I guess you can’t have a blog, whatever its subject, without writing something about the current state of the state.
Why pick on Gordon Brown, he hasn’t been accused of exploiting expenses rules? Yet, as a pensioner myself, I can’t help but think that my beloved company pension is less secure than it was before he had any power. For that alone I feel inclined to pick on him. It is alleged that one of his first acts was to inadverntantly, maybe, light the fuse on ruining company pensions with a stealth tax on dividends. The list of financial mismanagement while GB has been in government is so long that it’s too awful to think about. The worry decent people have suffered due to a collapse of responsibility by people with big salaries is beyond belief.
Things probably would not have been much different who-ever had been in power – although I’m sure the Communist Party wouldn’t have allowed the bankers to party quite so hard.
Then we had the big rewards for failure in business, not just banks. I read last week that one company is making a new similar system for this year and the institutions, as they are called, won’t oppose it even though they know it stinks.
There is also the uncertainty caused by the poor performance of the Labour party in Scotland. As the Conservatives have little chance of many seats in Scotland it is going to be an odd set up if a whole region has no representatives in government. Maybe this is why GB wants to change everything at present.
Which brings me back to Gordon Brown. Yesterday he announced he wanted a written constitution, a bill of rights and for MP’s to sign some rules to stop them putting in exaggerated expense claims. What good that is going to do, I don’t know. The Human Rights act is in theory a great thing. But what irritation it seems to spawn about what seem to be the opposite to common justice. The Anti-Terrorism Act must also be a lesson to us all. Icelandic Banks, dogs fouling the pavement are all covered by this act. So give someone a regulation and see how imaginatively they can use it.
So if not a Bill of Rights etc what would I want. A bit of honesty and common decency might help. If I wanted a witch hunt maybe I’d look at who has been in charge of these failing institutions and whether there are any common threads like which schools and universities they went to. Then close them.
Let’s not get too carried away because it seems a lot of the population was partying along with the bankers and chief execs for many years and even those not partying, like myself, were feeling more comfortable. So in some ways we’re all to blame but it comes back to the boss Gordon not being stern enough to control the giddy fools.
In a few weeks all this will be forgotten. Gordon Brown knows – when you walk through a storm……….. But I can’t help thinking if he is still in power and doesn’t get wiped out at the next election, he will be thought of as a miracle man.