St.Paul's Cathedral closes under PC pressure

Hard day's night outside St.Paul's

St.Paul must be ruing the day his name was associated with Christopher Wren's masterpiece in the City of London. Not because of the majesty of the building but because of the travesty that is the nonsense of "health and safety". We are all concerned about our wellbeing, the safety of our persons and the health of our citizens. But dreaming up spurious reasons for possible death and disaster befalling us is complete and utter nonsense.

The chapter of St.Paul's has put out an open letter, addressed mainly to the huddled masses outside protesting about greed and filthy lucre laundering, asking for the tented tribe to "windraw peacefully" so as to let the cathedral carry on as usual. A lot of waffle was included about evacuation and fire hazards. Health and safety regulations reared their heads. One has to wonder what the dean was thinking. Is it the case that, in the event of a terrible catastrophe in the inner sanctums of the cathedral, visitors, worshippers and clergy alike all swarm out and are expected to rush down the flights of steps to supposed safety? It beggars belief, and a belief not promoted by the Apostle himself.

These protestors are camped in a fairly decent Millets style way. They might make the boy scouts proud. Most seem to be quite posh. One alluded to the fact that he worked down the street somewhere, so could not take up permanent residence. If I wanted to worship in St.Paul's (and I'd be thinking about it for doctrinal reasons rather than fear of a clerical stampede) I would simply walk past the group. How many people is the dean reckoning on evacuating? Surely we're not talking thousands. In the unlikely event of his vestments catching fire, all that is required is to form an orderly queue.

Now if the legal eagles of the church have concluded that "the legal requirements placed upon us by fire, health and safety issues" mean the cathedral closes for a while, so be it. Frankly, I'm surprised that the dean, a former bishop of Sodor & Man, thinks that a lofty approach is going to improve the image of the Church of England in public perception. Surely he must realise that people from across the political spectrum are grievously concerned by the financial situation of this country. He implies that the protestors have made their point and should leave. But that is a naive opinion. Savers and pensioners see their nest eggs plundered and the financial institutions continue to ease quantitatively and squeeze with little or no impunity. Does the dean think Fred the Shred did us proud? Are the one hundred and ninety-eight FTSE 100 companies that evade tax by washing cash through tax havens any better for Britain than the tented ones outside St.Paul's? Perhaps the dean could speak to the nation with an even bigger open letter?

This is not a left/right issue anymore. It is simply a matter of saying that we don't want the present casino cash banking business to carry on ruining lives. Lives of conservative people, liberal people, all sorts. Christians, Muslims, atheists and whoever.

If the Church of England is to regain some credibility in this the clergy should engage with the people instead of shutting the doors in the name of some politically correct notions about health and safety.

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All In This Together - Part 1

David Cameron has said we are "all in this together" as the country battles the financial problems such as the mega deficit. It has been decided that richer types won't be getting child benefit from 2013. They don't need it and it will save £1 billion. I don't need the winter warmth allowance, so I'm happy to give that one up. But is everyone playing with the same bat? I suspect those in the "financial services" industry are not yet in a mindset to play nicely.

The bankers are still getting stick from the public. This is partly I suspect because they don't want reform that will expose some of their murkier transactions. Banking was once an honourable profession. It is now infected by the practices of spivs and charlatans. I know of a number of good people who have left modern banking because their consciences were sorely tested by what they were asked to do in order to get a sale.

If we are "all in this together" then those in the financial services need to be properly in with us. When it comes to pensions most of us believe we are dealing with honest brokers. However, this may not be the case. Most of us thought the Robert Maxwell days were gone. But we live today with pension deficits. Why? Because companies have not been paying into the funds. Shortfalls abound everywhere. The Post Office pension fund is a disaster masquerading as a genial leviathan. If ever the outfit is privatised it will be the taxpayer that gets this actuarial monster to deal with. And yet more liability will be heaped on us. The governance of pensions has been left in the hands of the incompetents and handwringers. Not only are the contractual elements of pension funds being flouted but those in power seem not to care. Let the coalition government shine a light on these pension deficits.

