Showing posts with label wealth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wealth. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Crime Pays for Some


A junior barrister was handed more than £1 million in legal aid last year, it was revealed yesterday. Balbir Singh, head of Birmingham’s Equity Chambers, was paid £1,116,000 in 2005/06.


The second-highest paid was Nigel Lithman, QC, who received £978,000 in legal aid, followed by John C. Rees, QC, with £947,000.


Four of the 10 top-earning criminal barristers were from the same chambers: 2 Bedford Row in London. Mr Lithman, William Clegg, QC, Jim Sturman, QC and Howard Godfrey, QC had a combined pay-out of £3.3 million.


Tuckers Solicitors was the highest paid criminal firm, receiving £8.5 million in the year from the legal aid purse. They were followed by Irwin Mitchell (£5.3 million) and Burton Copeland (£5 million).


In a separate list of community legal service firms - carrying out non-criminal work - the highest paid was Duncan Lewis Solicitors with just under £7 million, followed by Irwin Mitchell with £5.2 million.


The law is an instrument of the owning class, that pretends to be for everyone, but is only for the rich. It's an instrument of class domination.


Shakespeare's Henry VI — “First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers” - Perhaps , on reflection that maybe a sanction a little bit too severe .

Friday, June 22, 2007

We are getting poorer

Disposable income has fallen to a five-year low, according to a study by Ernst & Young.

Big rises in household costs continue to outstrip wage increases .


Average monthly mortgage repayments, typically a household's largest monthly outgoing, have soared 65% in the last four years, and are up 12% in the last year alone.


Also seeing above inflation rises on a host of fixed costs such as council tax bills ( Up 20% since 2003/04 for a band D property) , water rates, pension contributions and petrol (11.7% higher than last year)


Household bills have risen by 31% since 2003/04, and now account for more than 50% of a typical household's gross income, up 5% in the same period.


Loans, credit cards and overdrafts have soared more than 30% in the last four years, with the average unsecured debt now standing at £8,028 - compared to £6,568.


The average British household now has £837.53 disposable cash to spend each month after total fixed outgoings.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Gap between rich and poor 'could cause riots'

One of Britain’s richest men has given warning that the gap between rich and poor could eventually lead to violence and rioting on the streets.
Sir Ronald Cohen, founder of Apax Partners, the private equity firm, and a close ally of Gordon Brown, said in an interview that if people are “left behind” in the race to accumulate riches, Britain could see a repeat of the Paris riots two years ago.

Sir Ronald Cohen , a big Labour donor who has an estimated £260 million fortune, highlighted his concerns about the future for Britain’s haves and have-nots, saying that the widening gap was "something to be concerned about".
He said: “Entrepreneurial economies which have high rates of growth and high rates of job creation do lead to great divergences in wealth.When economic situations get bad, it takes a spark to ignite a violent reaction.”
His spokesman told the newspaper later: “He was referring to how when people get left behind, when young men get left behind, for economic or welfare reasons, it can lead to violence, such as during the riots in Paris.”

As reported in the Daily Telegraph , of the 400 hundred people thought to be paid more than £10 million a year in dividends, interest, rents and profits , only 65 face income tax bills, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
We in the Socialist Party fully understand the frustrations of the working class when we all witness the inequalities of society , but we would counsel our fellow workers to use their political power to do away with Capitalism , rather than futilely take to the streets .

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Electric shocks

It is good to see that your electric bill went to good cause .

Scottish & Southern Energy , the Perth-based parent company of Scottish Hydro-Electric , has handed its top executives inflation-busting salary increases after a review of boardroom remuneration concluded that they were underpaid .
SSE's four executive directors saw their basic salaries rise by between 9% and 17%.

Chief executive Ian Marchant is now on a basic of £720,000 - an increase of around £100,000 in the past two years. Also proposed to the annual meeting was that the maximum bonus "cap" for executive directors under the company's new performance share plan be increased from 100% to 150% of salary.

