Why No Punishment For Guilty Bankers?

A Growing Influx Of Foreign Criminals.
Nearly 30,000 foreigners arrested in Britain over the past year turned out to have police records in their own country.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the growing influx of criminals – including murderers and rapists – crossing our borders with ease.
A Sunday Mirror investigation reveals that out of a shocking total of 190,000 foreign nationals arrested here in the last 12 months fewer than half had their homeland backgrounds checked by our police forces.
The frightening figures from criminal records office ACRO emerge in the wake of a series of terrifying crimes carried out by migrant offenders who have hidden their past from British authorities.
( Nick Dorman and Lee Sorrell, 28.06.2015 )

Thanks to David Cameron’s vanity war on Libya, the country is now under the control of rampaging Islamist gangsters and people-traffickers who daily send hundreds of refugees in leaking boats towards Italy and, eventually, Calais and the shores of Britain.
( Rose Winfold, 11.06.2015 )

A Classiness That Contrasts With The Gruesome Twosome.
I’ve always loved Charlotte Church for drinking, smoking, swearing, sticking two fingers up to the plastic worlds of LA and London and basically staying true to herself and her roots.
She recently said she’d happily pay 70% tax if it meant less austerity cuts at a time when so many loaded celebrities were quivering in their mansions at the thought of giving crumbs from their plentiful tables to the poor.
She led an anti-austerity march last weekend, knowing she would be hammered by right-wing media whores who don’t have the brain, or the soul, to realise you can be a working-class kid made good but still passionately believe in wealth redistribution.
Media whores like Katie Hopkins and Louise Mensch, who have been trolling Charlotte with vile, aggressive, badly-spelt abuse, because of her politics.
Or is it out of jealousy because she has a heart where they have a big cold void of self-loathing.
Charlotte’s response was magnificent.
She called their abuse “toothless”, thanked them for leaving their “dank little caves” to prove she was a “litmus test for bigotry” and asked “haven’t you got candy to steal from babies?”
A classiness that contrasts with the Gruesome Twosome, especially Hopkins, who called her “a fat Russell Brand”.
I wouldn’t go down the looks route, dear.
Because compared to the owner of the voice of an angel, you’re about as attractive as a tortured banshee who’s been wailing in hell for eternity.
No offence to banshees intended.
( Brian Reade, 27.06.2015 )

When young men are sent to war, I honour them for it, but I do not honour the politicians whose vanity and stupidity made it necessary.
( Len Firswood )

Here’s my Woman of the Week.
No, I don’t usually have one, but Charlotte Church, for her efforts in the fight against austerity, deserves to be my inaugural pick.
( Fiona Phillips, 27.06.2015 )

Cannes Is A Cultural Con.
Cannes film festival bosses are being accused of rampant sexism after women were turned away from the red carpet for not wearing high heels.
Actresses including Emily Blunt have registered their sadness at an artistic festival that is supposed to be on a different cultural plane to the sex-mad, bimbo-obsessed Hollywood.
Are they joking?
Twenty years ago I reported on Cannes and found that far from celebrating avant-garde masterpieces, every hoarding had a poster of Pamela Anderson straddling a motorbike with her heaving breasts hanging out of a leather jacket as she promoted a piece of junk called Barb Wire.
And by far the most photographed moment was 70-year-old Tony Curtis doing a crawl of the Croisette bars, wearing a medal organisers had given him, with a busty blonde on each arm.
In one bar he caught me marvelling at the weirdly coloured three-inch-high wig on his head, winked and said: “It’s made from my old casting couch. And has the same effect”.
Then launched his tongue down the throat of one of the blondes to universal cheering from the locals.
Cannes is a cultural con, Emily.
And sleazier than a TOWIE-themed Bangkok knocking shop with Edwina Currie as madame.
( Brian Reade, 23.05.2015 )

Not Many People Will Know This.
Interestingly, neither Grantham, where Margaret Thatcher was born, nor Finchley, where she was a Tory MP for 30 years, have a street or square named after her.
But her home town does have a road commemorating its other famous woman, Edith Smith – the first policewoman given full power of arrest in 1915.
Not many people will know that.
( Paul Routledge, 10.07.2015 )

People Of All Ages Will Suffer.
Swimming is one of the best forms of exercise for both young and old – yet the number of public pools is plunging.
In the past two years alone, 60 have closed.
That is hardly surprising.
Since the Coalition Government came to power in 2010, more than £100million has been slashed from sports and recreational services.
Now that the Tories are in sole control and have pledged to plunder even more from local councils, we can expect the rapid closure of many more pools.
That means schools will not have anywhere to teach children how to swim, even though it is on the national curriculum.
It means pensioners will be deprived of the opportunity to take regular, cheap exercise.
And it means people of all ages will lose a wonderful sporting facility.
( Daily Mirror, 28.06.2015 )

