U.K. – Page 132 – Infinite Unknown

UK: Cash-strapped sell their kidneys to pay off debts

September 27, 2009 by Infinite

– Transplant tourism: Jobless Spaniards sell kidneys

British victims of the credit crunch are offering to sell their kidneys for £25,000 or more to help pay debts, an investigation by The Sunday Times has revealed.

At least a dozen adverts have appeared on the internet offering kidneys for sale from British “donors”. Five of the sellers corresponded with undercover journalists, who posed as friends and relatives of sick patients to negotiate sales.

One person willing to sell a kidney is a 26-year-old mental health nurse who said he needed the money to pay debts after a business he set up went bankrupt. Another is a 43-year-old taxi driver from Lancashire, who wants to raise cash to pay off some of his mortgage and buy a new kitchen.

Both men said they wanted to help those in need of kidney transplants at the same time as relieving their financial difficulties. A leading doctor said the phenomenon highlighted the need for a public discussion of the issue of selling organs.

Pound Falls to Five Month Low as Bank of England Says Declines ‘Helpful’

September 25, 2009September 25, 2009 by Infinite

The UK is broke and the pound is – thanks to the government and the Bank of England – worthless paper.

“A weak currency arises from a weak economy, which in turn is the result of a weak government.” – Gordon Brown

Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) — The pound fell, weakening to 91 pence per euro for the first time in more than five months, on speculation the Bank of England favors currency declines to boost the economy.

The pound also dropped the most since April against the dollar on renewed investor expectations that the central bank will cut the rate it pays financial institutions on deposits. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said the weakening pound is “helpful” in rebalancing the economy, the Newcastle Journal cited him as saying in an interview. Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters in New York today he welcomes “all the factors that make for a stable economy.”

“A currency, which the country’s own central bank likes to see weak, obviously is not an attractive investment,” Commerzbank analysts including Lutz Karpowitz in Frankfurt wrote in a research note today. “If King keeps digging then he is clearly signaling that he does not care about this loss of trust.”

Britain’s public debt hits £800 billion – the highest on record

September 19, 2009 by Infinite

The UK and the US are broke.

Related articles:
– UK monthly budget deficit soars to record £16bn (Guardian)
– Foreign investment in UK falls by half (Guardian)

(David McClelland/The Times)

Britain is clocking up debt at a rate of £6,017 per second as the Government struggles to balance the books. With tax receipts plummeting because of the recession, state borrowing grew by £16.1 billion last month – almost twice the entire budget for the 2012 Olympics.

Net borrowing for the first five months of the financial year stood at £65.3 billion, compared with £26.1 billion at the same stage last year. Total borrowing soared past the £800 billion mark for the first time and total state debt as a proportion of national output reached 57.5 per cent.

Just to pay the interest on its ballooning debts the Government must find more than £30 billion a year – about £500 for every man, woman and child in the country.

The figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that tax receipts in August dived by 9 per cent compared with August 2008, while public spending rose by almost 3 per cent. The widening gulf was bridged by borrowing. Spending on benefits grew by £900 million to £13.5 billion as unemployment soared.

Taking fright at the figures, foreign exchange dealers sent sterling diving to a four-month low against the euro. The value of the pound fell by more than 1 per cent against the dollar.

Analysts said that the Budget forecast by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, that additional borrowings would be £175 billion this year was not pessimistic enough and predicted that borrowing would be between £15 billion and £50 billion above that forecast.

John Hawksworth, chief economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: “It seems likely that budget deficits will overshoot Treasury forecasts not only in 2009-10 but for years to come.”

Philip Hammond, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: “We used to worry about borrowing £16 billion in an entire year. Now Labour have done it in just one month. These shocking figures show the depth of Gordon Brown’s debt crisis and just how irresponsible he was to pretend that spending cuts weren’t necessary.”

