Tagged with The establishment

The big downside of this election

ballot boxApart from the narrowness in the polling between the two main parties, the other dramatic characteristic of this election is the number of people who are profoundly disgruntled and deep-down angry at the Establishment, in which they include Labour as well as the Tories, and are likely either not to vote at all or to vote UKIP.

The reasons variously tossed around are that “they’re all the same/nothing ever gets done/there’s no point because nothing changes/I’m not voting because politics doesn’t interest me”, etc., etc. UKIP will pick up quite a number of these turned-off disenchanted – may even come second in a large number of constituencies – even though it’s led by a phoney imposter who was an investment banker and preens himself as a working class lad in a pub with a pint of beer in his hand. But despite Farage’s obvious pretentiousness and the fact that UKIP will probably end up with only a handful of seats, what that tells you is that the big parties have massively failed in the eyes of a significant and growing section of the population. So what should be our response? Continue reading →

Chilcot: Establishment writes its own rules to evade embarrassment

david cameron and tony blairThe Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war (March-April 2003, nearly 12 years ago) was set up in 2009 and took public evidence from its last witness in 2011. The announcement yesterday that the report after 6 years on inquiry is being strung out until after the election this May is truly scandalous. Cameron has tried to wash his hands of it by saying that he is not responsible and the inquiry is independent doesn’t wash. He closed down the Gibson inquiry into alleged UK involvement in US rendition when it became clear that its revelations could be highly embarrassing to the UK authorities, so there is no question that he could set a time limit for the Chilcot inquiry if he really wanted to.

What makes it all the more scandalous is not that more time is needed to complete the report (it has been completed), but rather that those criticised in the report have been given the option of indefinitely delaying its publication as a result of being given prior access to what it says about them and then being allowed endlessly to prevaricate by haggling over every detail they don’t like. On a matter that affects the whole nation and has left an abiding imprint of deep shame, this is outrageous. Continue reading →

Our corrupt, self-protective, unaccountable Establishment

Bowler HatBy chance several events in the few days before Christmas highlighted poignantly how the British Establishment – the small political-economic-financial elite who went to the same public schools and the same universities (usually Oxbridge) – automatically close ranks to protect each other when they come under pressure.

Jonathan Burrows, a former MD of Blackrock Asset Management with a multi-million salary, was exposed as a chiselling fare dodger who had cheated Southeastern Railways out of £43,000 over several years, but because he was allowed to make an out-of-court settlement he avoided prosecution and wasn’t sent to prison. What ordinary employee would have have been allowed such a getaway? The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) feebly admonished him as “falling short of the standards we expect” – can you imagine that being said to a burglar who had raided houses for several years and got away with £43,000? The FCA is the same toothless body which is supposed to be holding the City to account after a decade of stupendous financial crime, but has yet to send a single City grandee to prison. Continue reading →

For Scotland’s sake, we must break from the Westminster establishment

Neil Findlay campaign portraitThe Westminster establishment, to which all the three main political parties are seen to sign up, is the most toxic brew in modern British politics.

It has led to UKIP, which robbed the Tories of Clacton and likely Rochester, as well as almost certainly several Tory seats at the next election. And which came within an ace of robbing Labour of Heywood and Middleton.

It has now led to the SNP to a position where, some polls suggest, it will capture between 47-54 of the 59 constituencies in Scotland where Labour currently holds 41 and the Tories 1, leaving Labour just 5 to 10 seats. Less dramatic polls indicate the SNP might take 23-26 seats, but that could still have severe reverberations for Labour. Continue reading →

Woolf’s enforced resignation exposes Establishment & Home Office stitch-up

WoolfIt’s not often I disagree with my colleague Tom Watson MP, but on the issue of Fiona Woolf being forced out of the chairmanship of the child sex abuse inquiry after a string of damning revelations I think he’s got it wrong. “Labour should not go after May”, he’s reported as saying.

Of course he’s right that what matters now is to find a positive replacement. It has to be someone who (i) has knowledge and experience of child abuse issues, which Woolf did not, (ii) has the forensic skills of a High Court judge, which Woolf also lacked, (iii) is manifestly without any Establishment and Home Office connections, which Woolf manifestly did have, and (iv) commands the confidence of the survivors and victims groups, which again Woolf clearly didn’t. But to ignore the Home Office’s deep and dishonourable collusion in trying to fix the chairmanship of this inquiry in order to cover up the charge of organised abuse by prominent politicians and officials, and to suggest we simply move on, would be a serious mistake.
Continue reading →