WATER SWIZZ

In 2004 Coca-Cola's Dansini water "filtered for purity" by using "reverse osmosis" turned out to be tap water marked up from 0.03p to 95p per 500ml. In July, Pepsi was forced to change labels on bottles of Aguafine and admit that it "originated from a public water source" - the tap. A gullible public is still being conned though.
"Boots confirmed yesterday that it is selling water at £3.99 for little more than a cupful. Its Expert Sensitive Refreshing Facial Spritz is exactly what it says on the can: water." (Times, 6 October)
In its constant drive for profit the capitalist class are prepared to engage in all sorts of skulduggery, but Boots selling tap water at £32.92 a litre takes some beating. RD

NOT SO PATRIOTIC

At the Labour and Conservative Party conferences the drum was banged for patriotism. "British jobs for British people", "this great country of ours", "our proud British heritage", and so on ad nauseum. In fact the British capitalists don't care where they make their profits, if they can exploit workers abroad more profitably then that is what they will do, despite the cant spoken at political conferences.
"Unite, the manufacturing trade union, yesterday accused Cadbury Schweppes of behaving like an "asset-stripping private equity firm" following the company's announcement that it would shed 700 jobs by outsourcing chocolate production to Poland. Cadbury said it planned to shut its factory in Keynsham, near Bristol, by 2010, with the loss of 500 jobs, while 200 further posts would go in Bournville, in the Midlands, at the plant where it has been producing chocolate for almost 130 years. Much of the work done at the Keynsham and Bournville plants will be switched to the Polish company Wedel, which it acquired in 1998, Cadbury said, because labour and manufacturing costs would be much lower". (Independent, 4 October) RD

NOT SO SWEET CHARITY

Capitalism taints everything it touches even charity. "Indeed, the sector is very much a target for unscrupulous operators, whether they are diverting donations for relief missions for their own use or are sham clothes collectors depriving established charities and their shops of donated garments. ...Increasingly, charities use street collectors to encourage the public to donate regularly by direct debit. ..."There is an awful lot of personal information being given out," Dearman (PKF Accountants) says. There is a risk that fraudsters might impersonate street collectors and complete their own donor lists, complete with financial details, he cautioned." (Times, 2 October)
Capitalism certainly is a wonderful system; workers hoping to assist others are being ripped off. RD

NEVER STEAL ANYTHING - SMALL

Workers are taught in school and church that honesty is the best policy, but this is capitalism and capitalism just does not work that way.
"Depending on who you talk to, fraud costs the economy £14 billion a year (according to the Association of Police Officers) or £72 billion (the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners)" (Times, 2 October)
This is not workers dodging fares on the train this is a big business operation, it involves VAT evasion and what is called "carousel fraud". The Revenue and Customs have added an extra 700 staff bringing the total to 1,500 to deal with this fraud.
What a wasteful society capitalism is. Thousands of workers, crooks and cops in a ceaseless unproductive treadmill. RD

WE HOPE IT IS TRUE

It is sad, but true that it is almost impossible to lift up a newspaper without being informed about bad news. War, poverty and world hunger - it is the media's daily ration of social problems. How welcome to read of this ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy press.
"Outrage in cyberspace as the US Navy describes the MySpace generation as "alien life forces". They spend their lives in front of screens meeting foreigners and are therefore less willing to sign up and kill them, a Navy study reports." (Times, 2 October) RD

DIAL O FOR ORWELL

"A massive extension of surveillance powers comes into force today, giving police, government officials and even local councils unprecedented access to everyone's telephone records. The new regulations will force telecommunications companies to retain information about all landline and mobile calls made by members of the public for one year, and hand over the data to over 650 public bodies and quangos. The move, quietly approved by Parliament in July under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, is being justified as a vital tool in the fight against terrorism." (Daily Telegraph, 1 October)
In George Orwell's dystopia 1964 the frightening slogan was Big Brother is Watching You. A more up-to-date slogan would be Big Brother is Listening to You. RD

NOW THAT'S LIVING

"The bonanza in boardroom pay has become even more spectacular, according to the latest figures from the accountancy firm KPMG. The typical chief executive of a FTSE 100 company has seen their total remuneration rise by 12 per cent in the past year, to reach over £2.6m. That's four times the rate of increase in average earnings, leaving the business elite on pay over100 times what most of their employees earn. In the case of those chief executives still in post, their income went up by 16 per cent, accelerating last year's 9 per cent rise. The chief executive of one of the smaller FTSE 250 companies would expect to see a total package of just over £1m, up from £878,000 in 2006. Britain's top corporate earner is probably still Bob Diamond of Barclays Capital, who took home £22.9m last year, including a performance-related bonus of £10.4m." (Independent, 1 October) RD

A LIVING WAGE?

