else would you describe the recent pillaging of shareholders assets by bank CEOs And how else do you explain why no one charged with oversight could see anything wrong with massive termination payouts and bonuses to the idiots responsible for the destruction of their charges.

The public perception is that the UK’s elite have become degenerate and are only interested in lining their own pockets. The gaming of expenses by senior MPs is yet another example.

It does not help this perception that MPs recently tried to get there expense claims exempted from Freedom of Information Act, much to the disgust of just about everyone, apart from MPs.

The elite, typically, blame such public cynicism on the press.

The next general election in the UK will likely be in 2010. The present Labour government stands very little chance of returning.

Popularity: 100% [?]

March 13, 2009

Hope and Fear in Northern Ireland

by Tim Neale @ 15:17. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Filed under Ireland

Three murders in Northern Ireland have brought both depression and hope. The killings of security personnel come against a background of escalating violence and threats by dissident republicans.

On the evening of Saturday Mar. 8, The Real IRA shot dead two British soldiers. Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham and Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, died in an attack at the Massereene Army base, Antrim. The attack left two pizza deliverymen wounded.

On Monday Mar. 9, the Continuity IRA shot and killed police constable Stephen Paul Carroll, 48, as he answered an emergency call in Craigavon, county Armagh. This is the first murder of a Northern Irish police officer since 1998.

After the murder of Constable Carroll, Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde, the head of the Northern Irish Police Force, held a press conference. The Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness flanked him.

Peter Robinson, Sir Hugh Orde, Martin McGuinness

Peter Robinson, Sir Hugh Orde, Martin McGuinness

Sir Orde called it a “sad day” for Northern Ireland’s police force and called the gunmen “criminal psychopaths.” Importantly he said did not intend to over-react to the murders:

“I have no intention to ask the Army for routine military support, it’s not necessary and it doesn’t work.

Mr Robinson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, was equally determined not to be provoked. He said:

“This is a battle of wills between the political class and the evil gunmen – the political class will win.

Sinn Fein’s Mr McGuinness, an IRA commander before the peace process and cease fire, was unequivocal in his condemnation of the gunmen:

“These people are traitors to the island of Ireland, they have betrayed the political desires, hopes and aspirations of all of the people who live on this island.

Politicians across the political spectrum condemned the murders. The UK’s Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, insisted there would be “no return to the old days.”

Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen called the gunmen “evil people.” He said they would not stop the peace process. “Everybody is absolutely united. The peace process is unshakeable.”

On Wednesday Mar. 11, representatives of Loyalists paramilitary groups gave assurances that they will not be provoked to return to violence. On the same day, thousands of people attended demonstrations across Northern Ireland in protest at the killings.

That there are still Republican dissidents actively perusing a campaign of violence is depressing. But the Republican movement has a history of splits between those who will compromise and those who will not.

If the gunmen’s objective was to derail the Peace Process and reignite conflict and strife in the province, they have so far failed.

The carefully judged reactions by all politicians show a maturity in the peace process that would seem incredible only a few years ago.

Ireland has lived with a fragile peace for a decade now. Many have decided that peace and the opportunities it brings for the people of the island of Ireland are far more important than political dogma.

Ironically, this dissident action is uniting Ireland as never before. An Ireland united in a shared vision of a peaceful, prosperous country, and united in a determination not to have that prize stolen at the last minute by short sited, inflexible dogmatists.

There is no alternative.

Image Credit: The BBC

Popularity: 99% [?]

March 7, 2009

UK to Begin Quantitative Easing

by two4tea @ 16:11. Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Filed under Finance and Economics

The Bank of England, The UK’s central bank, cut interest rates to 0.5 percent yesterday. This is the sixth month in a row that the Bank has cut rates. Interest rates are now at the lowest ever in the Bank’s 315-year history.

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King announced that “quantitative easing” would start next week. The Bank will add an extra £75 billion (US$100 billion) to its books then use this cash to buy government and corporate securities from commercial banks. It hopes that these banks will then invest or loan this cash back into the economy.

The UK economy is in uncharted waters. No one seems sure if this latest fix will be any more effective than the other fixes applied in the last 12 months. This apparently includes the Governor of the Bank of England. Yesterday Mr King told the BBC:

“Nothing in life is ever certain, but these measures we think will work in the long-term.