Transparency is hard to get in the pension world. BBC Panorama is exposing the collossal fees taken by private pension funds. Pension-selling companies are taking the equivalent of 80% of money paid into some pension plans out in fees and commissions, Panorama has found. In one HSBC pension plan, £120,000 paid in over 40 years would result in fees and commissions totalling £99,900. How much, HSBC? And this organisation used to be run by an Anglican priest. Surely he had some idea of this daylight robbery. HSBC just replied that its pension product is competitive. BUT THEY JUST DON'T GET IT. It is precisely this weasly way of working that has got the banks into such a dim light with the public. Shanghaid indeed! Perhaps when the reverend gent becomes a trade minister he can advise the prime minister on how to clean up this pension fiasco? He and Vince together, the Dynamic Duo. Angela Knight watch out!

Malcolm McLean is a pensions consultant. He says, according to the BBC, that the problem is a lack of transparency when the pension is sold and what seems like a small annual percentage charge grows each year in real terms as the fund gets bigger. "You suddenly find that after 30 or 40 years there's a terrific amount of money lost and I don't think many people actually understood that when perhaps they took out the pension," he said.

Lack of transparency, eh? Well, if we are "all in this together" let's have these pension providers being honest and open. By all means take properly earned fees. Nobody can run a business without a profit. But this is ridiculous. How much of this excessive skimming off the top goes into bonuses? Dig deeper Dave! We need answers.

The city has an expression for poorly performing funds. They're called dog funds. And I expect they come with all the crap as well!


Panorama site

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Vince Cable tells it as it is!

I was going to write masses of stuff on Vince Cable's critique of corporate Britain. But I can't just yet get it all out of my head for it to make much sense. So I went to Robert Peston's blog and found his first unmoderated comment from someone called "watriler". It goes:-

"The reaction to Cable's remarks reminds me of the quote "The religion of the Englishman is the law of supply and demand". In modern capitalism there is no free market except in that free enterprise is hardly controlled. Their aim is to eliminate or manage competition. Throw the text books away."

Couldn't put it better myself. Vince Cable said of Gordon Brown that he had gone from being Stalin to being Mr.Bean. British corporations have made sure that there are no Mr.Beans to cause trouble and have made sure their gravy trains remain on track. We must be mad to put up with it all.

On the radio this morning a woman from Price Waterhouse was complaining about the immigration policy. She apparently wants 63 erudite beancounters from outside the EU to "make a cultural difference" to PWC's business in London. She also popped in the now mandatory blackmailing threat that she and her co-workers "might leave the country".

What is it with these people? Is patriotism dead? Are they so craven to filthy lucre that nothing will get in their way? David Cameron says we are all in this together. I get the impression it is not about fighting the deficit but stopping these boardroom bozos from causing us any more problems.

Free enterprise is not an easy thing, but at least it allows people to develop their talents, try out their ideas and be free to work as they wish. On the other hand, the big business theory of today seems more like an effort to circle the wagons and keep the real entrepreneurs out. Pension deficits, uncontrolled remuneration committees, slapdash safety and forced redundancies are just a few of the negative aspects of corporate business.

If shareholders really did control these large companies, we might get some real change. But all the while they try to eliminate or manage competition and keep everything as it is, we won't.

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Coalition Conferences

For the first time in living memory of any living Briton, a Liberal (of sorts) gets up at a conference and talks about being in government. As a natural conservative I would have preferred a fully-fledged Conservative government. However, the voters, ever more hurtling towards electoral pipolar disorder, plumped for a situation where no party held a majority in the Commons. So, in the face of dire financial circumstances, two parties agreed to a coalition government. But before it had started, the gainsayers tried to start to unravel the newly-knitted coat of two colours. "It won't last!", they cried, as if doom and gloom were far better bedfellows. The BBC is quite keen on seeing the coalition crash before the year is out. Questions abound on possible calamities, possible rifts. Who cares? THERE'S A CRISIS AT OUR DOOR!