Lord Myners describes £130bn sunk into banks as ‘nice little nest-egg’

January 19, 2017September 16, 2009 by Infinite

Lord Myners described the £130bn sunk into banks as ‘nice little nest-egg’

Treasury minister Lord Myners faced anger and charges of ‘complacency’ by calling the Government’s multi-billion bank bailout a ‘nice little nest-egg’ for the taxpayer.

He also said he thought the worst of the financial sector crisis was over. (The worst is yet to come.)

There were immediate accusations that he was ‘glossing over’ the unprecedented risk to the public purse of saving the UK’s stricken financial houses.

The Government has pumped some £60billion into Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS through cash injections and by underwriting reckless loans.

Experts at the International Monetary Fund have predicted that the total bill will eventually reach a jaw- dropping £130billion. The rescue deal has helped swell national debt to record levels.

There has been outrage from ordinary families who will suffer for decades from soaring taxes and cuts to public services as governments grapple to get to grips with the financial disaster.

But Lord Myners insisted that the bailout was actually an ‘investment’ that would bear fruit. (Devaluation of the pound? The UK defaulting on its debt?)

Children in modern Britain living in poverty ‘mirroring the times of Dickens’

September 10, 2009 by Infinite

Poverty levels in parts of Britain mirror “the times of Dickens”, leaving schools struggling to cope with increasing numbers of children lacking the most basic personal skills, according to a teachers’ leader.

Three million children still live below the poverty line Britain Photo: GETTY

Some pupils from the poorest areas arrive at school unable to dress themselves or use a knife and fork, with some even unable to use a toilet properly, she said.

Lesley Ward, president of the 160,000-strong Association of Teachers and Lecturers, warned that many children were also being relied upon to raise younger brothers and sisters and lacked stable father figures in the home.

In a speech last night, Mrs Ward, a primary school teacher from Doncaster, said Labour had “tried hard on this issue” but had failed to fill the vacuum left by the death of the mining and manufacturing industries in many working-class communities.

She said it meant a “small, significant and growing minority” of children were being raised in families with low expectations and a level of poverty “mirroring the times of Dickens”.

It was “next to impossible”, she added, for schools to counter the effect of serious deprivation, family breakdown and a lack of parenting skills in many communities.

Her comments follow the publication of figures showing nearly three million children still live below the poverty line in Britain. Ministers have admitted there is little chance of hitting their target to half child poverty by 2011.

Banksters sue Banksters for €33m in unpaid bonuses

September 9, 2009 by Infinite

Commerzbank-Logo in Frankfurt

Seventy-two City bankers are suing Dresdner Kleinwort and Commerzbank for €33m ($47.8m) worth of unpaid bonuses in the biggest case of its kind in the UK.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in the High Court, is the latest sign that bankers are ready to fight for their pay packets in spite of public outrage over the size of the rewards on offer in an industry widely blamed for the financial crisis.

An additional 25-30 former employees at Dresdner, which was bought by Germany’s Commerzbank late last year, are expected to file a separate suit in the coming weeks.

Hong Kong pulls all gold reserves from depositories in London

September 3, 2009 by Infinite

If you know that the greatest financial & economic collapse in world history is coming then this move makes perfect sense.

In a challenge to London, Asian states invited to store bullion closer to home

Gold vault in London

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Hong Kong is pulling all its physical gold holdings from depositories in London, transferring them to a high-security depository newly built at the city’s airport, in a move that won praise from local traders Thursday.

The facility, industry professionals said, would support Hong Kong’s emergence as a Swiss-style trading hub for bullion and would lessen London’s status as a key settlement-and-storage center.

“Having a central government-sponsored vault would create a situation where you could conceivably look at Hong Kong as being a hub, where metal could be traded for the region,” said Sunil Kashyap, managing director at Scotia Capital in Hong Kong, adding that the facility was the first with official government backing in the region.