“I don’t know how long it will take, much depends on the situation in the rest of the world. But if countries work together, these measures will I believe eventually work.

Some say “quantitative easing” is just a fancy way of describing printing money. However, in modern banking, actually printing the money is unnecessary; the bank simply credits itself with the cash electronically.

Quantitative easing was used by Japan in the early 2000s as a last ditch measure to end deflation. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, has recently been introduced it to the US in an attempt to unblock credit markets there.

However, the UK’s foray is enormous in comparison. The Bank of England has permission to create another £75 billion ($100 billion) in cash on top of that it intends to conjure up next week. This is triples the reserves commercial bank hold at there, The total of £150 billion ($200 billion) represents 10 percent of the UK’s GDP.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) Alistair Darling said increasing the supply of money was “absolutely essential” in order for the UK to recover from the recession.

However, it is a very high-risk policy, and a measure of the panic in the UK’s financial establishment that it is being implemented at all.

Popularity: 90% [?]

February 19, 2009

Former Head Spook Attacks UK Government

by two4tea @ 08:53. Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Filed under Civil Liberties

In an interview given to the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, Dame Stella Rimington, the former head of the UK’s spooks, has attacked UK’s government for, “frightening people in order to be able to pass laws, which restrict civil liberties.”

Dame Stella, 73, became the first woman director general of MI5, the UK’s counter intelligence agency, in 1992. She served in that capacity until 1996. She has long been an outspoken critic of New Labour’s attacks on civil liberties.

In the interview, published in The Daily Telegraph, she said, “Since I have retired, I feel more at liberty to be against certain decisions of the Government, especially the attempt to pass laws, which interfere with people’s privacy.”

Armed Police in London

Armed Police in London, it became illegal to take such photos this week.

Dame Stella accused the Government of frightening people so fulfilling one of the objectives of terrorists, “that we live in fear and under a police state.”

On Feb, 18, government minister Tony McNulty said Dame Stella was talking, “abject nonsense.” He accused the ex-MI5 chief of playing into the hands of terrorists herself with her, “misguided talk.”

Who are you?

Employment minister McNulty is a career politician. He graduated from the University of Liverpool in Political Theory and has an MA in Political Science from Virginia Tech. He became a Member of Parliament in 1997.

Before his decade as a New Labour ‘Yes’ man, he spent his time as a Principal Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at the University of North London. His presumption of knowing more about balancing security and liberty than the ex-head of MI5 is nonsense.

He is hardly qualified to lecture her on, ‘misguided talk.’ Mind you, he managed to get his name in the papers. This is the most important thing you learn on a Political Theory course.

Popularity: 91% [?]

December 11, 2008

The Two for Tea Christmas Appeal

by two4tea @ 10:00. Tags: , , , , ,
Filed under Finance and Economics

Please give generously

I first caught this on Cato of Utica. I just had to share.

If this had been any other industry other than the financial services they would have been all down the social security office long ago.

British bankers are threatening to decamp on mass to China if they do not get a bonus this Christmas. Apparently the Chinese are practically begging Western bankers to go run their economy for them.

Funny, because the few Chinese I have spoken too seem to think they are perfectly capable of running their financial system without the ‘help’ of the idiots behind the current mess.

In fact if these bankers had of been in China, they most likely would have been facing the death penalty for corruption, rather than bleating about the injustice of not getting a massive bonus merely because they are grossly incompetent.

Popularity: 89% [?]

November 5, 2008

Change I Can Believe In?

by two4tea @ 08:35. Tags: , , , , , ,
Filed under USA

Barack Obama is President elect of the USA. This is a truly historic moment and quite possibly, one of the most important results in my lifetime. I have avoided watching any analyses on TV or online. I want to get my own thoughts in order first.

Obama

A UK citizen living near London, I stayed up until 02:30 this morning watching the results come in. Shortly after Pennsylvania was called for Obama, a senior Republican strategist all but conceded. I figured it was all over and went to bed.

I have been a fan of Obama since I saw him on The Daily Show. He presented as a charismatic, young African-American, intending to run, not as black candidate, but as a candidate who happened to be black.

What impressed me most was that he sounded so reasonable. Missing were the straw man arguments, the false choices, the mysticism and the bullying that have characterised politicians on both sides of the Atlantic in recent years.

He has continued to impress me. He strikes me as someone who was truly interested in finding solutions, rather than the usual peddling of special interests.

