Tag Archives: Rupert Murdoch

All Animals are Equal

Four legs good, two legs bad

So runs the quote from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which seems very apt on this day of lurid allegations about our Prime Minister’s bizarre sexual proclivities. What is probably even more bizarre is the person who dished the dirt, Lord Ashcroft, former Tory party deputy chairman. Hell hath no fury like a peer scorned. But, as we have learned already, today would be a great day to bury bad news. So let’s cast our eyes around to see what else was happening while we were laughing our socks off at David Cameron’s alleged porcine necrophiliac bestiality.

A bit of how's your father?

A bit of how’s your father?

Well there was the news that George Osborne was visiting China where he announced that the UK taxpayer would underwrite £2bn of risk, called a loan guarantee, for the proposed new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. This is expected to rise substantially over the life of the project. But we can’t call it a subsidy, because that has a negative connotation. But that’s what it is. The UK government has already agreed to buy electricity from the new power station at a minimum price of £92.50 per MWh. For comparison, a power station burning natural gas can produce electricity at a price as low as £55 per MWh. Although if you read the DECC’s “Levelised Costs” i.e. fudged, nuclear appears to be competitive.

So in these austere times, why are we over paying for some new nuclear power stations? Saving the environment? You can Fukushima that. So it must be something else. What is a byproduct of nuclear power plants? Plutonium. The raw material for nuclear bombs, the prestige weapon of choice for the modern career politician. My guess is that these power stations are designed to keep the UK as permanent member of the UN security council. No nukes, no prestige.

Another item which reared it’s head over the weekend was the news that an anonymous “serving general” had said that there could be a mutiny if Jeremy Corbyn were elected as prime minister. This is a truly shocking story. You see, every member of the armed forces swears allegiance to the Queen, who is the head of the armed forces. But she no longer directs the armed forces because of the Royal Prerogative, which means that the power to direct the armed forces rests with government ministers. They can wield this power by decree if they wish, with no need to consult parliament to ask for permission. Which means that this anonymous general, if he exists at all, would be contravening his oath. Which would be treason, for which the death penalty is still on the statute books.

So why no investigation to find the source of this story? Well it could be something to do with publisher, The Sunday Times, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch and run by Rebecca Brooks, friends with David Cameron and his wife.

David Cameron and Rupert Murdoch

David Cameron and Rupert Murdoch

David Cameron and Rebecca Brooks

David Cameron and Rebecca Brooks

So it would seem that this is a non story, cooked up by persons unknown, in an attempt to smear the leader of the opposition and discredit him. Or it could be that the Prime Minister has already exercised the Royal Prerogative and ordered the anonymous general to talk to the press. Either way, this is a serious issue and it needs to be investigated. But will it?

0.5% cheer Osborne

George Gideon Oliver Osborne was roundly cheered for his speech at the Conservative Party Conference today as he promised to cut the benefits to 10 million families by up to £500 per annum if the tories are re-elected, saving the exchequer £3billion per annum. This was part of a package of cuts totalling £25billion which was announced today by the Baron in waiting.

Bullingdon Boy George

Bullingdon Boy George

Government departments will be forced to cut their budgets by £13million and there will be another £9billion cuts to welfare spending. We will just have to wait in trepidation to see where that particular axe will fall but my guess is that it will be the state pension since that is what makes up the largest part of welfare spending, but it would be electoral suicide to announce that particular bombshell prior to a general election.

As a sop to the grey vote he also announced that the 55% tax rate on inherited pensions would be abolished and in some instances there would be no tax liability at all on sums up to £1.2million, in effect turning pensions into tax free savings vehicles for the well off. This move is expected to benefit around 320000 people in the UK, or put another way 0.5% of the population. Who says this government only works for the 1%?

In other news Ian Duncan Smith, or Ideologically Driven Shithead as he’s known to his friends, has proposed a new state credit card for the poor. The idea is that their benefits would be credited to the cards, assuming that they haven’t been sanctioned this week, and they would then be able to spend them in “selected stores”. I wonder which of the tory benefactors will benefit from this particular poverty control measure. With his halo reflecting eerily upon his pate he announced to his breathless admirers that the poor would not be allowed to spend their benefits in betting shops or off licences but, in a move widely regarded as a thank you to Rupert Murdoch for his help in the Scottish Referendum campaign, the poor will be allowed to use their benefits to pay for Sky TV. Watch the bookies share prices fall if the tories win the next election.

And finally a little compare and contrast about the state of the housing market. The BBC says “House Prices Accelerated In August” citing Land Registrystatistics although they failed to mention the fall in house prices in the South West and North West. The Bank of England has stated that the number of mortgage approvals had fallen in August, a sign that the housing market is cooling off according to Reuters. Prime Minister David Cameron pledged on Sunday to assist young first time buyers into a lifetime of debt if his party is re-elected by knocking 20% off the price of new homes, so even he admits that the housing market is over priced and due a correction soon. But the debt fuelled economy that he has helped to create cannot continue unless there is more debt. Now would be a good time to pay off as much of that debt as you can afford.