UK government under fire for unnecessarily locking up hundreds of immigrant children

September 2, 2009September 2, 2009 by Infinite

Policy questions after figures say 470 minors detained
Post-traumatic stress common in those released

yarls-wood
Yarl’s Wood: strongly criticised by the children’s commissioner for England. Photograph: Dan Chung

Ministers were facing accusations today that hundreds of children are being held unnecessarily in immigration detention centres as official figures revealed, for the first time, that 470 minors were being detained with their families.

The figures, made public following pressure from children’s rights groups and MPs, showed most were under five.

Many were from troubled countries such as Zimbabwe, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UK has one of the worst records in Europe for detaining children, but accurate figures on how many are held, or for how long, have remained elusive.

While the Home Office has not divulged the length of detention, it provided a “snapshot” picture of those held on a single day: 30 June 2009.

This shows that almost a third of children were held for longer than 28 days, which means that in each case an immigration minister had to sign an authorisation for their continued detention.

The figures also show that out of 225 children released from detention in the second quarter this year, only 100 were removed from the UK.

Yesterday, MPs and children’s rights groups called for an end to the “national scandal” that has allowed children to be locked up unnecessarily.

Study: 1 in 3 teenage girls tell of sexual abuse by their boyfriends

December 17, 2011September 1, 2009 by Infinite

Learn to defend yourself.

Ming Liu (Chinese Staff) – 1998 World Series of Martial Arts

Chris Cloke of NSPCC tells Mike Duran about a survey of teenage sexual relationships Link to this audio

Sexual exploitation rife in relationships, says NSPCC
Quarter of young women are beaten up, poll shows

One in three teenage girls has suffered sexual abuse from a boyfriend and one in four has experienced violence in a relationship, according to an in-depth study published today.

The survey, by the NSPCC and Bristol University, found that of the 1,353 teenage girls and boys questioned across the UK, nearly 90% of girls aged 13 to 17 had been in an intimate relationship. A similar number of boys had been in relationships.

A quarter of girls had suffered physical violence, including being slapped, punched or beaten by their boyfriends, according to the study.

As part of the research, 91 young people were questioned at length. Of the girls, one in six said that they had been pressured into having sex and one in 16 claimed to have been raped.

UK: Two thirds want troops home from Afghanistan

August 31, 2009 by Infinite

– Two British soldiers killed in Afghanistan (Guardian, 31 Aug 2009):
“206 British troops killed in the country since the invasion.”

– British soldier killed in Afghanistan (Telegraph, 25 Aug 2009)

– UK soldier died helping comrade (BBC News, 22 Aug 2009)

– Two British soldiers killed in Afghanistan (Guardian, 21 Aug 2009)

– Three more British soldiers killed in Afghanistan (ABC News, 17 Aug 2009)

– Three British soldiers killed in Afghanistan (Scotsman, 07 Aug 2009)

Almost two-thirds of people oppose Britain’s continued deployment of troops in Afghanistan, a new poll shows.

Enough!
206 British soldiers died in Afghanistan since the invasion

The public’s growing opposition to the conflict comes after the number of British deaths in Afghanistan rose above 200 earlier this month.

Yesterday, Gen Sir David Richards took over as Chief of the General Staff and vowed to get better equipment for troops and improved care for those injured fighting for Britain.

A Daily Telegraph/YouGov poll showed 62 per cent of people opposed British troops staying in Afghanistan, while 26 per cent were in favour.

Previous polls had shown that most people backed the conflict in Afghanistan, unlike the war in Iraq. They accepted the argument espoused by ministers and the opposition that it was part of the fight against terrorism that could be exported to British streets.

