And the gravy train rolls on . . .

[stockhausen]

Ex-Tory Chancellor Gideon Osborne jumps ship from the failing Evening Standard (£650k pa for "working" one day a week) and Blackrock to join yet another financial institution.

Meanwhile, Sajid Javid, yet another Tory ex-Chancellor has joined the investment bank JP Morgan (LINK)

All jobs for the boys in the "Make Britain Grate again" Tory party

 

[stockhausen]

really looking forward to your thread on what a great job they are doing with the vaccine rollout

To be fair they've done a cackhanded job with the lockdowns but the vaccine rollout is rather impressive.

What's the point of this thread again?

I would certainly go along with the suggestion that despite having ignored and disparaged the NHS for years, the Government has finally allowed the NHS to get on with the job; they should be more grateful going forward to Scientists and "Experts" - probably will not happen.

I somehow doubt that Matt Hancock will be welcomed to anything to do with the Health service when he looks around for a cushy sinecure.

Do I harbour deep admiration for Blair, his money-making scams and his continuing interference? Nope, I don't.

As to the point of this thread, it is a reference to all (or most) senior politicians bending over for those businesses for which they are allegedly responsible in order to provide them with an exceptionally remunerative retirement.

Remind me, in the case of Osborne, did he have a First in Economics or a long career in Finance or Banking to justify his position as Chancellor -or- was he just a member of the Bullingdon Club?

 

[stockhausen]

Expenses claims scandal? If you go looking you will find many including what you stated above. . . .

Indeed.

As it happens I believe that Osborne was criticised for "flipping" his second home . . . and a paddock

I suspect that Senior Politicians rarely get hired for their expertise or for what they know, more for who they know and for past favours.

As to Test and Trace - Dido Harding clearly has a great deal of expertise is testing and tracing, she did a cracking job at TalkTalk.

 

[stockhausen]

The Bank of England warned against it and were totally against the decision, I have shares in a gold exploration company and had a small interest over the years, there is some interesting discussion to be had over this and the 18 billion loss to date had he held the gold, but I don't think I will discuss with you as you probably won't grasp the salient points

In fairness, although there is an argument that Gordon Brown made a huge mistake, the idea of a country basing its currency around hoarding shiny metal bars is pretty damned anachronistic and I believe that Brown was sucking up to the Americans who wanted the US Dollar (which they controlled) to replace gold.

Of course, the idea of handing out billions to your friends to build HS2 or a third runway at Heathrow whilst proclaiming your commitment to fighting climate change rather than investing in actual individuals in the NHS, Teachers and the Police has absolutely nothing to do with the gravy train and giving bungs to your mates

 

[stockhausen]

Politics for most is always a stepping stone to glory . Inside knowledge of how the government work will always be paid very well .

I can accept organisations paying for genuine knowledge and experience.

What bothers me is people being paid in return for "past favours delivered" and the "Old boys" and "Magic handshake" networks - all of that can in my opinion reasonably be described as corruption.

 

[stockhausen]

Yep. Lots of people hide their hatred and envy for the rich and successful, behind a facade of “caring for the poor”. . . .

You probably, perhaps deliberately, misinterpret the disgust that "Lots of people" have for the behaviour of MPs.

This disgust may have something to do with people's ignoring the "do as I say,not as I do" guidance offered by people for whom they have no respect and who they simply don't trust.

In my experience, many of the people who you so dismissively describe as hiding behind "a facade of caring for the poor” do actually offer practical support for others less fortunate than themselves where they can; they don't "envy the rich and successful", they despise their arrogance, ignorance, greed, selfishness and unquestioning sense of entitlement.

 

[stockhausen]

. . . When wage rises are given out in the public sector it's very much only given to the popular ones. Police, NHS, teachers and themselves the politicians. . . .

This isn't exactly related to the Gravy Train on which Senior Politicians (of every flavour) travel around in the secure knowledge that they will be alright Jack.