Marchant's salary, annual bonus, and benefits jumped by more than 16% to £1.21 million in 2006-07, up from £1.04 million in the prior financial year. As well as his basic salary of £675,000, bonus of £518,000 and benefits of £17,000, Marchant was awarded 46,081 shares under the deferred bonus plan.These shares had a value of nearly £670,000 at last night's closing price . In all , taking his total remuneration for the year to nearly £1.9 million . Marchant also made a notional gain on the exercise of share options of £408,876.

Colin Hood, who joined the board of SSE in January 2001 as power systems director and became chief operating officer in October 2002, was paid salary, bonus and benefits totalling £894,000 in 2006-07, up from £772,000 last time. Hood was awarded 33,446 shares under the deferred bonus plan worth nearly £500,000 at yesterday's closing price

Finance director Gregor Alexander received £656,000 in 2006-07, up from £531,000 last time, including a basic salary of £360,000 and bonus of £282,000.

Alistair Phillips-Davies, the energy supply director, took home £659,000, up from £531,000.

Chairman Sir Robert Smith, meanwhile, saw his pay rise from £218,000 in 2005-06 to £266,000.

Next time you are told you are over-paid , remember what Scottish Hydro consider as under-paid.

meanwhile also reported by The Herald , the new Scottish Media Group chief executive Rob Woodward is set to be handed free shares in the troubled media group potentially worth £2.5million . A revamped long-term incentive plan (LTIP), which will be put to a shareholder vote at an extraordinary meeting on Friday, will see a clutch of executives share 2007 awards with a potential value of £6.8 million. Finance director George Watt, sole survivor of the much-criticised "ancien regime" at SMG, could pocket more than £900,000 when the 2007 LTIPs vest in three years' time.
Rewards not to compensate for being underpaid , but to "incentivise and motivational and retentative " purposes .

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Butlers

The Independent is reporting a crisis in the supply and demand of household man-servants.
The Guild of Professional Butlers is now reporting an explosion in the numbers of super-rich households who want to be waited on hand and foot.

There simply are not enough butlers .

Charles MacPherson, the vice-chairman of the International Guild of Professional Butlers explained . "If we doubled the number of butlers, they wouldn't be without work,"

Jane Urqhart, the principal of the Greycoat Academy which trains butlers, said that demand for "good butlers" was soaring.

"What's happened is that there has been a growth among those people with a lot of money who want to emulate the old traditions, such as having a butler. So they buy the manor house but they also want to hire someone from the days when the house was staffed by a butler..."

Ivor Spencer, 81, a butler with service in 14 of the grandest houses in England, runs a butler-training school and agency. He says that one can still expect certain standards from a butler .
Mr Spencer warns: "You must never do it just for the money. You must put the family before your own family."












Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Wealth Gap Widens


A previous blog revealed that under Tony Blair the gap between the richest and the poorest had widened . The Scotsman confirms that indeed this is the case .


The think-tank , Compass , has issued a report that finds that people living in the affluent London borough of Kensington and Chelsea now live, on average, 10.9 years longer than people from Glasgow. That inequalities in mortality rates for children born to working-class mothers compared with middle-class ones have also grown since 1998.


The publication said the share of national wealth owned by the richest 1 per cent in Britain had risen from 17 per cent in 1991 to 24 per cent in 2002, while the share of the country's riches held by the bottom 50 per cent of people had dropped from 8 percent to 6 per cent. It warned that massive house-price rises and huge pay hikes for executives in industry and commerce were fuelling the growing gap between rich and poor.


"The super-rich have, during Tony Blair's premiership, been accumulating wealth at close to four times the rate of the ordinary person." says the report


The poor , more probably than not , disillusioned by all the previous broken promises of the politicians are now deserting the democratic process. The difference between voter turnout between the highest and lowest social classes had reached 17 per cent - the gap in voting habits was "probably wider than at any point since the abolition of property requirements" in the early part of the 20th century .
Rather than political apathy , the Socialist Party entreats the working class to acknowledge the class war , to intensify the class struggle , but also to finally transcend Capitalism itself by building Socialism .

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Rich List and P*ssed

With the imminent publication of The Times 2007 Rich List , there will be many commentaries on it . The first i have read is from the BBC .

The fortunes of Britain's wealthiest 1,000 people grew 20% in a year .


