Archive for the ‘Admirable politician’ category

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Is the corporate-political nexus paving the way for the factory farming?

May 17th, 2013
Alastair Driver of the Farmers Guardian reported earlier this month that the Dairy Coalition – NFU, NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland, the Tenant Farmers Association, the Women’s Food and Farming Union and the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers – has asked Farming Minister David Heath to ‘call in’ the 15% of milk buyers failing to implement the voluntary code on milk contracts

NFU chief dairy adviser Robert Newbery said that the greatest resistance was coming from some of ‘big middle ground liquid processors’ who ‘don’t want to know’.

Dairy UK director general Jim Begg said that the approach of the dairy companies had been ‘both responsible and constructive’.

Three days ago Mr Driver showed figures collated by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) indicating that more than 30 farmers quit the industry in April alone in England and Wales. The number of dairy farmers in England and Wales have fallen by more than 40% from more than 18,000 in 2002.

The Kingshay Dairy Manager costings show total purchased feed costs increased by 1.27 pence a litre over the past year, but milk price only went up 0.54ppl.

DairyCo’s recent Farmer Intentions Survey showed that the current average farmgate milk price of around 30-31ppl is lagging behind the AMPE (Actual Milk Price Equivalent) market indicator, currently in excess of 38ppl.

NFU dairy board chairman Mansel Raymond said that if the leaving rate carries on for three months it will be serious: “The milk price has to go higher. The industry now needs that positive signal to move forward to increase production and invest.”

The Independent reports that an announcement on a timetable for plans for a farm in Foston, Derbyshire, stocking 25,000 pigs, is expected later this week. A decision on whether a 1000-cow mega-dairy near Welshpool can go ahead is also expected shortly.

Joyce Watson, Member of the Welsh Assembly for Mid and West Wales, said:  “With the full extent of the horsemeat scandal still coming to light, consumers want food they can trace and trust. Industrial-scale farms would be a big step in the wrong direction – bad for cows, bad for farmers, bad for consumers and bad for the environment.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Admirable politician, Agriculture, Conflict of interest, Corporate political nexus, Economy, Environment, Government, Political action, Vested interests

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PCU: the ‘captive state’ – a Britain organised under successive governments to suit the corporate few – grossly mistreats people like the late Stephanie Bottrill

May 13th, 2013

Following posts on Birmingham and Solihull websites, readers who have responded fall into two categories:

Some – living on average or above average incomes have been quite unsympathetic:

  • In her place I’d cut my coat according to my cloth
  • Would losing £20 be such a big deal?
  • These people are always whining.
  • The son’s approach to the Sunday papers was motivated by financial gain.
  • Think of the mothers and children cramped in one-bedroom accommodation.
  • She didn’t care about the trauma she would be inflicting on the lorry driver

Others affected:

  • are thankful that this issue has been raised,
  • have written about similar problems they are facing,
  • say that their grand-children will not be able to stay with them if they move,
  • point out that to a person with a disposable income of £77 – £20 is a 25% cut,
  • and that for a single person, £20 is the amount a person will spend on food bill – not including fresh meat.
captive state cover
PCU sees the captive state – Labour and Conservative governments alike, in thrall to the rich and powerful.
Many politicians are eager for the crumbs falling from these corporates – not usually in brown envelopes but in the form of declared directorships and also undeclared lucrative opportunities for family employment.
Two of many examples where the ‘captive state’ is easy on the affluent but bears down on people like Stephanie Bottrill:

The government commandeered taxpayers’ money to bail out other affluent bankers and HMRC created a “bespoke” tax arrangement for Goldman Sachs in order to resolve a “huge relationship issue” with the bank. It excused Goldman Sachs from paying £10 million interest on tax it had not paid. The government also commandeered taxpayers’ money to bail out other affluent bankers.

No parallel desire is shown to create relationships and help the poor and powerless.

The case underlines the need for a new (cross-party?) incorruptible politics designed to offer equality of opportunity and security to all its citizens – not just the affluent few.
cllrs jc, ss, cw
Do readers know of any energetic and innovative, public-spirited politicians likely to make a difference? Three named in the West Midlands are pictured above.

