Bang 'em up and make a profit

The idea that essential services and commodities should provide profits to providers predictatably comes to grief every time. We have inefficient, expensive, fragmented rail and bus services, the post office is up for grabs (the profitable bit that is) and the jail service has more projected private contracts. Why? The evidence according to a report in The Independent shows that privately run prisons are performing worse than those that are run by the state - presumably on a low budget.

Even Mandelson is having to draw back a little from his Post Office plans. He has put them on hold it seems but what this Machiavellian schemer is up to is anyone's guess. He certainly seems to have manoeuvered himself into considerable power, probably more than Brown. Don't forget he went back with TB's blessing and Brown has remained encircled by Blair's vampire brigade, like Blears whose poisoned fangs became exposed after she was nobbled for fiddling. Strange isn't it that Mandelson was always the one in the news for his lavish tastes and dealings yet this time there seems to be silence while everyone else is being caned! I think the Telegraph has taken our eye off the ball.

Blogged by John Tyrrell at 10:30 AM, June 29, 2009 | Comments (0)

What does RBS stand for?

RBS "Robbery By Stealth"; "Royal Bollocks Society"; Rotten Banking System". Send me your answers! That its can happen that extraordinary sums of money continue to be paid to individuals whether they deliver or not shows a system out of control. Now it seems that huge payouts are sanctioned by government itself which is supposed to have taken control using our money to do it!!! Unbelievable. Will RBS react to the sound and fury which has erupted in all quarters. Seems Fred the Shred finally acceded to a curtailment of his remuneration, so how will he cope? Seems to me he's still getting a very ample reward for his outstanding lack of judgment which led to the virtual wrecking of the institution for which he was responsible. Nice job if you can get it. Right said Fred.

Those employees of RBS losing their jobs will know the reality. The class system is fully operation. Those who have the power to control the Capitalist system and those whose dispensable labour is used as and when.

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Blogged by John Tyrrell at 11:31 AM, June 23, 2009

The Iraq Hostages and more

A slight technical problem so the need to catch up. Iraq and the missing and forgotten hostages

The involvement of private companies in virtually everything you can think of - not even Thatcher ever imagined she could get away with it on this grand scale - has extended to private personnel in places of conflict and extreme danger. I imagine the involvement of non-combatants in the history of wars is not particularly new but the scale is.

The dreadful news of the missing British hostages brings with it murky information about the role of security firms which have "made a killing" on work undertaken in exceedingly dangerous circumstances and throws up a whole lot of questions. The absolute silence about the 5 British captives has always worried me. I remember their disappearance but only over time have I understood who they were. There was one professional and four bodyguards among those taken. It is two of the bodyguards whose bodies have now been handed over. Everyone seemed to think they were still alive but the state of decay suggests that one died some time ago, the other more recently. How remains pure conjecture. Today's Independent (22/6/2009) supplies some more information about GardaWorld who employed the men charging a US agency something like $1,000 a day it seems. They have continued to be paid for their work while the men have been held in captivity. This raises questions about the tactics of both them and the British government in securing their release.

Questions for the future include what responsibility GardaWorld have for compensating the families of the hostages. The US experience of private companies involved in wars is not promising. Shareholders on the other hand have nothing to fear as they receive their blood money.

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Blogged by John Tyrrell at 11:09 AM, June 23, 2009 | Comments (0)