Apparently 40% of the electorate are still moaning about not voting for a coalition. I sometimes wonder if some people should ever get near a ballot box. They seem to think an election is a kind of affirmation of their views and their views alone. David Miliband, celebral geek that he is, even suggested that the last general election was in some way an affront to his democratic decencies. Really?!!

Nick Clegg is right when he says that this coalition government must be judged on five years of achievement or failure. However, carping before anything has happened is just going to lead us into a self-inflicted catastrophe. With the bankers and corporate bonus baggers reaping undeserved pickings.

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Should Moody's be downgraded?

I saw Raymond NcDaniel, the Chairman & CEO of Moody's, being quizzed by the venerable interrogators of this financial committee, the FCIC, looking into the banking crisis and all things connected with it. When asked if any due dilligence was done over the subprime fiasco, McDaniel looked somewhat perplexed. After a bit of waffle, I think the answer was a basic no. It was likened to just going through the accounts of the Dairy Queen rather than sipping the blizzards on offer. Warren Buffet was sitting next to him, and Buffet owns the Dairy Queen.

Moody's have made a mint making rating the creditworthiness of other peoples' businesses their own business. They even take a considered opinion of the state of countries. They don't rate Greece too highly at the moment. They've just notched them down another peg. But what is the real purpose of Moody's and others like them? How come they were so undue in their own dilligence when it came to the subprime racketeers? Is it because McDaniel hadn't heard the word "derivative" before? This fancy word conjured up by bankers in order to turn bad money into good.

I like the way the questioning went, but I doubt it will do much. Both McDaniel and Buffet came across as completely devoid of any real sense that this financial disaster was much to do with them. And that's the problem. They don't really live in the real world. Far better for the committee to go down to the local Dairy Queen and ask the blizzard sippers what they would do to straighten things out. Now that's direct democracy for you!

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Mutt and Jeff and Gordon Brown

So Gordon Brown says he "misunderstood" what the good lady said. If that's the case, he's quick to fly off the handle over something he's not sure about. Bit like the cabinet ministers who had the rough edge of his tongue. Misunderstood, indeed!

He said this in an interview with Jeremy Paxman. Plus this - "Please believe me, I have never been soft on bankers and I am not soft on bankers now and I have been very, very clear about what the banks have got to do in the future." So clear that the banks cannot muster any backbone for self-control. Sir Philip Hampton, the boss of RBS, is so weak that he has to cave in to his ultra-greedy employees (those who get the massive bonuses). "If we don't pay our top people (appropriately), they leave very quickly," he said. So these top people have no loyalty to the bank, no loyalty to the customers and no loyalty to the country (who bailed the buggers out). All they have is a craven desire to get filthy rich by making "profits" out of illusionary money. Most of it doesn't exist. It's all in some follow-my-leader account-hopping merry-go-round. They can make nothing into something. Must make an alchemist sick!

Gordon Brown hasn't done what he should do. Instead of bawling out Mrs. Duffy, why doesn't he get those bank chiefs in and tell them that it's straight jackets not flash jackets from now on. No funny money stuff. No hedging, no betting, no ducking, no diving, no derivatives, additives, sedatives, or laxatives. Just plain honest banking.

Any chance these modern day moneychangers might be able to clean up their financial temples?

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Gordon Brown gets a roasting! Devalued all round!

This is great! Daniel Hannan MEP tells Gordon Brown he's a devalued prime minister. What a speech. See it on the internet, because this speech was withheld by the BBC. It was censored! But I would have thought such a dressing down was top political news. Not at the BBC, Sky or elsewhere.



Nigel Farage MEP has also given Gordon Brown a few home truths. This You Tube presentation is a UKIP one and I'm not necessarily promoting UKIP, but Farage tells Brown exactly what's what. Nice how the schoolboy grinning of Brown shows up.

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