Sleaze

Image courtesy of Labour Heartlands.

         Can you smell it? The stench of sewage emanating from that edifice to power, privilege and wealth, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. While they make noises about water companies discharging sewage into our rivers and beaches, their corridors of power have sewage swilling around as the accepted normal. Recently we had a Chancellor of the Exchequer being fined by inland revenue for omitting to pay tax on a wee bundle of a few million he stashed away in a tax haven. Then we had a member of The House of Lords, the upper part of the sewage factory, Michelle Mone, offering to source PPE via her company in Hong Kong. First making the suggestions to two of her buddies in government, before such company was set up. Her buddies in high places swung her over £200 million of tax payers money. The company produced equipment that couldn't be used and then went belly-up. In the precess more than £20 million from the company found its way into her family foundation fund.

Image courtesy of Youtube.

 

        The recently our Prime Minister one Rishi £800 million Sunak who generously opened up hundreds of new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea. Omitting to mention that just a few months earlier The firm founded by his father-law, and which it is stated that his wife has a £400 million stake, had just signed a $1.5 billion deal with BP. What also has the stench of sewage is that just a few weeks ago the CEO of Shell became a member of Rishi £800 million Sunak's new Business Council.
       The whole bunch of them are up to their armpits in double dealing and shady deals for self advancement. Nothing that comes out of that establishment is ever designed for our benefit, it is all to do with building the economy, launched by the illusion that in turn is for our good. However the real gainers or the wealthy privileged barons of business and their minders, MPs and members of the government. That is what the state is set up to protect.

 

Image courtesy of BBC.

 

 Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

The Corporate Government Merry-go-round.

        From time to time I look back at what I have written, just to see if anything has changed, or did I get it wrong. Quite often my little delve into the past just confirms my beliefs. This little blast from the past, something I wrote about 3 years ago, still rings true, and in my humble opinion is probably more relevant to day than then.

The Stench From That Thing Called Capitalism, Feb. 1st. 2016.

        Big business and government are so intertwined, that it is impossible to separate them. Corporations spend millions, if not billions, on lobbyists, politicians are offered lucrative positions, and little perks here and there, but of course, they'll tell you, that they are not influenced by these matters. They'll deal with each issue on its merits, with the welfare of the country and its people always to the fore, and the corporations will still continue to spend those millions or billions, just as a kindness to politicians, and get nothing in return. Isn't it a wonderful world? It is safe to bet that all politicians are relatively rich, most will have their filthy lucre, stashed away in shares in those very corporations that are pouring money into their little slush fund. We are expected to believe that none of these politicians would ever nudge legislation in the direction of helping their share portfolio, and might at times move to jeopardise their little stash.
         A world built on corruption, designed to further the wealth of big business and protect the wealth of those in power. It is not with little thought that I refer to our lords and masters place of business as the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. Those who enter its marble halls by on large are very rich, when they leave, they are invariably, extremely more rich than when they entered. Big business makes sure of that. Out of generosity of course.
         If all this lead to was a group of parasites getting richer under false pretences, then it would be bad enough. However, their wheeling and dealing, their slicing and dicing, plays havoc with the health and well-being of the people they are supposed to represent. Decisions are made that drive people into poverty, ill-health, homelessness and of course heap the brutality of war on millions. History tells us the tales of hypocrisy and corruption are at the heart of governments, of the festering marriage between large companies and governments, but we never seem to learn.

       The following from the Politics in the Zeros site, is a case in America, but you are an idiot if you think this is unique to America, this is the way the game is played nowadays. Governments are not inanimate objects, nor are they fixed by the power of the holy tablets of stone. They are made up of people, usually very rich, very ambitious and very greed people, they play the game with the big boys, corporations, and in return for their obedience to the cause of profit, they are rewarded.

        Gosh there’s no conflict of interest here. Nearly a third of members of the federal Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee have financial ties to companies selling opoid drugs. In a shocking coincidence the panel has strongly opposed federal plans to recommend doctors scale back on prescribing legal heroin. Because that’s what these opoids are.
       Our government is essentially a drug pusher for highly addictive drugs. The FDA approved OxyContin for children without bothering to convene a panel of experts to make recommendations. Opiate addiction from legally prescribed pills is a major health problem nationwide among adults, to such an extent we have the obscenity of TV ads offering drugs to help with constipation caused by using opiates.
Any relation between this and a government that actually cares about the health of its citizens is of course strictly coincidental. And if this happened in a Third World country, we’d laugh at how corrupt they are.
The government advisory panel consists of federal scientists, outside academics and patient representatives. Of the 18 committee members at a recent meeting to discuss the government’s handling of pain issues, at least five had drug-industry connections.
One, a pain specialist from Duke University, has received thousands of dollars in payments from drugmakers, including OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceuticals, which sells generic painkillers. Another, a patient advocate, holds a nonprofit position created by a $1.5 million donation by Purdue.

        We should always remember, we are governed by consent, we can withdraw our consent at any time of our choosing, and start to take control of our own lives, how about now!    

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

CAN YOU BUY LEGISLATION??

        We all know that "our elected" representatives sitting in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are not shy of listening to the big guys in the corporate world and seeing to their particular needs. Why, you might ask? Well most of "our elected" representatives are all angling for a nice cushy lucrative job in that very corporate world, so it is a case of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. So while they are being bought, (wined and dined) by their corporate paymasters, what time will they have to look at your particular problem? Especially if it conflicts with the interests of those very rich corporate paymasters. 

I'm a Cabinet Minster, Ive been networking.

         This from Care2.

           The last time I checked, government officials were supposed to act with their constituents in mind. So why is it so easy for rich executives to get access to them?
One thousand, eight hundred pounds can buy you a lot of things, including access to senior government ministers, which is a boon for energy industry executives. »
         The Chemistry Club runs previously banned networking events providing company executives with valuable access to key decision makers, including senior MPs, special government advisors and cabinet ministers. For this service, companies are, unsurprisingly, happy to pay up to £1,800. At its climate change events, executives from Shell, BP, and Gazprom get the opportunity to have quiet words with the government officials who decide on energy and environment policy.
Dubious, paid-for networking events like these are, at the very least, on the borderline of corruption and have no place in the UK.
Tell the UK government to stop allowing lobbyists the opportunity to influence government policy to such an extent. »

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MOTOR-MOUTHED LOBBYISTS.

        You are probably an ordinary person who struggles to have a decent life and when it comes to elections, if you are still foolish enough to have any faith in the system, you'll cast your vote and that will be that. You will expect your elected representative to fight your corner and to argue to protect your interests in a fair and unbiased manner. If only it was that straight forward. Your elected representative will in all possibility also be employed as an advisor to some corporate body. This will mean of course that he/she will not support any legislation that might adversely affect his corporate paymaster, and he/she will also be wined and dined by well paid motor mouthed lobbyists pushing their particular paymaster's interests. This leaves your interests somewhat away down the line. They call it democracy, I call it corporate fascism.

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