The Budget today could politely be described as a ‘holding operation’ until the general election is over. Only then will the consequences of the financial bailout of the insolvent banks and financial institutions start to unwind in the public sphere. Whoever leads the government, it will be messy.
A nod to Chancellor Alastair Darling who is likely to be standing up for the last time, his hair and eyebrows are holding up remarkably well bearing in mind the events of the past three years.
Dispatches and The Sunday Times. You can follow the digital public reaction at #Dispatches.
Red-Handed fat cat political donor UK party political donations © Matt Buck Hack Cartoons
Hack Cartoons archive illustration on what political party fundraising types (of all sorts) tend to do.
Caution: Contextual information down below.
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Politics is about interests of groups and individuals. The expression of disagreement about these interests comes out in political thought and action and in the UK it is channelled through the established political parties, Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat.
Clashes of interest are usually over distribution of resources and this tends to occur between working people, who generally provide work or labour in return for wages, and owners, who possess assets which may include the offer of a job. It is this basic relationship which provided the platform for the eventual establishment of the three major political parties in the UK.
If you add time and money and mix, you produce entertaining and informative results. These often include enlightening observations about human behaviour in pursuit of power and a free lunch.
This may help explain some of the recent news obsession with Lord Michael Ashcroft and the Unite union because both of them are the major paymasters for the Conservative and Labour parties.
Reading: BBC Q&A on party political funding
Reading: Wikipedia on party political funding
Reading: Sir Hayden Phillips Review of UK party political funding
A print magazine cover image on what the 2010 general Election is all about.
Reading: Simon Jenkins in The Guardian on how in hock we are to the debts of the insolvent banks
Reading: CityWire on Lehmann Bros and how to cook the books
Reading: What Ernst and Young – the auditors of Lehmann Bros – and who signed off their books say
Dodgy tenner cartoon featuring Alastair Darling drawn for Channel 4 News © Matt Buck Hack cartoons
More rumblings from some of the membership of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England – as reported by CityWire. The MPC is the committee which decides how well the national economy is doing and which recently approved the policy of Quantitative Easing (video explainer). This process invented £225Bn of new UK money (or credit) which was then used to buy government debt, much of which was undertaken to support the insolvent banks and financial institutions including HBOS and RBS.
QE in the UK started on March 5th 2009 and ended during February of 2010.
The following chart is a screenshot of the BBC twelve-month tracker for the value of the UK’s currency – pound sterling – measured against the US dollar and which covers these two dates. I have added them to the chart because I think there is an interesting connection of time and dates. Can you see a coincidence anywhere?
If you would like to learn about the invention of paper money or credit) with more than a few excellent jokes do watch this fine animated cartoon.
Updated: 9pm 9th March 2010. The BBC’s Stephanie Flanders has a piece of analysis on the relative position of the UK after the disappointing balance of trade figures for Jan 2010. The ‘recovery’ seems to have stalled.
International Women’s Day – since 1911.
Please roll your cursor over the image.
Payment of taxation on your earnings is how you get a vote in the way the country is run. People who choose not to pay tax in the UK through use of the non-domicile loophole but who still seek influence on the electoral process need to be viewed with extreme caution.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair reminded us that political influence is sold for economic reasons with the £1m donation from Bernie Ecclestone in return for delaying a ban on tobacco advertising in Formula One. (The timing of this donation is interesting in relation to the current election campaign. Ecclesone’s gift was given several months before the 1997 election in expectation of services to be rendered after it.)
Clarity and transparency of donations to politicians need to apply to the funding of all UK political parties during elections – and in between them. All corporate donations are listed at the Electoral Commission and available to public scrutiny. This includes gifts in kind as well as money.
On the road for a few days but here are the KPM Allstars to entertain you with Alan Hawkshaw’s original theme for Dave Allen at Large. Genius from all concerned.