Consumers Massive Energy Debt.
Almost four million households are in debt to their energy company, to the tune of £507million in total, despite tiny tariff reductions and self-imposed consumer rationing.
Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has written to power bosses asking them to pass on a fall in wholesale prices to customers.
Some hope.
Ed Miliband would have instructed them.
( Paul Routledge, 05.06.2015 )

The Cowards Who Believe Killing Makes Them Someone.
A woman whose sister was killed in the 7/7 bombings asked me at this week’s memorial service why, after every terrorist atrocity, does the media give so much attention to the killers and not the killed?
Why do we run huge profile pieces, trying to understand them, when their victims become a passport-sized photo above a forgotten name?
“You turn them into what they want to be, a Mr Big Shot. You let them win”.
She was right.
After 10 years I still knew the name of the murderer, and much about him.
But I couldn’t even recall her sister’s name.
Following the Tunisian attack I heard a victim’s relative ask on the radio why were we hearing so much about this low-life gunman but nothing about her beautiful aunt?
These cowardly fanatics are attention-seeking no-marks who believe killing makes them someone.
Maybe it’s time the West had a media blackout on any information concerning them.
It would ensure they never received the notoriety they desired.
It might stop other narcissistic nonentities trying to emulate them.
More importantly, it would give us space to remember the real subjects of the story, ensuring the fine people whose lives were pointlessly snuffed out resonated more fully in our memories.
And their killers stayed in death the nonentities they were in life.
( Brian Reade, 11.07.2015 )

Old Folk Are Getting No Help.
The number of elderly stuck indoors and not getting the basic care they need has soared by 100,000 to top a million, a charity claims.
Age UK said 580,000 older people have no help washing or bathing and 140,000 get no aid going to the toilet.
Some 210,000 have no help getting out of bed and 230,000 have no one to help them take medication.
Care cuts also appear to be hitting the NHS.
Between 2005-06 and 2012-13, over-65s admitted to A&E rose from 1,810,531 to 2,211,228 as social care spending for them fell by £2.64billion.
( Daily Mirror, 07.07.2015 )

Let Me Remind You What Fascism Is.
Once more let me remind you what fascism is.
It need not wear a brown shirt or a green shirt.
It may even wear a dress shirt.
Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege.
( Tommy Douglas )

To Understand A Society, Look At The Drugs It Uses.
If you want to understand a society, take a good look at the drugs it uses.
And what can this tell you about American culture?
Well, look at the drugs we use.
Except for pharmaceutical poison, there are essentially only two drugs that Western civilisation tolerates.
Caffeine from Monday to Friday to energise you enough to make you a productive member of society, and alcohol from Friday to Monday to keep you too stupid to figure out the prison that you are living in.
( Bill Hicks )

Answer That, Mr Prime Minister.
Labour’s acting leader Harriet Harman gets under David Cameron’s skin.
No mean feat, considering he has the hide of a white rhino.
The only surprise is that he doesn’t have a horn.
Maybe it’s hidden under his carefully coiffed, dyed mop.
Hattie skewered Cameron’s persistent gloating in Prime Minister’s Questions, an encounter he twists into a Spanish Inquisition of the Opposition.
He launches political tirades, demanding that she answer his questions.
He’s still fighting the general election, which tells me he never expected to win it.
If I were an MP (which thank the Lord I’m not, sir), I’d ask Dodgy Dave: “Why are you such a bastard to people who are less fortunate than you?”
Answer that, Mr Prime Minister – and not with a bullying, hectoring, lying, canting, gloating, sneering, loudmouthed, snooty, politically loaded question, if you please.
( Paul Routledge, 12.06.2015 )

Why No Punishment For Guilty Bankers?
How come, now that Barclays and RBS have been hit by a fresh £2billion fine for rigging the markets that affect every pension fund, none of the guilty traders will face criminal charges?
Worse than that, the identities of these gangsters who organised themselves into crews called “The Mafia” and “The Three Musketeers” are being kept secret.
We can’t look at photos of the Barclays trader caught on tape saying: “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying”.
These crooks who were rigging the market as late as last September won’t be in the dock like the Hatton Garden mob.
In seven years since they caused an economic crash which ruined millions of lives, not one banker has appeared in court and not one judge-led inquiry into the countless proven acts of criminality has been set-up.
Indeed taxpayers have stumped up £850billion to keep them in business.
All the CEO’s hand-wringing about “sorting out the few bad apples” and “changing our practises” has been proven to be lies.
As Barclays was apologising for its part in the Libor scandal, these latest crimes were being committed on their trading floor.
And we wonder why they believe they are Masters of the Universe?
Bankers have been found guilty of flogging bent endowment mortgages, protection plans and bonds to vulnerable pensioners that would never mature in their lifetime.
They’ve been found guilty of rigging the stock market and the price of gold yet nothing has happened to them.
But if you watch details about this rigging scandal on the Six O’Clock News without a TV licence, you can go to jail.
( Brian Reade, 23.05.2015 )