 

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Posted in Admirable politician, Banking and finance, Conflict of interest, Corporate political nexus, Democracy undermined, Government, Lobbying, Local government, Parliamentary failure, Taxpayers, Unemployment, Vested interests

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Government ‘sweetheart’ tax deals and yet another revolving door reward for failure

April 30th, 2013
Yeah, we’re all in this together? 

So said the reader who recommended the Guardian article by Rajeev Syal which reveals the scale of the government’s “sweetheart” tax deals – individual secret agreements drawn up between tax officials and corporations to settle disputes.

Another whistleblower revelation

A leaked document sent by Dave Hartnett, the former head of tax at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), to David Gauke, the exchequer secretary at the Treasury, discloses a figure of £4.5bn for four settlements.

Conflict of interest: the government’s civil servant too close to the corporate world

dave hartnettTwo years ago the Telegraph and others reported that Dave Hartnett, during his service as ‘permanent secretary for tax’ at HM Revenue & Customs, was entertained 107 times by some of the UK’s biggest banks.

These included law firms and accountancy firms and other corporates, amongst them, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Ernst & Young, KPMG, PriceWaterhouse Coopers and Deloitte.

Revolving door

In January he was hired by HSBC to help to enforce the highest standards in dealing with international money transfers.

The leaked document describes deals in excess of £1bn as “not uncommon”.

The disclosures about the multibillion-pound scale of the government’s deals come from a seven-page memo sent by Hartnett in December 2011 as he asked for public support from Gauke in the face of growing criticism in the media and parliament.

Margaret Hodge, the chair of the Commons public accounts committee, said: “If we got £4.5bn in, how much did we not get? That is what taxpayers will want to know, and I’ll be raising this with HMRC through the committee.

Whistleblower protected? No: treated like serious criminal

Separate documents disclosed in the Guardian show that tax officials used intrusive investigative powers designed to help them catch serious criminals to try to prove that the whistleblower who uncovered one of the first sweetheart deals, involving Goldman Sachs, had spoken to the Guardian.

Read more about HMRC’s draconian action against its whistleblower and deals with Vodafone and Goldman Sachs here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/29/sweetheart-tax-deals

 

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Posted in Admirable politician, Advisors and consultants, Banking and finance, Civil servants, Conflict of interest, Corporate political nexus, Democracy undermined, Economy, Government, Lobbying, Parliamentary failure, Revolving door, Reward for failure, Secret State, Vested interests, Whistleblowers

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FOR THE COMMON GOOD: an economist who specialised in business investment and management speaks from the heart

April 11th, 2013

michael wilkesMichael Wilkes’ background is in academia and politics. He is said to have been the youngest professor of economics appointed at the University of Birmingham. After many years teaching business investment and management, he became a local government councillor and Deputy Liberal Democrat Leader in the city. Currently emeritus professor, he is working on the Birmingham Tolkien Strategy/Tolkein Heritage):

On another website he writes:

The distressed state of the economy is as much a moral problem as an economic one – although the economics alone are dire enough. Unless issues related to the absence of worthwhile values are resolved, the present circumstances are certain to persist, scandals will recur and the well-being of the population will continue to be neglected.

The values that are now regrettably lacking in society were once internalised by organisations as well as individuals. They were taken for granted and were largely unspoken. Citizens are now seen as gullible profits fodder fit for deception and exploitation rather than people to whom a genuine, valuable and above all trustworthy service is provided. The number of organisations that can be regarded as ethical is rapidly diminishing . . .

The key to the land of found content is a shared vision and a ‘citizenry of good intent’ in all their doings . . .

Before dismissing this as more head in the clouds ‘happiness theory’, note that he – like Professor Richard Layard – gives practical recommendations under the paper’s headings:

  • Regenerating the economy,
  • Getting there.
He affirms: “Outside of the governing class, the viperous sections of the press and the self-serving commercial elite, I believe that the willingness to work for the common good exists.” 

Do you?

Read two blogs and his paper here.

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Posted in Admirable politician, Banking and finance, Economy, FOR THE COMMON GOOD, Government, Local government, Media

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