"The adult rate for the statutory minimum wage will go up from £5.35 to £5.52 and from £4.44 to £4.60 for 18-21-year-olds. The rate for 16 and 17-year-olds will increase from £3.30 to £3.40 an hour. Meanwhile, annual leave entitlement will increase from 20 to 24 days a year for full-time workers and will increase again to 28 days from April 2009. Employment Relations Minister, Pat McFadden, said: "These changes will improve the lives of millions of British workers, giving them more time with their families and ensuring our lowest paid workers continue to be able to earn a living wage." (Guardian, 1 October)
McFaddens "living wage" must seem laughable to politicians and big earners in the City. 17p an hour increases? Let the good times roll! RD

WHO IS AFRAID OF WHO?

"For the second time in seven years the Vatican is hosting a scientific conference for astronomers. More than 200 scientists from 26 countries including the United States, Britain, Italy, Germany, Russia, and Japan have gathered in Rome for a five-day meeting on disc galaxies. ...Why does the Vatican fund astronomical research after centuries of public dispute over the relative roles of science and religion? Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, a member of Father Funes's team and curator of one of the world's most important collections of meteorites, kept at Castelgandolfo (the Pope's summer residence), explains.
"They want the world to know that the Church isn't afraid of science," he said." (BBC News, 1 October)
In the 17th century it was this church that was persecuting and executing scientists. Galileo was tried for heresy by the Inquisition because his findings contradicted the scriptures. It was not until the reign of Pope John Paul II - nearly four centuries later - that the Catholic Church finally admitted that Galileo had been right and he was officially rehabilitated. RD

ILLUSION AND REALITY

Capitalism is a society that thrives on illusions. One of the cruellest is the one about elderly workers sitting in rocking chair contentment after a lifetime of toil. For many workers the reality behind this idyllic picture turns out to be this.
"The proportion of pensioners going bankrupt has more than doubled in five years, research has suggested. Of bankruptcies in England and Wales during 2007, 7% involved retired people - up from 3% in 2002, a report said. This meant 7,900 pensioners were declared bankrupt over the past year, compared to 900 five years previously. Accountants firm Wilkins Kennedy, which produced the study, said older people unused to being offered credit "may take on unmanageable levels of debt". The researchers warned that the figures are likely to get even higher, as increased life expectancy and rises in the price of food and fuel put a greater strain on the limited savings of many pensioners." (BBC News, 1 October) RD

PHONEY COMMUNISTS

"The Chinese authorities are in the midst of an unusually harsh crackdown on the Internet, closing tens of thousands of websites that had allowed visitors to post their opinions, according to bloggers and Internet monitors in China. The new censorship wave appears linked to next month's 17th Communist Party Congress, a key political gathering that will set China's course for the coming five years. Party leaders generally prefer to meet undisturbed by criticism." (Yahoo News, 25 September)
This phoney Communist Party of course run a system of state capitalism not communism. Early socialists like Marx and Engels who wrote the Communist Manifesto were themselves the victim of censorship and deportation and were completely opposed to the concept of censorship. In their day it was the avowedly capitalist parties that practiced censorship but today dicatorships in China and Cuba who falsely describe themselves as communists are the ones who most rigidly suppress all opposition. RD

BE AFRAID, VERY AFRAID (2)

"Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski likened U.S. officials' sabre rattling about Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions to similar statements made before the start of the Iraq war.
"I think the administration, the president and the vice president particularly, are trying to hype the atmosphere, and that is reminiscent of what preceded the war in Iraq," Brzezinski told CNN's "Late Edition" on Sunday." (CNN Politics.com, 24 September)
We don't want to be like Charles Dickens's Fat Boy and "make your flesh creep", but this guy is supposed to be an expert in such matters. Let us hope he is like a lot of capitalism's experts and has got it all wrong. Capitalism makes our flesh creep. RD

WAR IS HELL - FOR SOME

"The Bush administration plans to increase its 2008 financing request for military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere by almost $50 billion, with about a quarter of the additional money going toward armoured trucks built to withstand roadside bombs, Pentagon officials said Saturday. The increase would bring the amount the administration is seeking to finance the war effort through 2008 to almost $200 billion." (New York Times, 23 September)
This increase in expenditure is bad news for the American capitalist class who will have to pay for this. On the other hand it is good news for that section who have their capital tied up in the manufacture of this additional material. RD