British Government: Illegal Downloaders May Lose Web Access

August 25, 2009 by Infinite

Commentary by Max Keiser:

Britain is Appeasing the Copyright Cartel Again

Britain is completely on the wrong side of this issue. Copyrights are the public’s rights to help manage the public’s intellectual property. A limited period of time, like 28 years (per the original Constitutional statute), giving individuals monopoly rights over intellectual property is the outer most boundary of time that a society invested in the speech rights and intellectual rights of its people would allow in good conscience. Britain, and it is easy to understand, given the massive cock ups of this Labor government, is allowing themselves to be steered by the copyright cartel just like they allow themselves to be strong armed by the banking, pharmaceutical, and defense industries. This Labor government has abdicated its role as a representative of the People and their position on Copyright is yet another glaring example of their conflicted, misguided policies.

Posted: August 25, 2009
Source: Huffington Post

illegal-download

LONDON — The British government says people who illegally download music and films could have their Internet connections cut off.

Treasury Minister Stephen Timms says the move would allow “swifter and more flexible measures” to clamp down on piracy.

The plans announced Tuesday include blocking access to download sites and temporarily suspending users’ internet accounts.

The announcement drew criticism from some groups, but those representing the music industry were pleased.

The Open Rights Group — which aims to raise awareness of digital rights — said any suspension would “restrict people’s fundamental right to freedom of expression.”

H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic: October Surprise Prevention

August 24, 2009 by Infinite

– German health expert’s swine flu warning; Does virus vaccine increase the risk of cancer?:
Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg is a politician and a specialist in lungs, hygiene and environmental medicine. He is the chairman of the health committee in the German parliament and European Council.

– D r. Russell Blaylock: Harmful Effects of Swine Flu Vaccine

– Swine Flu: The DynCorp ‘COINCIDENCE’

The core essence of “Greater Things” is that there is always a better way to do things — anything — whether it be religion, politics, science, academia — anything. To the extent that we get institutionalized and codified in a set belief system, is the extent that we inhibit the ability to grow and learn new and better ways. – Dr. Andrew Moulden.

vaccination

A growing number of doctors, other health professionals and citizens are attempting to prevent the humanitarian disaster planned for this October when the new H1N1 vaccine is to be deployed in a grand scale, military, war on terror manoeuvre .

“Primum non nocere” (“First do no harm”), medical ethics standard attributed to Hippocrates that became obligatory for physicians prior to practicing medicine in the 4th century AD is still upheld by some doctors who oppose the worldwide October plan including what Global Research Director, Michel Chossudovsky warns is a military operation leading to global militarization control of individuals.

An under-reported first International Swine Flu Conference being held in Washington DC this weekend includes sessions on “conducting morgue operations,” “mass fatality planning” and “unwillingness to follow government orders,” and “training teachers to screen for symptoms …and “transport ill students.”(Jesse Woodrow, They have planned to take kids from schools for Mass Vaccinations and Quarantines WAKE UP!) (video)

Dr. Chossudovsky asserts that chilling reports such as those recently released in the UK about mass morgues are “totally fabricated” and “[t]here is absolutely no scientific evidence to support these claims.” (Michel Chossudovsky, Fear, Intimidation & Media Disinformation: U.K Government is Planning Mass Graves in Case of H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic, Global Research, August 21, 2009) (online)

“Realities are turned upside down. The British government is deliberately misleading the British public,” states Chossudovsky.

“There is ample evidence, documented in numerous reports, that the WHO’s level 6 pandemic alert is based on fabricated evidence and a manipulation of the figures on mortality and morbidity resulting from the N1H1 swine flu,” he advises. (emphasis added)

CBS in London reported, “Experts estimate swine flu to be about as dangerous as seasonal flu, and there usually isn’t a high demand for those vaccines.” (CBS, Gov’ts Worry About H1N1 Vaccine Contracts, London, July 16, 2009. (online)

US doctor is offering British couples the chance to choose the sex of their child

August 23, 2009 by Infinite

invitrofertilization1
In vitro fertilization process.

A US doctor is offering British couples the chance to choose the sex of their child at his New York clinic, a procedure that is illegal in the UK. Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, of Fertility Institutes, his New York clinic, provoked anger earlier this year when he said his fertility clinic could allow parents to produce “designer babies”.

