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Showing posts from April, 2010

The Corporate Pension Script

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife How to manipulate your employees and their pension. Step 1. Complain about the cost of the final salary scheme. Step 2. Close the final salary scheme to new entrants.  Do not under any circumstances admit that this act will lead to Step 4! Step 3. Introduce a money purchase scheme for new starters to reduce corporate cost. Step 4. Complain about the continuing cost of the existing final salary scheme. Step 5. Highlight the differential of the final salary scheme to the money purchase scheme employees. Show how we have 2 groups of employees. Divide and Conquer! Step 6. Ensure the aggrieved voice of the money purchase scheme employees is heard loudly. Step 7. Suggest that in the interest of employee harmony the final salary scheme benefits are reduced to the legal minimum. Result!

Parasites

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Image by premasagar via Flickr Headline on the BBC News caught my eye this morning - Greece crisis: investors wait on deal details. So there's a nation in trouble and investors are waiting on details. What details? The best way to aid the economy? The best way to work with the democratically elected sovereign Greek government? No. A big fat No. They're waiting to ensure that they get a good risk free return on their money at the expense of the Greek people. If Capitalism was invented today it'd be banned as immoral, genocidal and an environmental catastrophe in the making. Another headline - Greek bonds rated 'junk' by Standard & Poor's Global stock markets tumbled after Greece's debt was downgraded to "junk" by rating agency Standard & Poor's over concerns that the country may default. It makes the struggling nation the first eurozone member to have its debt downgraded to junk level. So if the artificial actions of middl

Lansbury's Lido on Twitter

I've created a new account on Twitter to link to this blog, wasn't really any visible link with my old identity. So I'm now lansburyslido on Twitter. Feel free to follow me, and I've been following a fair few who may be reading this blog.   @lansburyslido

What are we doing to Greece?

So in terms of capital Greece is having problems with paying off it's creditors. The countries in the Eurozone seem to be slow putting together a 'rescue package' and now all talk is of the IMF rolling in in as the knight in shining armour with a poison chalice of loans and repayment schemes. But scratch the surface of any capitalist scheme and you'll find the real load carried - asset stripping, passing control to foreign investors, making the state dependant on unelected capital and the transfer of assets held in common to the capitalists. Oh, and the people pay with the attached 'austerity package'. There's a good article by James Meadway on Counterfire , well worth a read. In fact I'll cut and paste some items from there to make a few points as the article is so well written! It captures and puts into words a lot of the anger and disgust I feel inside. As of this morning, the effective interest rate on Greek debt, paid back over two years, stands at

How much do you really know about Iran?

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Image via Wikipedia In our western media Iran is coming to the fore as the big, bad bogeyman of the Middle East. We're fed all sorts of mis-information by our pliable media so perhaps a good time to see how much you really know about Iran? H/T to Ten percent for the questions. Iran Quiz Questions : 1. Is Iran an Arab country? 2. Has Iran launched an aggressive war of conquest against another country since 1900? 3. How many known cases of an Iranian suicide-bomber have there been from 1989 to 2007? 4. What was Iran 's defense spending in 2008? 5. What was the U.S. 's defense spending in 2008? 6. What is the Jewish population of Iran ? 7. Which Iranian leader said the following? “This [ Israel 's] Occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time.” 8. True of False: Iranian television presented a serial sympathetic to Jews during the Holocaust that coincided with President Ahmadinejad's first term. 9. What percentage of students entering university i

Respect sets coalition conditions

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Image via Wikipedia The Respect political party has set out some conditions should it be asked to support a Labour minority government. They are  troops withdrawn from Afghanistan more council houses built  electoral reform an end to cuts All admirable but I can't see New Labour going along with that. At least Respect has said that they would not back a Tory government "under any circumstances". BBC News

Party Manifestos

In order to cut through the election spin and soundbites I think I'm going to run through some of the parties' election manifestos to try and find out exactly what they say on some key issues. The parties will be: Labour Respect Tories Lib Dems Communist Party of Britain Green Party And the policies will be: Economy Equality Defence Private or Public control of key sectors Housing Let's hope I can keep the momentum up!

