CALEDONIAN COMMENT

The Bank of England, under the control of its Governor Mervyn King (pictured above) secretly loaned £61.6 billion to 2 banks at the height of the UK financial meltdown last year. Reportedly a “dire financial emergency” meant covert crisis loans were extended to the banks then in difficulty, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and the Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), at the beginning of October 2008  -  before they were partly nationalised. The Bank of England revealed these details for the first time yesterday, stating that it has waited until now to disclose them because it feared the revelation could trigger panic. In fairness, a sensible approach – nobody wants to see a run on the banks and the money has since been repaid.

What however is not acceptable is the continued behaviour of these banks – and indeed banks in general –  towards businesses and individuals as this recession continues. They have been in receipt of taxpayer bailouts, Quantitative Easing monies and “covert crisis loans” , but they are still denying credit to potential customers at reasonable rates. Indeed, they are continuing to reduce the amount of credit they make available, to the detriment of the economy. Their enthusiasm for financial transactions would appear to go no further than calculating their staff bonuses and “repairing their balance sheets” (a.k.a. profiteering), while potential borrowers facing “dire financial emergency” continue to be hung out to dry. Why can’t the government and the Bank of England make their support conditional on these banks lending reasonably and more frequently, without crippling interest charges and rip-off arrangement fees ?

 

In the UK yesterday a Scotland Yard commander was accused of misleading parliament after an inquiry found that undercover police were secretly deployed at the G20 protests last April to spy on activists, contrary to the police chief’s denials. Commander Bob Broadhurst, who had overall command of the G20 policing operation, told the Home Affairs select committee in May that “no plain clothes officers were deployed at all” during the demonstrations in the City of London. But it has emerged that 25 undercover City of London police WERE stationed around the Bank of England to gather “intelligence” on protesters on 1 and 2 April. Broadhurst stands by the evidence he gave to MPs, claiming the deployment of undercover officers was unknown to him. Yeah sure. But in fairness in any case, it wasn’t the undercover officers that were attacking and indeed killing protestors – it was some of the uniformed ones, whose beligerent mood is captured in the above photo.

 

Another example of muddled New Labour thinking. That epitome of banal incompetence, even by the inept standards of the dying UK government,  the Health Secretary Andy Burnham (pictured above), admitted yesterday that research into cancer and dementia is under threat because of government plans for free social care. Mr Burnham, said that millions of pounds would be “reprioritised” from health research and development to pay the costs of the Social Care Bill, published yesterday. Money will also be diverted from public health campaigns such as those on swine flu, sexually transmitted diseases and obesity. The Bill, a key plank of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s pre-election legislative agenda, has been condemned by politicians, scientists and health campaigners. It would guarantee free personal care at home or other support for up to 400,000 elderly and disabled people with the greatest needs from next October, at a cost of £670 million a year. Of course it will never happen, not least because the care workers aren’t there – but any excuse to cut spending while making false election promises will do for this cretin Burnham and the corrupt government he serves in.

 

In Switzerland minarets could be banned this weekend after voters go to the polls for a controversial referendum. The Right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) argues that the distinctive mosque features are a symbol of Islamic intolerance. The party has led an emotive campaign to outlaw them. Posters depicting a woman in a burkha in front of minarets shaped like missiles (pictured above), against the background of a Swiss flag, have been put up around the country. Ulrich Schüler, an SVP parliamentarian and leading member of the anti-minaret movement, says the towers are political rather than religious. What a good idea – let’s get rid of all the Islamic mosques – and while they’re at it, let’s also get rid of every single Jewish synagogue, Hindu temple and Christian church into the bargain. That way, there will be a damn sight less arguments in the world all round.

 

The prostitute at the centre of a sex scandal involving Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has for the first time claimed that she had sex with him. Since first alleging she spent a night last November at Berlusconi’s Rome residence, Patrizia D’Addario (pictured above – the blond by the way!) has limited herself to saying she shared a bed with the 73-year-old PM. But in her new book, “Take Your Pleasure, Prime Minister”, Miss D’Addario writes: “He told me he wanted contact with my skin, he held me tight, he took my breath away. I took him inside me, he suffocated me with kisses.” An Italian journalist said : “This is the first time she has really made it clear that they had sex.” Amazing – up till now we all assumed that they were in bed discussing the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.

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Tags: andy burnham, bank bailout, bank of england, bob broadhurst, g20, gordon brown, hbos, home affairs select committee, italy, mervyn king, minaret ban, new labour, patrizia d'addario, quantitative easing, rbs, rome, scotland yard, silvio berlusconi, social care bill, svp, switzerland, uk, ulrich schuler

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 12:06 am and is filed under Daily Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.