He gave prospective parents the ability to choose eye, hair, skin colour and gender. In the United States, the law allows him to use pre-implentation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to allow parents to know an embryo’s sex.

Japanese government turns to ads to sell national debt

August 22, 2009 by Infinite

‘Peace of mind. Piece of happiness.’ That’s the promise the Japanese government is making to its citizens if they’re prepared to open their wallets and buy some of the country’s ballooning debt.

darling
Alistair Darling has a lot of debt to sell. What slogan should a UK campaign use?

The suits at Japan’s Finance Ministry have called in the advertising gurus to help drum up some interest in the country’s bonds. With the recession forcing national debt up to 684.4 trillion yen (£4.41 trillion), there’s no shortage of supply.

The Japanese will soon find the adverts in taxis and on their television screens. Who knows whether the Japanese will pay any attention but there’s a department in Whitehall that may be paying close interest.

After all, the Chancellor of the Exchqeuer, Alistair Darling, has a record £220bn worth of British government debt to find a home for this year. Fast forward 12 months and it may be George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, with the same headache.

UK can’t find $13bn in military hardware

August 21, 2009 by Infinite

The US government still holds the record:

– Donald Rumsfeld on CBS News one day before 9/11: Pentagon Cannot Account For 2,3 TRILLION Dollars
What a coincidence!

– Former Assistant Secretary of Housing Catherine Austin Fitts: Financial Coup d’Etat:
Sure enough, that fall, significant amounts of moneys started leaving the US, including illegally. Over $4 trillion went missing from the US government. No one seemed to notice. Misled into thinking we were in a boom economy by a fraudulent debt bubble engineered with force and intention from the highest levels of the financial system, Americans were engaging in an orgy of consumption that was liquidating the real financial equity we needed urgently to reposition ourselves for the times ahead.

Auditors have been unable to find 6.6 billion pounds ($13 billion) worth of British military equipment including vehicles, weapons and radios used by troops, a report said Thursday.

The government has ordered a shakeup at the Ministry of Defence after the auditors found holes in its record keeping, the Financial Times reported.

The findings raised concerns about whether critical resourcing decisions for Afghanistan have been taken by MoD officials without knowing where billions of pounds of equipment, including machine guns, night vision goggles as well as spare parts, is located, the newspaper said.

The National Audit Office has refused to sign off on MoD accounts because of an “inadequate level of evidence” that 6.6 billion pounds of its assets existed, the FT said.

UK Has Record July Deficit as Recession Curbs Taxes

August 21, 2009August 21, 2009 by Infinite

– Britons bottom of list for economic faith in government and banks (Guardian)

– David Cameron warns spending could lead to Britain defaulting on its debt (Guardian)

– Public finances much worse than feared (Guardian):
“The public finances data were far worse than expected,” said Peter Dixon at Commerzbank. “Tax revenues have clearly collapsed.”

This is also not a recession, but the “Greatest Depression”.

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) — Britain had an 8 billion-pound ($13.2 billion) budget deficit in July, the largest for the month since records began in 1993, as the recession ravaged tax revenue and the cost of unemployment benefits surged.

The shortfall compared with a surplus of 5.2 billion pounds a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said in London today. It came in a month when the Treasury usually gets a boost from quarterly tax payments. Britain last had a deficit in July in 1996.

The U.K. will have the biggest deficit in the Group of 20 next year, when Prime Minister Gordon Brown faces re-election, according to the International Monetary Fund. Brown is urging G- 20 leaders to keep up a coordinated fiscal stimulus until a world economic recovery is more certain. The Conservative opposition says spending cuts and possible tax increases are needed to curb debt.

“They’re completely disastrous numbers,” Paul Mortimer- Lee, an economist at BNP Paribas SA, said on Bloomberg Television in London. “With the economy in a parlous state, not much tax is being collected. The chancellor’s estimate for the deficit is going to be overshot by a considerable margin.”