There can be no doubt that the USA has firmly ended the Bush era, but what next? There is a feeling of possibilities. Paths have opened up that were never present in the Bush / Blair years.

Perhaps most importantly, the US will regain some of its self-confidence and some of its lost moral capital. There will be opportunities to rebuild and strengthen the Atlantic alliance. The problems we face are global ones, and require global solutions.

Change I can believe in? I am willing to give it a go.

Popularity: 90% [?]

October 13, 2008

Anti-Terror Law Used in Credit Crises

by two4tea @ 22:54. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Filed under Finance and Economics

UK uses anti-terrorist legislation to seize assets of Icelandic banks

The UK government has used a law introduced combat terrorism to freeze £4 billion (US$6.84 billion) of assets of the Icelandic bank, Landsbanki. There is no suggestion that Landsbanki was involved in financing terrorism.

When questioned in Parliament, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms confirmed that the freezing order had been issued under the 2001 Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, saying, “that’s where the power happened to be.” The act was introduced the in the climate of fear generated by the 9-11 attacks. At the time, there was concern that it was open to abuse.

The Icelandic government had taken control of Landsbanki on Oct 7, taking control of a second bank, Glitnir, the following day. The accounts of some 300,000 UK savers with Icesave, Landsbanki’s online subsidiary, were frozen. The UK had expected Iceland’s depositor compensation scheme to cover UK savers up to £16,000 ($27,340). This would have cost an estimated £2.2 billion ($3.76 billion).

However, on Oct. 8, the Icelandic government refused to honour its commitment to foreign savers. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Iceland’s actions were, “effectively illegal” and, “completely unacceptable.” He said he would do, “everything in his power” to secure the money.

On Oct. 9, the UK treasury seized control of the UK arm of Kaupthing, Iceland’s biggest bank. A treasury representative said the bank was, “not in a position to continue to operate.”

Relations between the UK and Iceland deteriorated sharply. Iceland nationalized Kaupthing and halted all trade on its stock market. An angry Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde said the use of anti-terror laws against Icelandic companies was, “not very pleasant.” He also blamed Britain for the collapse of Kaupthing.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister), Alistair Darling, has now fully guaranteed the deposits of UK retail savers in Icesave. The expected to cost the British taxpayer is £4.6 billion ($7.86 billion). Wholesale depositors, such as local councils, do not qualify for the guarantee.

The generous interest rates offered by the Icelandic banks had attracted UK local authorities and other public bodies. So far, more than 100 local authorities have admitted holding £842.5 million ($1.5 billion) in now-defunct Icelandic banks. At least 60 UK charities are believed to have had £120 million ($205 million) on deposit.

Iceland has a population of just 300,000. In recent years, its banks had expanded abroad aggressively, particularly in the UK. Icesave by itself had amassed deposits almost equal to Iceland’s entire GDP. In the run up to the current crises, the British government ignored repeated warnings that depositors savings with Icelandic banks were at risk.

Western countries have refused to prop up the Icelandic Krona, prompting Haarde to say Iceland will have to look for, “new friends.” Negotiations with Russia will begin on Tuesday for a 4 billion euro ($5.45 billion) loan.

UK officials are currently in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik to discus the situation. Despite the tension earlier in the week, a joint statement issued on Saturday said the meeting had taken place, “in a friendly atmosphere” in which, “significant progress was made.”

This is hardly the first instance when the UK government has used anti-terrorist legislation in a manner for which it was not intended. It is clear if such powers exist they will be used as and when it suits those in power. Assurances otherwise are meaningless.

Those who warned against giving sweeping powers to the government ‘just in case’ now feel vindicated.

No one is coming out of this looking good. The Icelandic banking system now appears to have been little more than a Ponzi scheme. Iceland’s bank regulators and government were apparently enthusiastic participants.

Why The UK government allowed these banks to continue to trade in the UK is a question they have not yet answered. Both governments are attempting to avoid hard questions and blame.

Popularity: 90% [?]

July 6, 2008

Mayoral Vote Can Not be Verified

by two4tea @ 23:06. Tags: , , , , , ,
Filed under Electorial Reform

The Open Rights Group (ORG) will not verify the result of London’s May elections. Saying, “There is insufficient evidence available to allow independent observers to state reliably whether the results … are an accurate representation of voters’ intentions.”