The Assets Belonging To The People Of Britain Sold Off.
The British people built the post office with their taxes over the years.
The British people built the hospitals system since the end of the war, for decades with their blood, sweat and tears.
They built the education system.
They built the rail system, they built the transportation system with all their jobs and their tax money.
And now, all those cash generating assets are being transferred to private enterprise.
( Max Keiser )

The Cocaine Capital Of The World.
London is the world’s most popular tourist destination, attracting almost 19 million visitors this year, spending more than £13billion.
It is also the cocaine capital of the world, according to a scientific survey of the city’s sewage, which samples the presence of drugs in waste water.
No wonder visitors spend so much money.
Dope is dear.
But they won’t remember much about the city’s attractions if they’re stoned out of their minds.
I’m glad I moved back home after 40 years of living and working there.
Dr Johnson once famously said: “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”.
No he isn’t.
He’s just tired of London’s crowds, traffic, sky-high prices, jam-packed Tube and Boris Johnson.
( Paul Routledge, 12.06.2015 )

Greece Is The Cradle Of Democracy.
How galling must it be for the Greeks to be constantly lectured by northern Europeans on how to run a civilised country.
Greece is the cradle of democracy, the first great civilisation, the birthplace of science, mathematics and philosophy.
For us to take the moral high ground over their demands for economic aid after we threw much more money at a shower of vulgar, amoral philistines to keep their toxic banks afloat is a tragedy.
Oh, they invented that too.
( Brian Reade, 27.06.2015 )

The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow. benefitting the poor.
But what happens instead, is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger.
Nothing ever comes out for the poor.
( Pope Francis )

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
( Desmond Tutu )

When will the BBC follow its ban on Top of the Pops episodes featuring disgraced DJs by deleting all clips of The Apprentice in case Katie Hopkins is spotted?
( Brian Reade, 02.05.2015 )

Jeremy Hunt Is Typical Of A Tory Breed.
Multi-millionaire Jeremy Hunt is typical of a Tory breed who bank a fortune while lecturing workers and families on why they must tighten their belts.
The Health Secretary’s near £1million windfall from a private venture on top of his £135,000 Cabinet salary leaves him open to a charge of sickening hypocrisy when he then squeezes the salaries of nurses, doctors and everybody else working in the NHS.
Hunt has no idea how most people live their lives, and just as little sympathy when he’s gliding by on more than 40 times the average wage.
The loaded Tory couldn’t be any further out of touch with real life if he was an astronaut orbiting Earth.
( Daily Mirror, 18.05.2015 )

We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.
( Louis Brandeis )

Governments will use whatever technology is available to them to combat their primary enemy.
Their own population.
( Noam Chomsky )

Boarding schools are now 20% full of overseas students.
Is this a case of foreigners coming over here and stealing all the leg-ups into our top jobs?
( Brian Reade, 23.05.2015 )

A Nightmare On Downing Street.
Tory slasher Iain Duncan Smith returning to Work and Pensions is a nightmare on Downing Street.
The architect of the vile Bedroom Tax seems to take a perverse delight in making life unbearable for the disabled and unemployed.
But the truth is his £12billion social security cuts will hit hardest people in work who rely on benefits to top up scandalously low paid jobs.
The Tories’ victims will be the strivers who get up early to go to jobs while the curtains remain shut in the homes of the likes of David Cameron, George Osborne and Duncan Smith.
Dishonesty helped win the election for the Tories, Duncan Smith hidden largely from public view to avoid revealing where the axe will fall.
Many people conned by the Conservatives into voting Tory will regret their mistake when the full horror of Cameron’s cuts are imposed.
( Daily Mirror, 11.05.2015 )

The Daily Mail, more than any other organisation that calls itself news, has proved time and time again that facts make no difference in the articles they make up.
( George Clooney, 09.07.2014 )

I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.
( Johannes Kepler )

Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.
( Henry Kissenger )

Buying Votes With Other People’s Money.
The main thing that every political campaign in the United States demonstrates is that the politicians of all parties, despite their superficial enmities, are really members of one great brotherhood.
Their principal, and indeed their sole object, is to collar public office, with all the privileges and profits that go therewith.
They achieve this collaring by buying votes with other people’s money.
( H.L. Mencken )

If ‘Plan A’ didn’t work.
The alphabet has twenty-five more letters.