The Treasury forecasts a deficit of 175 billion pounds in the fiscal year that began in April. In the first four months, the shortfall was 50 billion pounds, more than triple the level a year earlier.

Leaked Government letter to neurologists reveals concern about swine flu vaccine

August 16, 2009 by Infinite

Neurologists told to be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine.

Swine flu vaccines being prepared
The swine flu vaccine being offered to children has not been tested on infants

A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.

The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins.

It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine.

GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and can be fatal.

The letter, sent to about 600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious complications.

It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when:

More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu.
500 cases of GBS were detected.
The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear.
The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.

Concerns have already been raised that the new vaccine has not been sufficiently tested and that the effects, especially on children, are unknown.

UK: ‘Snoop’ power is used 1,400 times a day to intercept private data

August 10, 2009 by Infinite

Britain has “sleepwalked into a surveillance society”, it was claimed last night after figures disclosed that public bodies had obtained access to private telephone and e-mail records about 1,400 times a day.

Council, police and other organisations made more than half a million requests for confidential communications data last year.

The statistics constitute a 44 per cent rise in requests over the past two years.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which was created to help the authorities to fight the threat of terrorism, gives organisations such as local councils, the police and intelligence agencies the power to request access to confidential communications data, including lists of telephone numbers dialled and e-mail addresses to which messages have been sent.

The Act does not allow authorities to have access to the content of the messages or calls.

Councils have been accused of using the powers for matters, such as spying on people littering and dog fouling.

Untested swine flu vaccine could be given to your children

August 10, 2009 by Infinite

untested-swine-flu-vaccine
The swine flu vaccine being offered to children has not been tested on infants

The swine flu vaccine which will be offered to 12 million children in the UK may not have been tested on infants by the time the first batches arrive.

Pharmaceutical companies manufacturing the jabs do not have any paediatric safety data for the drugs, which could be distributed to children in the autumn.

The first consignment of the vaccine is due to arrive at the end of this month but drugs firms have only just begun trials on adults.

Trials on children may not start for a few weeks.

Children are thought to be most at risk of developing a serious form of the H1N1 virus and also help to spread swine flu. It is expected they will be among the first to be vaccinated, along with health professionals, pregnant women and people with underlying health conditions.

General Sir David Richards: Afghanistan will take 30 to 40 years

August 9, 2009 by Infinite

The UK and the US are broke and the Afghanistan operation will be over in less than 3 years because of that.

– British Lance-Corporal refuses to go to Afghanistan, says the Afghan war is unjust
– Former SAS Comander: Afghan operation is ‘worthless’

Britain’s mission in Afghanistan could last for up to 40 years, the next head of the Army warns today in an exclusive interview with The Times.

General Sir David Richards, who becomes Chief of the General Staff on August 28, said: “The Army’s role will evolve, but the whole process might take as long as 30 to 40 years.”

He emphasised that British troop involvement, currently 9,000-strong, should only be needed for the medium term, but insisted that there was “absolutely no chance” of Nato pulling out. “I believe that the UK will be committed to Afghanistan in some manner — development, governance, security sector reform — for the next 30 to 40 years,” he said.

Three paratroopers from the Special Forces Support Group were killed yesterday when their Jackal armoured vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb north of Lashkar Gah.

Their deaths raised the total number of servicemen and women who have died in Afghanistan to 195 since 2001. Four US Marines were also killed in a separate incident. Across the border in Pakistan, officials said that the leader of the Taleban in the country had been killed in a missile strike but analysts said that his death would have little impact on the battlefields of Afghanistan.

Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, said that 30 to 40 years in Afghanistan was “unaffordable”.

UK: Police told to ignore European court of human rights ruling over DNA database

August 9, 2009 by Infinite

Chief constables across England and Wales have been told to ignore a landmark ruling by the European court of human rights and carry on adding the DNA profiles of tens of thousands of innocent people to a national DNA database.