The UK Office for National Statistics reported that average UK earnings including bonuses rose by 4.6 % in the year to February 2007 . Average earnings excluding bonuses on regular pay, rose by 3.6 % . The retail price index measure of inflation stands presently at 4.8%.

The £19 billion fortune of Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal ensured he kept his title as Britain's richest person. Mr Mittal's fortune grew more than £4 billion from from £14.8 billion in 2006 .
The Duke of Westminster fortune grew from £6.6 billion to £7 billion.


Once again , the figures irrefutably confirm that the capitalist class are becoming increasingly richer and the working class are growing poorer and poorer .

Buddy , can you spare a dime

From the Independent :-

To count as genuinely wealthy, according to a new survey, you need at least £6 million in the bank, as well as a £4 million London mansion and a holiday home worth at least £1 million. You'll also be wanting a retinue of staff costing £38,4000 a year, at least two cars worth upwards of £140,000, two luxury holidays a year and plenty of cash left over to send your children to private school.


That, at any rate, is the verdict of 200 British multimillionaires, who were interviewed .

Sunday, December 17, 2006

"Its a wonderful world" - for some


The Independent On Sunday today carries a report about the wealthy in the UK .


According to Tulip Financial Research, Britain has some 135,000 "high-net-worth" individuals, with liquid assets averaging £6.4millions . They are described as HNWs. People with tens of millions are UHNWs: ultra-high-net-worths.


Forbes magazine declared London to be the official billionaire's playground of the Western world, with 23 dollar billionaires .


The chef's table at Claridges, run by Gordon Ramsay, is the holy grail of the expense-account blowout - and it's booked up well into next year.
"It seats up to six, and the minimum spend is £550," says a spokesman. "Most bills are nudging £1,000 because they go for pretty decent wines. It's flying, though, as the place for City boys to celebrate or entertain clients. Things have never been better."


Stratstones of Mayfair, an Aston Martin dealership, report a six-month waiting list. "For some customers, it's a whim," says one salesman. "Others say, 'I haven't got that model in my collection.' It's a wonderful world."


At Guards Polo Club in Windsor Great Park, Britain's poshest place to play, the membership lists are full; any new players are faced with a hefty bill for horseflesh. "To play at the low goal level, you need at least five or six ponies," says a spokesman. "But you can double or treble that for high goal. A polo pony will go for around £25,000 but at the top level people just keep hold of the best ones; they're priceless."


HNW tastes hark back to a bygone era. They have been partly responsible for a renaissance of the servant class. "The British would say, 'Here's Annie, who does the cleaning', but try to pretend she wasn't a servant," notes one domestic agent."These people have bought servants back with a vengeance. Filipino, Eastern European, whatever. They believe in servants, they want lots of them, and they want to jolly well dress them in uniforms and call them servants."


The capital's oldest families are still some of the wealthiest. Richard Beresford, compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List says that these people, "will be on the Rich List until an atomic bomb hits London or a Bolshevik revolution strips them of their assets".

The Duke of Westminster is Britain's third richest man and London's most powerful landlord, with a £6.6billion fortune. Roman Abramovich's swanky Belgravia address pales in comparison to the Duke's 100 acres of Mayfair and 200-acre Belgravia estates. Coming in second is the Earl of Cadogan, below, whose £1.9billion fortune includes 90 acres of Chelsea. And of course there are the royal parasitical princes , William and Harry, who have £30 million fortunes and now Charles plans to build for William a classically inspired six-bedroom two-storey house - less of a starter home, and more a starter palace.


Michael Spencer's wife hired Robbie Williams at a reported cost of £1million to sing at her husband's 50th birthday party. Spencer, CEO of InterCapital, is said to have been paid £5million in bonuses last year.

Madonna's decided to buy a £35,000 chinchilla fur coat from a Fendi store in Knightsbridge recently. She also splashed out on a brand new £3.6million venue for her fellow British Kabbalah followers .

Philip Green has amassed £3.6billion through a retail empire, including Bhs and the Arcadia Group.He spent millions on a three-day Bar Mitzvah for his son, with live concerts by Andrea Bocelli and Destiny's Child, and erected a giant synagogue in the garden, designed by his wife, Tina.


It's Us and Them - the Capitalist Class and the Working Class .