The economic crisis

The ineffective and pathetic attempts by Brown to try to curb the bankers' bonuses are hiding much greater problems. It was the bonuses generated out of trillions of dollars of speculation that created the first crisis. The new bonuses are a strong indication is that they have done it again. The second even bigger crash is now coming -- a real rollercoaster with no government money available to bail them out. Apparently the banks are now so removed from reality they pay out more in bonuses than are paid to the shareholders!

Some New Labour commentators, such as Will Hutton, have seized on the alleged Goldman Sachs frauds as being the cause of the crisis. This is an attempt to avoid criticism of the capitalist system. Over 150 years ago Karl Marx answered some commentators who claimed that capitalist profits came from cheating the workers. He said that though some capitalists cheated when they could, it was the method of production that created the profits.

Of course speculation might not be quite enough to offset the effects of New Labour's bonus tax. Barclays Bank's accounts show that it made nearly £400 million profit from closing its final year salary scheme to its non-speculating staff. They had to make a top-up payment of £150 million to clear the pension fund deficit leaving almost exactly the amount they needed to cover the bonus tax being paid out to its speculating division. Barclays deny the coincidence but, as they say, the figures add up.

The Tories have come up with an even cleverer plan than do-nothing New Labour, and that is to bring in savage cuts in the public sector and do nothing to help the unemployed. This will accelerate the collapse in the name of preventing inflation. Those who are likely to benefit from the new wave of privatisation have poured money into the Tories, looking forward to the rich pickings they are going to get.

Leeds Education

In the Leeds City Council press release about the closure of three inner-city high schools Chris Edwards, the chief executive of Education Leeds, assures us that 'everything possible will be done to ensure that the changes are as smooth as possible for the young people affected'. Perhaps he should start by ensuring that the so-called School Organisation Team know which school they are dealing with and where it is.

As a commenter on the Guardian web site said:

The report accepted (shockingly) by the Executive Board refers to Primrose as South Leeds High and places both Primrose and Parklands in south Leeds! Nobody could be bothered to proof-read a document which will affect the futures of thousands of young people. Clear proof, if proof were needed, that behind the blather Education Leeds have no respect for the schools or the young people that they are there to serve.
Committed to excellence? I don't think so.

Fabian Hamilton, New Labour techno-wizard for Leeds North East

Here's another comment from the good old Grauniad on the Digital Economy Bill:

A few years ago the association heads of university computing departments tried to find out if there was anyone at all in the Commons or the Lords with professional qualifications in IT. They found only Fabian Hamilton.
It's much the same in the Civil Service who a few years ago decided to rectify this omission by creating (I write from memory) four places each year in the Fast Track Recruitment Stream for IT Specialists. Give it another fifteen years and there may just be a senior civil servant with degree level IT knowledge.

Since Fabian's IT professionalism consists of being an Apple consultant (ie he had copies of their catalogues and manuals) and being a gadget boy (he made us buy him lots of toys) I am not surprised at the appalling mess of the Digital Economy Bill. However, due to "committments in his constituency", he was unable to turn up to vote.

Mind you, he might have even bigger problems. He has claimed he voted against the Iraq war four times but the They Work for You web site puts this at three, and one of them was a meaningless adjournment debate. He abstained on the crucial go-to-war resolution and has subsequently voted 15 times against any inquiry into the Iraq war. This matters because he is saying he will oppose the Trident nuclear system, but with the kind of opposition he showed to the Iraq war it is a meaningless commitment.