Senior police officers have also been “strongly advised” that it is “vitally important” that they resist individual requests based on the Strasbourg ruling to remove DNA profiles from the national database in cases such as wrongful arrest, mistaken identity, or where no crime has been committed.

European human rights judges ruled last December in the S and Marper case that the blanket and indiscriminate retention of the DNA profiles and fingerprints of 850,000 people arrested but never convicted of any offence amounts to an unlawful breach of their rights.

Britain already has the largest police national DNA database in the world, with 5.8m profiles, including one in three of all young black males. Thousands more are being added each week.

So far the Home Office has responded to the judgment by proposing a controversial package to keep DNA profiles of the innocent, depending on the seriousness of the offence. The official consultation period ended today. for six to 12 years

RBS chief: Taxpayers will lose out if Royal Bank of Scotland is unable to pay bonuses

August 8, 2009 by Infinite

To fresh up your ‘RBS memory’:
– RBS chiefs handed £5m in bonuses, paid by the taxpayer
– Sir Fred Goodwin received £2.7m pension lump sum tax-free
– Ministers ‘to sue’ RBS directors over Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension
– RBS avoided £500m of tax in global deals
– The 1.3 trillion pound bank job
– RBS posts record £40bn pre-tax loss
– Bailed-out banks to add £1.5 trillion to public debt

rbs
Ruthless Banksters of Scotland

• Profits rise from £1bn to £5bn in Royal Bank of Scotland’s investment banking division
• Chief executive insists taxpayers will get £20bn share investment back at a profit

Taxpayers will lose out if Royal Bank of Scotland is unable to pay bonuses, its chief executive, Stephen Hester, claimed todayas he lamented the intense public scrutiny faced by the bailed-out bank.

As the bank’s shares fell 12% to 46.99p, Hester defended the bank’s need to pay bonuses after losing more of its best staff. “We must pay competitively because we must have good people and every taxpayer in the country should care about us having good people because without that we won’t have the outcome that everyone needs,” Hester said.

An increase in profits from £1bn to £5bn in the investment banking arm prompted speculation that RBS bankers were on track for big bonuses by the end of the year. Investment banking dominated the interim profits, which showed a £15m statutory profit, although Hester focused on the “poor” net attributable loss to shareholders of £1.1m.

UK: Individual Insolvencies, Company Liquidations Soar to Record High

August 8, 2009 by Infinite

LONDON — Company liquidations and individual insolvencies in England and Wales soared to record levels in the second quarter as the economy was throttled by recession and the global credit crisis, data from the government’s Insolvency Service showed Friday.

There were 33,073 individual insolvencies in the second quarter on a nonseasonally adjusted basis, the highest level since records began in 1960. That compared with 30,253 in the first quarter of this year and marked a 27.4% increase from the second quarter of last year.

Company liquidations totaled 5,055 on a seasonally adjusted basis, the highest level since that series began in 1998. That was 2.9% above the total seen in the first three months of this year and represented an increase of 39.1% from the second quarter of last year.

Andrew MacCallum, managing director at restructuring and turnaround firm Alvarez and Marsal, said companies had survived the past year by significantly cutting costs, but many were now exhausted financially just as some positive signs (Where? All those positive signs are brought to you by ‘intentional misinterpretation’ of statistical data.) on the economy were emerging.

“More than five thousand companies may have gone into administration in the last quarter, but we can expect to see that figure exceeded in every quarter until at least the end of 2010,” he said in a note. “Credit is still tight and many businesses are loaded with debt that they can’t service.”

The breakdown of the figures showed there were 1,457 compulsory company liquidations, 6.8% less than in the first quarter but 8.7% more than in the second quarter of last year.

British Lance-Corporal refuses to go to Afghanistan, says the Afghan war is unjust

August 7, 2009 by Infinite

Christopher King explains why it is the legal obligation of soldiers and officers who have been ordered to carry out illegal orders to disobey them, in accordance with the Nuremburg Principles, and why everyone, from army commanders to rank-and file soldiers, are personally responsible for the orders they carry out.

