Skip to main content

Morality and Humbug

I am not sure whether or not the UK can blame a general moral collapse for the riots that convulsed the country in early August, although that is what Prime Minister Cameron appears to believe.

I am, however, pretty sure that any comments about morality from Tony Blair should be treated with disdain, if not actual contempt.

As Peter Mandelson helps himself to the point where he can now afford an £8 million house, and Mr. Blair himself continues to collect ever larger cheques from various international investment banks, it seems pretty clear to me that at least two of the new Labour triumvirate have parleyed their public service into private profit.

Mandelson, of course, was a notably indifferent minister, being forced to resign on two separate occasions for reasons directly concerned with a rather careless attitude to money. It remains to be seen how history will judge Mr. Blair, but given the aftermath of his policies in Iraq and the economic catastrophe that hit the UK shortly after Mr. Blair departed from office, it is hard to see how that judgement will be particularly positive.

What I find most revolting is the nakedness of the greed of these erstwhile public servants. They are filling their boots by working for institutions that themselves have a pretty questionable view of morality. As it is revealed that students are being put off entering the City because of the stigma banking is now getting, I also note that John Le Carre has highlighted this issue in his latest novel, "Our Kind of Traitor".

Perhaps more interestingly there are barely disguised references to the Mandelson /Osborne /Deripaska affair. Those controversial meetings that took place then, must- we hope- have had a less sinister intent than the fictional meetings on a similar yacht.

Whatever happened in the riots, the idea that morality prevails unsullied in British politics is not one that John Le Carre shares, and -as I have noted before- Russian money in Britain is indeed being used for purposes that undermine our own freedom.

Any politician who promoted such business would certainly be involved in activity that, if not actually illegal, would most certainly be immoral.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
The problem is less that Mandelson was 'a notoriously indifferent minister' - the problem was, and remains for Labour, that in spite of everything he was still ten times the politician and minister of the rest of Gordon Brown's cabinet put together.
10:41 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Concert and Blues

Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field The Weeknd and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn. It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t. Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe. We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year. Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hop...
Post a Comment
Read more

One Year On

  Head vabariigi iseseisvuspäeva! Happy Estonian Independence Day! It is one year since I stood outside the Estonian Parliament for the traditional raising of the national flag from Tall Hermann tower. Looking at the young fraternities gathered with their flags, I was very sure that Estonia too would soon be facing the aggression of the criminal Russian regime. A tragic and dark day. 5 eyes intelligence had been clear: an all out invasion was going to happen, and Putin´s goals included- and still include- "restoration" of Russian imperial power across Europe, even to the Atlantic. Yet there was one Western intelligence failure: we all underestimated the guts of the Ukrainian armed forces, the ZSU, and its President and people. One year on, Estonia, and indeed all the front line states against Russia, knows that Ukraine saved us. Estonia used that time to prepare itself, should that "delayed" onslaught ever be unleashed, but equally the determination of Kaja Kallas, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Media misdirection

In the small print of the UK budget we find that the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the British Finance Minister) has allocated a further 15 billion Pounds to the funding for the UK track and trace system. This means that the cost of the UK´s track and trace system is now 37 billion Pounds.  That is approximately €43 billion or US$51 billion, which is to say that it is amount of money greater than the national GDP of over 110 countries, or if you prefer, it is roughly the same number as the combined GDP of the 34 smallest economies of the planet.  As at December 2020, 70% of the contracts for the track and trace system were awarded by the Conservative government without a competitive tender being made . The program is overseen by Dido Harding , who is not only a Conservative Life Peer, but the wife of a Conservative MP, John Penrose, and a contemporary of David Cameron and Boris Johnson at Oxford. Many of these untendered contracts have been given to companies that seem to have ...
Post a Comment
Read more