The elections for the Mayor of London and the 25-member London Assembly are among the most important local elections in the UK. An independent body, London Elects, organizes them.

This year’s elections were the first in London under a new UK law allowing for officially sanctioned, independent observers. ORG was one such group.

Counting of ballot papers in these elections has been carried out electronically since 1999. ORG’s objectives were to monitor the electronic vote count, for increased risk of fraud or a danger to the secrecy of the ballot. ORG has previously expressed concern over the use of technology in elections, worrying it obscures the workings of elections from voters and candidates.

In a report produced this week, ORG commends London Elects for, “delivering the May 2008 elections without significant procedural hitches.” Also for, “spirit in which London Elects has sought to enhance transparency.”

However, ORG states that on the day of the count, efforts towards transparency around the recording of valid votes were, “nothing more than pretence.” Screens beside vote scanners showed almost meaningless data. Many ORG observers concluded that they were unable to verify whether valid votes were being recorded.

ORG highlight a number of other concerns, which include:

  • That due to disputes over commercial confidentiality, London Elects are unable to publish an audit, commissioned from KPMG, of some of the software used.
  • That there was equipment directly connected to the counting servers to which observers had limited or no access to.
  • The presence of error messages, bugs and system freezes indicating poor software quality.

The ORG report concludes, “Given these findings, ORG remains opposed to the introduction of e-counting in the United Kingdom, unless it can be proved cost-effective to adopt ORG‘s recommendations for increasing transparency around e-counting.”

Most people in the UK consider the UK election process to be clean. No one is challenging the results of May’s London elections. However for a governing body to have legitimacy, the electoral result must be independently verifiable. You do not have to go very far to see what happens if a defeated candidate does not accept the result of an election. An unverifiable, general election in which the opposition refuse to accept the result, would lead to political instability and chaos.

The UK government sees the introduction of e-democracy as a way to save money and increase voter participation. Yet, this is another election where there have been serious problems with the technology and procedures underpinning the democratic process. The government would do well to look into the issues raised by ORG.

Democracy on the cheap does not work.

Popularity: 89% [?]

February 14, 2008

Gordon Brown as Machiavelli?

by two4tea @ 23:28. Tags: , , ,
Filed under Personalities

Is Gordon Brown Machiavelli reincarnate? Hardly.

From Wikipedia :

“Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (May 3, 1469 June 21, 1527) was an Italian diplomat, political philosopher, musician, poet, and playwright. He is a figure of the Italian Renaissance and a central figure of its political component, most widely known for his treatises on realist political theory.”

Gordon Brown is none of those things, nor is he ever likely to be. Only Brown’s most loyal retainers would suggest his name will become a byword for anything in 500 years. Or even remembered in 100, for that matter.

Today the term “Machiavellian” is an insult to most. It implies someone who manipulates and schemes, someone who is very intelligent, highly skilled and utterly ruthless.

Is this a fair description of Gordon Brown? There is no doubt the he schemes and manipulates. Then again, so do all politicians. It is part of the job description. In fact, it is part of the job description for “human being.”

True, Brown has left the UK in little doubt of his intelligence. Throughout his campaign to replace Tony Blair, his retainers continually reminded us of his superior intelligence. This is probably where the Machiavellian accusations come from. It is par for the course for any politician who claims intelligence to be characterized as Machiavellian.

Where Brown fails to live up to the Machiavellian label is on the “highly skilled and completely ruthless” front.

Tony Blair easily outmaneuvered Brown for the leadership of the Labor party 10 years ago. Blair and Brown reputedly made a deal, where Blair would step aside after a period in office, in return for Brown’s support. However, Blair welshed on the deal, leaving Brown kick his heals as Chancellor of the Exchequer for a decade.

You would guess that Niccolo would have had Blair’s guts for garters for that literally. Brown did have a half-hearted attempt at a palace coup, but backed out at the last minute.

Since taking over as Prime Minister, Brown has been equally unimpressive, in particular the ‘Election that Never Was’ a reminder of the ‘Coup that Never Was’.

One suspects that Brown imagines himself Machiavellian, but in reality he not skilled and ruthless enough, or maybe just not decisive enough. He has consistently failed to stick the knife in and twist when the opportunity arises. The nickname the opposition have given him is ‘Bottler Brown’ Would anyone have dared describe Niccolo thus?

Popularity: 90% [?]

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