Lance-Corporal Joe Glenton, facing court-martial for refusing to be redeployed to Afghanistan, has written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, saying in part:

The war in Afghanistan is not reducing the terrorist risk, far from improving Afghan lives it is bringing death and devastation to their country. Britain has no business there. I do not believe that our cause in Afghanistan is just or right. I implore you, sir, to bring our soldiers home.

Related article: Former SAS Comander: Afghan operation is ‘worthless’

Having served in Afghanistan, unlike Gordon Brown who has no services experience, Lance-Corporal (LC) Glenton knows what he is talking about. Further, he says:

It is my primary concern that the courage and tenacity of my fellow soldiers has become a tool of American foreign policy.

LC Glenton is clearly a young man of intelligence and thoughtfulness. Unlike Gordon Brown who stands to be paid off in cash by the Americans and Israelis like his friend Anthony Blair, LC Glenton has earned the right to form, hold and express his views on this war. And to act on them.

Of course, there should be an army hearing of some sort but it is absolutely improper and unjust to subject LC Glenton to court martial proceedings. He has expressed views consistent with the Nuremberg Principles that have the intention of outlawing unjust warfare and inhumanitarian acts related to war. I have previously commented on them here. The Nuremberg Principles have been adopted by the United Nations whose charter has been endorsed by the United Kingdom. They are therefore part of both international law and UK law. Whether LC Glenton specifically invokes them or not, they apply to his case and it is his right and duty to refuse to participate in a war that he believes is unjust and “…far from improving Afghan lives, it is bringing death and devastation to their country”.

What is disturbing is the attitude of our armed forces to the Nuremberg Principles. Flight-Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith defended his refusal to redeploy to Iraq on the basis that the war was illegal. Judge-Advocate Jack Bayliss refused to accept that argument. The services’ ruling in such cases is that only persons who have the ability to shape strategy and make executive decisions may be held responsible for war crimes.

Lying about Iraq made me quit, British military press officer claims

August 7, 2009 by Infinite

You have been lied to all of the time. Those soldiers are nothing more but cannon fodder in the eyes of those that rule your puppet politicians.

Listen to what a former SAS commander has to say about the “Snatch” Land Rover:

– Former SAS Comander: Afghan operation is ‘worthless’ (MUST-READ):

And, addressing the use of Snatch Land Rovers, which he deemed to be unsafe and prompted his decision to stand down, he said: “I had to resign.

“I had warned (the MoD) time and time again that there were going to be needless deaths if we were not given the right equipment, and they ignored this advice. There is blood on their hands.

“There was no other vehicle to use. The simple truth is that the protection on these vehicles is inadequate and this led to the unnecessary deaths.”

Having to peddle “government lies” about the safety of soldiers in Iraq led to a Ministry of Defence press officer suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, an employment tribunal will hear.

John Salisbury-Baker will claim that he suffered “intolerable stress” through having to “defend the morally indefensible” when responding to media inquiries about the ability of army vehicles such as the “Snatch” Land Rover to protect soldiers.

Mr Salisbury-Baker, 62, says he found it impossible to support the official line on deaths and injuries after seeing the suffering of soldiers’ families. After 11 years of service at Imphal Barracks near York, he could no longer keep working and is taking legal action against the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The case takes place amid accusations over the government’s attempts to claw back compensation from two injured soldiers, as well as a rising toll of casualties from improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan.

Mr Salisbury-Baker’s partner, Christine Brook, said: “John is an honest, sensitive and moral person, and having to peddle government lies that soldiers in vehicles such as the Snatch Land Rovers were safe from roadside bombs made him stressed.

“He was particularly plagued by the thought that some of the bereaved families he was visiting might have previously believed their loved ones were safe, because of what he himself had said to the media.