Pension Hypocrites Bash The Bank Robbers

Bashing bank robbers is the latest sport whipped up by spinning ministers in the vain hope voters take their eye off the ball of the monstrous bank losses, bail-outs and disastrous economic mess. They nearly got away with it, until the cunning plan backfired. 

It's clear ministers knew all about the rancid Sir Fred pension pot deal but that didn't stop croquet-loving two Jags Prescott wading in with his two penneth and spinning for England. What a bunch of hypocrites. 

Only a fool would fail to notice the massive losses posted by Brown's banks after billions of pounds of taxpayers cash disappeared down a black hole and IOUs mount up. The losses and massive bail-outs get bigger by the day. Taxpayers are screaming enough is enough. Scenting blood, the spinners thought they were onto a winner. 

Former RBS chief fat cat, Fred the Shred Goodwin, drew gasps of disbelief and outrage when it was revealed he was drawing a pension of £690,000 a year, at the tender age of 50, in a pension pot worth £16m. 

Nice work if you can get it and Brown's City pals certainly can. But weasel words from the chancellor and his Munster looking minister cut no ice with voters. 

Tear up the contract, call his bluff sure but the Orange Party suspected treasury ministers had something to hide as the full extent of how much they knew about Sir Fred's pension pay-off was revealed. 

But that didn't stop former deputy prime minister, turned born-again working class hero, turned political blogger, John Prescott trying to keep the pot boiling. "Stop paying him and let him sue in court," shouted Prezza, landing a punch on Sir Fred on the BBC's Today programme. 

Deflect uncomfortable truths is all part of politics but in this case the pot is a little black and so is the kettle. It's all a bit rich and a bit late coming from the incompetent deputy PM who was only brought into Blair's government as an old Labour sop and New Labour prop to push through the Common Purpose agenda. 

Time and again Prescott was rewarded for failure, holding on to his pension perks, fat salary and two grace-and-favour homes while playing the odd game of croquet at Dorneywood while stripped of his departmental responsibilities. 

Prescott famously lost his department after his affair with diary secretary Tracey Temple became public but was allowed to keep his £133,000-a-year salary and perks such as Dorneywood and his flat at Admiralty House.

Ring any bells? Sir Fred is only the latest in a long line of bank robbers bailed out by the taxpayer who can retire on the proceeds of their greed and make a sharp exit from the City with a huge reward for incompetence.

Only the other week Brown promised a crack-down on bonuses. But the fat cats have already escaped from the City zoo with their pension pots.

Former HBOS chief executive Sir James Crosby walked away with a pension worth £10.4m. His side-kick Peter Cummings who oversaw £109 billion of loans leading to the HBOS crash, retires with £5.2m. Crosby's successor at the bank, Andy Hornby left with a pension pot of £2m.

And that's only scratching the surface of the City. The Orange Party could start on the government lackeys in the mish-mash of quangos and bonus-riddled top civil servants who get away with fat pensions and bonuses without a by-your leave but feels a headache coming on just thinking about it.

The real scandal is the greed-driven RBS loss of £24 billion posted yesterday after a monumental taxpayer bail-out and Lloyds £10.8 billion loss today which was bailed out last October by the taxpayer.

Bashing the bankers over bonuses was good fun while it lasted but ministers are just looking around for scapegoats for their own incompetence with Lord Myners now the latest target.  

At the centre is a deluded prime minister and his useless chancellor who are clearly floundering around and way out of their depth, leaving voters numb with the pain of a Laurel and Hardy couple flannelling away looking for someone, anyone, other than themselves to blame. 

Maybe the Supreme Leader will reassure voters that he feels their pain? For the moment the Orange Party has to suffer the useless snake-oil from the spinning medicine men, hoping one day the real pain will go away.

Picture: Enjoying the good life. Prescott takes time off from running the country (BBC)

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Meanwhile, Back In The Real Economy...