The Common People

Your mileage may vary.

Tory Marriage Tax Plans

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Image via Wikipedia So Cameron's been setting himself up as the defender of marriage with the release of his plans for tax breaks for married couples. Actually the plans were released by David Willets but Cameron is certainly nailing his colours to the mast. You can read the Tory release on their website . So cutting through the bumf we can pick a few salient points out of this policy: It's not just heterosexual marriage but civil partnerships as well There's an upper limit on the main earners income to be eligible The lower earner mustn't be earning more than £6,500 or thereabouts It works out at a maximum of about £2.80 a week It will be funded by a levyon the banks Hardly worth getting up for methinks. Worth 10 Benson and Hedges a week to those eligible. Gesture politics at it's worst. So what message does this not primarily convey in words? Lots and none of it too good. Listening to the radio this morning and one presenter made the point about widows

No Power Without Accountability

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I grew up in a company town And I worked real hard ‘'til that company closed down They gave my job to another man On half my wages in some foreign land And when I asked how could this be Any good for our economy? I was told nobody cares So long as they make money when they sell their shares Can you hear us? Are you listening? No power without accountability! I lost my job, my car and my house When ten thousand miles away some guy clicked on a mouse He didn’t know me, we never spoke, He didn’t ask my opinion or canvass for my vote I guess its true, nobody cares 'Til those petrol bombs come spinning through the air Gotta find a way to hold them to account Before they find a away to snuff our voices out Can you hear us? Are you listening? No power without accountability! The ballot box is no guarantee that we achieve democracy Our leaders claim their victory when only half the people have spoken We have no j

We Can End This Rotten System

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife An interesting article in the Telegraph about a gentleman who saw the state that the financial markets were getting into, persuaded Goldman Sachs to design a form of credit swap (CDS), and made a mint. His method was so interesting that Goldman Sachs started using the same system. So getting away from all the financial cobblers we have someone tinkering with an artificial construct, creating a new variation of that construct and making pots of money. So in theory I can't see why it's not possible to tinker with the system so that every man, woman and child on this planet gets to share in this 'wealth'. I mean, we could eradicate poverty virtually instantly. But it won't happen and the reason is human greed. If nobody is a loser then nobody can be a winner. To be a winner means that there has to be losers. For our capitalist system to feed the cult of mammon it has to keep a large portion of humanity in bondage. Only then can men s

The Ruts - Babylon's Burning

And to finish off the trio for today, The Ruts - Babylon's Burning

999 - Homicide

Another group I saw sometime, somewhere. Classic song.

The Skids - Into The Valley

Saw them at Guildford University sometime back in God knows when. The songs almost survived the passage of time!

The General Election

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So Gordo's set the date, the media has gone into a frenzy and already I'm bored. If there's one thing I can't stand it's the cult of celebrity and the media will be spinning out of control to bring us the 'character' of the party leaders. Truth is, I don't care. It's a turn-off. But the media really has no choice, as Neil Clark says on his blog: For the sad truth is that the vote on May 6 will be the most meaningless poll in modern British political history. In a country which takes great pride in its 'democratic' credentials, and which sees its divine mission as spreading 'democracy' across the globe, the British voter will be presented with a choice of three main parties advocating almost identical policies on the most important issues of the day. You have it there, no difference except by degree. All the major parties are cooking from the same menu which is giving me indigestion. For the past 15 years there has been a powerfu

Release from prison a 'miracle cure'?

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So Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi was meant to have died from his prostate cancer several months ago, but is enjoying his birthday today. Whilst I wish him no ill, and indeed good health I do wonder what it is about being released from prison which seems to bring about miracle cures? I'm thinking Ernest Saunders and his unique recovery from Altzheimer's. And now al-Megrahi. Perhaps this could be an alternative treatment available on the NHS? A strange old world indeed.