I don't know any members of the Police so can't comment on them. However, I do know quite a few Doctors and teachers and I am well aware that they are uncertain about having chosen the right "vocation". I know of two Junior Doctors who having spent years in training and getting qualified have given it all up to work in the City; they say that they will be happy to earn more money and not to have to suffer the abuse and pressure that seems to be normal nowadays in the NHS. I know quite a few GPs and Teachers who can't wait to be able to retire.

I am not socially acquainted with any Politicians, the nearest social contact I have had with my local MP has been at Christmas. She seems genuinely dedicated to trying to help her constituents and is well aware of my attitude to her Lords and Masters and whilst understandably diplomatic I suspect that she probably shares my cynicism about the motivations of some of them.

 

[stockhausen]

There are rumours doing the rounds that Dido Harding (Tory Peer, married to a Tory MP and considered to be even less competent than her good friend Matt Hancock) may be put in charge of the NHS as a reward for the God-awful job she has done with "Test and Trace"

 

[stockhausen]

. . . how can this former politician (Sajid Javid) with 18 years of banking experience and previous board member of an investment bank, end up getting a job in finance after politics... just crazy eh?

Actually I think that Javid epitomises what is wrong with the revolving door - it could be argued that he went from being a Banker to being the Bankers' friend as Chancellor of the Exchequer and then went back to pick up his reward in Banking when he failed to get the top job.

As it happens, the fact that he might be described as a Thatcherite, Eurosceptic war-monger implacably opposed to Socialism doesn't really make me one of his die-hard fans - your opinion may differ

 

[stockhausen]

Sir Ivor Crewe was interviewed for post of head of the Office of Students but job was given to former Tory MP.

Perhaps it was the long passage in Professor Sir Ivor Crewe’s book The Blunders of Our Governments about the way ministers’ mistakes never catch up with them that led Gavin Williamson to reject the expert as the new head of the Office for Students.

Or maybe the education secretary was put off by the section of the 2013 book, written with the late Anthony King, dealing with how ministers put underqualified, inexperienced people in charge of public bodies.

The job of independent regulator of higher education in England was instead handed to James Wharton, a 36-year-old former Tory MP with no experience in higher education who ran Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign. But the Observer can reveal that Crewe – the former vice-chancellor of the University of Essex, one-time head of Universities UK and most recently the master of University College, Oxford – was interviewed for the post and rejected. (LINK)

Of one thing you can be quite sure, it was definitely not a case of "Jobs for the boys" or in this case, a job for an ex-Tory MP who has popped up in the House of Lords


Next up - the Government is to appoint a 'free-speech champion' for English universities to discourage the re-evaluation of British history - AKA - Don't mention slavery or Colonial theft

 

[stockhausen]

Dominic Cummings was instrumental in the process of awarding a government contract worth over £½ million without tender to a polling company named Public First run by his “friends”, according to court documents that raise questions about whether the Cabinet Office may have misled the public. (LINK and LINK)

Cummings must have found something really embarrassing about our esteemed Prime Minister on Facebook to have been able to exercise the authority he did

 

[stockhausen]

. . . Maybe just go somewhere else if you dislike the UK?

Who said I dislike the UK

I have lived and worked in a number of countries around the world and I love the UK.

What I am less enthusiastic about than some people seem to be is some of the undesirable attitudes and characteristics that exist, even in the UK (which I love). Amongst these I would include corruption, cronyism, inequality, discrimination and the protection of the "elite".

Admitting past errors and faults is the first (or at least an early) step on the road to being a better person and country

 

[stockhausen]

Legislation to pave the way for a US-style defence research agency to back high-risk research projects is set to be announced, government sources confirmed.

The idea, which was in the 2019 Conservative manifesto, was the brainchild of Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, who has written extensively about the success of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

An announcement from the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, could be made as soon as this week, with £800m of funding set aside. The UK version is expected to be called the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).

Kwarteng’s intention is for the agency to be free of some of the rules that usually govern investments made with taxpayers’ money so that it can back projects in the knowledge that they could fail, government sources said.

The agency is also expected to be exempted from the Freedom of Information Act – a move that will raise concerns that it could become a secretive nexus between the government and arms industry. (LINK)

What a great idea, create an unaccountable slush fund where the Government can give "bungs" to its (and Cummings') chums