Ok, I must admit, I'm wound-up. And how often am I angry on this blog? Practically never! But I have to say, I've just had enough of all this pious, suffering-is-necessary, cuts-are-good-for-you nonsense we're hearing from our government. Who has caused all this world-wide financial woe, this global economic shutdown? Who lent all those billions of pounds and euros and dollars and every other conceivable currency to dubious borrowers for dicey mortgages? Who gambled tax payers' money on hedge funds, options, derivatives and all the rest? Well, the bankers and financiers, of course.
They felt they had to compete with each other, and had short-term gains in their sights, with absolutely no concern for the long-term good. It's called feathering your nest. And we, the ordinary citizens, are being asked to pay for it. And the bankers? They're safe in their jobs and, moreover, still receiving handsome salaries, and bonuses on top! And now we hear that Whitehall is being fleeced for millions of pounds by private sector firms supplying cleaners, stationery, and God knows what else, at way above the market price. (Not the suppliers' fault - they're just doing business - it's the government's fault for being so naive, and so lax with their own budgeting.)
Governments allowed the so-called banking and financial experts to run away with our national equity. They turned a blind eye when the going was good. Objectors (and there were some within those banking firms) who warned about an imminent catastrophe were silenced and sidelined. And now, we, the hard working tax payers, are being asked to pay the price - for many of us to the tune of thousands of pounds annually for many years to come. I'm sure we all don't mind pulling together for the good of the country - but it rankles when our elected government can't keep their own basic finances in order, and when the bankers are getting away scot-free.
Rant over... I feel so much better now!
5 comments:
I don't. Fell better, I mean. The ranting and raving about these idiots, self-serving, self-important, privileged, clueless maniacal windbags should never be over until we, the hard-working 'little people' get our revenge on them.
Only, we all know we never will. We will remain the ones that carry the can forever more, no matter what colour government we have. I could cry.
(Now see what you've done! Just walk, man!)
I am to the point of laughing when people talk about protecting democracy in the United States. This country is no longer owned by the people. It is owned by Big Money — plain and simple — and any opposition to what Big Money wants is labeled as "unpatriotic." Couple this with an uneducated populace that seems more interested in hot-button cultural issues than economic stability and you have a recipe for national disaster, which, I fear, is playing itself out day by day. Obama is trying to change that paradigm, but, sadly, it seems too engrained in American culture for one man to change, at least in my lifetime.
If only politicians were paid by results!
Ha! Paid by results! That's a good idea. (That would put them below the minimum wage, then.)
And I was only reading about that chapel yesterday, and a poem by Gillian Barritt. Did you spot a small clay cross, I wonder?
I know the peninsula but not the chapel.
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