Brown's big bank bail-out came down with a bump today as, back in the real world, inflation hit home at above the 5% mark. Bailing out banks with taxpayers cash keeps the stock market happy but people are asking, what's in it for us? For the moment, not a lot. 

As the focus switches to the fall-out from the bank bail-out, even the government's much loved and discredited Consumer Price Index (CIP) is now weighing in at a hefty 5.2%, up from 4.7% in August. Now the highest in 15 years.

A better indicator, the Retail Price Index (RPI), ditched by New Labour in 2003, was already at 5% last month. 

The CPI may be a less effective measure of price rises than the old RPI, but it's much easier to manipulate. But even the spin can't halt the upwards march.

Even these official figures mask what's happening in the real world and tell people what they know already. Food prices and, in particular those obscene gas and electricity bills, are going through the roof, while Brown borrows billions of pounds to pop up the banks and get us all deeper in debt. 

The UK's annual rate of inflation rose to 4.4% in July, up from 3.8% in June, as measured by the CPI. That was the biggest monthly change in the annual CPI rate since records began in 1997. And it's just getting worse. 

The annual rate of inflation for energy and other household bills has now reached 15%.

It will be this real economy of jobs, inflation, mortgages, small businesses and meagre wage rises which will determine Brown and the government's future.

The recriminations have already begun. Cameron and the Conservatives have started to focus on that real economy and at the same time hit home on the decade of Brown's incompetence and the false boom years which got us in this mess in the first place. 

Voters have short memories. Brown's bounce will be short-lived. It is inflation, unemployment and spiralling debt, trying to make ends meet, which is the bogyman for the government, not the banks. After the boom, the gloom.

The nitty gritty of life determines the success of governments and whether they survive, not hugely expensive quick fixes for the City.

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Brown's Bulimic Bail-Out Makes You Sick

Another day, another eye-watering bank bail-out. This has little to do with helping people and everything to do with saving the City and Brown's skin. Not a penny is being used where it really matters. Another bulimic bank bail-out and it's enough to make you sick. 

Today we were forced to sit through the same obscene spectacle, with another taxpayers bail-out which crept up throughout yesterday from around £12 billion ending today at around £37 billion. 

This is no Northern Rock nationalisation. This is pseudo-nationalisation. There's little accountability. City shareholders not parliament still call the shots.

Schools, hospitals, old people's homes, small businesses, obscene gas price rises, capped and meagre wages are left to rot.

The government thinks it's riding high on the crest of a wave with the unsinkable Gordon Brown. But look through the looking glass and you see a very different picture. 

Announcements are being timed for political advantage and to wrong-foot the opposition. Spin doctors and plumbers are working overtime to paint the boss in a good light. 

Billions of pounds is being begged and borrowed and thrown around like confetti. Meanwhile people are worried about jobs, gas and food bills continue to rise, no one gives a bugger about UK manufacturing and people are being forced to live on a pittance and struggle with debt on a meagre income. 

Attention has switched slightly to what's laughingly called the "real" economy. Jobs, prices, small businesses, pay deals and the like. If that's 'real' then what is going on at the moment is unreal. But it's more than that, it's surreal. 

Some things just won't work because they can't. Try striking a match on a bar of soap. The amounts of cash being thrown at the banks is so staggering it beggars belief. 

Some have warned this is the end of capitalism and globalisation. It is the opposite. What we are witnessing is the triumph of the banks and the City, not their downfall. 

October 13, 2008 will go down in history. The time when the money men finally took over politics and parliament now plays second fiddle to the City.

You cannot change the bad habits of a decade overnight. The illusion of wealth is a delusion too entrenched in our psyche. The decade of debt now part of the disillusioned aspiring lifestyle. 

Anything other than bowing to the pressures of the banks and handing them our cash means Brown would have to admit his handling of the economy has been flawed and incompetent from the start. 

Taxpayers cash is being used to prop up the banking system to get them all off the hook. Secret bank and government meetings exposed Brown and Darling as either weak and being used as the democratic front men to get their hands on the cash or they were willing partners. Probably a bit of both.