How come, whenever the unemployed are being attacked, the word “taxpayer” has to be preceded by “hard-working”?
( Brian Reade, 02.05.2015 )

Human Beings Are Treated As A Commodity.
We live in a system where human beings are treated as a commodity with a monetary value.
We have allowed corporations to claim ownership over our common resources, selling back to us what was naturally ours to begin with.
Further more, we are forced into working for these corporations to obtain the promissory notes of another corporation to be able to buy back what should be free to all.
If we were more honest with ourselves we would call this what it really is.
Slavery.

Myleene Klass came up with the word “gobshite” on Countdown, which dictionary corner expert Susie Dent allowed because it was officially “vulgar slang”.
She didn’t say what for though.
Which is a shame, as one of the most up-to-date definitions for gobshite is: “A rich mansion-dweller who whines loudly about being asked to pay a bit more tax”.
Or “Myleene Klass” for short.
( Brian Reade, 02.05.2015 )

A Version Of History That Hides Its Crimes.
The version of history we were taught in school was heavily revised to favour our own nation’s agenda while hiding its crimes.
And in doing so fostered an unrealistic sense of false patriotism used to manufacture our allegiance to a corporate entity masquerading as our government.

Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded.
And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand.
It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics.
You are all stardust.
( Lawrence M. Krauss )

We are told that folk being paid benefits are not contributing to society.
But it seems they are contributing the most.
Their money doesn’t go into offshore accounts or investments in shares.
It goes straight back into the economy because they can’t afford to save it.
Their money goes on food and paying the bills.
Even if some of them spend it on drink and cigarettes.
They would still be paying more taxes than many of the multi-national businesses.
( Wilfred Soon )

Badgering The Government.
Prince Charles.
Thanks to a newspaper forcing judges to release 27 of his letters to Tony Blair’s government in late 2004/early 2005, we now know the issues he thought most urgently needed addressing: Protecting the Patagonian toothfish, the evils of modern teaching, culling badgers, boosting herbal medicine use, preserving Antarctic huts, giving more subsidies to farmers and helping his architecture charity.
He made a good point about better equipping the army, but basically all the subjects raised in long letters which wasted valuable ministerial time were about his own pet causes.
They are only a snapshot of the many hundreds he has written over the decades attempting to interfere with government policy.
He is basically an aristocratic lobbyist who believes his unique take on the world is vital to the nation’s health.
In one of his letters he called opponents of the badger cull “intellectually dishonest”, ignoring the fact he was being about as constitutionally dishonest as you can get.
My favourite intervention is when he tells education secretary Ruth Kelly: “I remain convinced that the current approaches to teaching and learning need to be challenged”.
No member of his family has ever been to a state school, yet he’s telling the boss of over-stretched teachers in our under-funded state sector how to do their jobs.
He sent his own sons to Eton, where rich people are allowed to buy a leg-up for their children while using the other one to kick down the kids in comprehensives.
No wonder Tory attorney general Dominic Grieve fought the publication of these letters on the grounds they “would be seriously damaging to his role as future monarch”.
The fight to keep them secret cost taxpayers £400,000.
I might write a letter to Charles asking if we can be reimbursed.
Or better still, if he can donate £400,000 worth of produce from his Duchy of Cornwall estate to food banks.
Do you reckon he’s sent many letters to David Cameron on that issue?
Me neither.
Still, why try to save a million of his mum’s subjects from hunger when there’s the Patagonian toothfish to be saved?
( Brian Reade, 16.05.2015 )

Coleen Nolan believes prostitution should be legal in the UK.
In 2005, she promised her son, 17, sex with a hooker if he passed his GCSEs.

When I ask how old your toddler is, I don’t need to hear 27 months.
‘He’s two’ will do just fine.
He’s not a cheese.
( George Carlin )

A Desperate Shower Of Opportunists.
It was inevitable a senior Lib Dem like Danny Alexander would try and snare the Tories by going public on the Coalition’s slashing agenda, painting his party as the put-upon good guys who saved the country from a dark evil.
They have always been a desperate shower of opportunists who would sell their widowed mother into prostitution for a whiff of power.
Don’t be surprised if next week Vince Cable appears on a Jeremy Kyle special entitled “I’ve been cheating on the country for five years after I was forced into an arranged marriage by a shiny-faced sect who threatened to have Theresa May nail my balls to the floor with her kitten-heel stilettos unless I joined them in smashing the public sector, cutting taxes for the rich, raising tuition fees, selling Royal Mail for the price of a stamp and taking a £134,565-a-year ministerial salary plus a chauffeur”.
( Brian Reade, 02.05.2015 )