Brown's much vaunted 'rescue plan', now touted around Europe as a cure all for all economic ills, is laughable not laudable. Use taxpayers cash or get the country deeper in debt with more borrowing. That's not a plan that's a recipe for disaster. 

Bank nationalisation is being spun as some kind of monster lurking around the corner. The rantings of sad old socialists. But is it really that worse than freely handing over wads of cash with few strings attached? 

If politicians can't hack it or screw up they are booted out by voters, instead of being rewarded for incompetence with fat bonuses and payoffs. 

Full public ownership brings accountability back to parliament. It imposes checks and safeguards. It brings a clear chain of command back to people. But even that just scratches the surface. 

All people want to know is that their savings are safe and no bastard is going to come round and repossess their home. Both measures could have been achieved by a government which puts people first and without all this fuss. 

For the moment, most politicians seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet but some searching questions are starting to be asked by Conservatives, LibDems and true Labour. And there are growing calls for Brown to be called to account for his actions.

For Brown and his ministers, it's the same old song. The words have been written by bankers and orchestrated by the City. Any pretence of putting people first has become a sick joke. 

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Benn's Public Banks The Only Solution

Labour grandee, Tony Benn, has called on the government to put the banks into public ownership. Power has switched from parliament to the City. Brown's doomed £500 billion bank bail-out is the final straw. 

The City now calls the shots and voters will see through it. On this issue, the Orange Party is more than happy to nail its colours to his mast. 

It has been observed here on a number of occasions how New Labour has cosied up to their pals in the City. 

Now, when times are tough, like Bush in the US, the answer has been to throw them more taxpayer's cash and borrow billions getting the country deeper in debt. The piper is calling the tune.

There's plenty of life in the old Labour dog yet. In June, Benn delivered a masterclass in politics over civil liberties. Now Benn's argument, over public-ownership, is a simple one and he makes the point forcefully: 

"The trouble is that the Prime Minister and the American President have been relegated to mere spectators, commenting on what has happened, and whose only role is to dish out more and more taxpayers’ cash."

Benn argues for public ownership of the banking system and the reason is accountability, sadly lacking in current economic policy.

Strategic public services such as the army, police, fire service, health care and education are still, in the main, in public ownership, despite New Labour's best efforts to sell them off. Why should the banks be any different. The seeds have already been sown with a nationalised Northern Rock.

For ordinary people, banks are somewhere you can trust to look after your hard earned cash. And somewhere to go for a loan without fear of being ripped off. That's a public service. 

"I have concluded that a publicly owned and accountable banking system would be better for Britain and judging from the way opinion is moving, I suspect that those views would appeal to people from right across the political spectrum," said Benn.

His view is shared by LSE economics professor and former MPC member, Willem Buiter, who believes nationalisation may be the only answer to restore confidence, as a temporary solution.

Liberal economist, JK Galbraith, referred to here on a number of occasions, doesn't call for public ownership but his acute analysis of the failed banking system in the years after the Great Depression has prophetic warnings of the doom ahead. 

And support for Galbraith comes from a seemingly unlikely source. Jeff Randall writing in the Daily Telegraph is firmly of the belief that Galbraith got it right: 

"His analysis of the greed and self-delusion that led to the unravelling of America’s stock market and the subsequent Depression is undimmed by time ... Replace 1929 with 2008 and the story, I’m afraid, is eerily familiar: a speculative orgy, crescendo, climax and crash. As this plays out, important people – business and political leaders – rely on “the power of incantation” to keep the rest of us calm. Their efforts are doomed to fail."

Brown is keen at the moment to spin the banking "crisis" for his own political ends. Blair developed a notorious "taste for war". Brown, a taste for the City. Both leave a bitter taste in the mouth.

As the devil in the detail of Brown's bank bail-out is exposed and share prices crash on the stock market, Benn's answer - fully accountable public ownership - is looking increasingly like the only realistic solution.

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