MAKING A KILLING

"Habana Health Care Centre, a 150-bed nursing home in Tampa, Fla., was struggling when a group of large private investment firms purchased it and 48 other nursing homes in 2002. The facility’s managers quickly cut costs. Within months, the number of clinical register nurses at the home was half what it had been a year earlier, records collected by the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicate. Budgets for nursing supplies, resident activities and other services also fell, according to Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration. The investors and operators were soon earning millions of dollars a year from their 49 homes. Residents fared less well. Over three years, 15 at Habana died from what their families contend was negligent care in lawsuits filed in state court." (New York Times, 23 September)
When it comes to making a profit there is no depth to which capitalism won’t descend. RD

EXPLOITATION IN BANGLADESH

If you have ever wondered how some clothing stores manage to have such low prices, wonder no more. "At least 25,000 textile workers defied a ban on protests in emergency-ruled Bangladesh on Saturday to demand back-pay and bonuses in one of the country's biggest industrial zones, police said. The workers walked off the job in the Tejgaon Industrial Area in Dhaka and held protests in the streets, forcing the shutdown of most factories in the area, assistant police commissioner Moshiur Rahman said. Police used batons to break up protests after demonstrators smashed the windows of several factories. ...The military-backed government has banned all kinds of protests and rallies and has said it will not tolerate any unrest in the important textile sector, which is crucial to impoverished Bangladesh's export earnings. ...Garments are Bangladesh's biggest export earners with sales abroad fetching more than nine billion dollars, or three-quarters of the country's total export earnings, in the last fiscal year." (Yahoo News, 22 September)
Behind the strikes and demonstrations is the government's refusal to introduce the agreed minimum wage of $25 a month RD

The Standard October 2007

The Standard Online

| Downloads | | Contents | | Editorial | | Index |

Npower - no help to the poor

Npower, whose German parent company RWE reported profits of £1.68 billion last year on the back of rising energy prices, was singled out in a report by the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group. Scottish Power, which made £483 million last year, was also rated poorly for doing least to help its most vulnerable customers.

Households are deemed to be living in fuel poverty if they spend more than 10% of their income on heating and lighting bills. The industry regulator Ofgem estimates that there are now 4 million households living in fuel poverty in the UK.
Currently, each power company can set the level of help it chooses to offer those customers, such as through lower prices or subsidies for loft insulation.

In August, Ofgem , the industry regulator , examined what each company was doing to help its poorest customers. Its findings were then analysed by the fuel poverty group . The report said npower "clearly stands out as the company that does the least for its vulnerable customers". It also criticised the company for having the highest prepayment electricity tariffs . The original Ofgem report found that npower had fewer than 1,200 of its total 6.8 million customers on its First Step social tariff - less than 0.02%. In comparison British Gas had 300,000, or 2%, of customers receiving financial help. EDF offers help to about 60,000 customers, or 1%.

The Bankrupt System

Research based on a study of 1,250 bankrupts in England and Wales found the proportion of pensioners going bankrupt has more than doubled in five years . Of bankruptcies in England and Wales during 2007, 7% involved retired people - up from 3% in 2002 . This meant 7,900 pensioners were declared bankrupt over the past year, compared to 900 five years previously.

Researchers warned that the figures are likely to get even higher, as increased life expectancy and rises in the price of food and fuel put a greater strain on the limited savings of many pensioners.

Keith Stevens, insolvency partner at Wilkins Kennedy, said: "More and more pensioners are going bankrupt as they struggle to repay debts when their pension is their sole source of income. "

Senior citizens could be missing out on money to which they are entitled because of the complexity of the government's pension credits system

Older people unused to being offered credit "may take on unmanageable levels of debt".

The problem might be worst in rural areas. That could be because of pensioners not being able to rely on free public transport, and fewer opportunities for part time work.

More Pay For the Bosses

We previously reported how directors pay increases are much higher than their workers wage rises and today's Herald produces new figures that once again confirms that the rich always reward themselves more than those that produce the wealth .

Chief executives enjoyed an average 16% rise in total remuneration in 2007 - a marked acceleration over the prior year's 9% increase - according to accounting giant KPMG's .Moreover, other executive directors on company boards saw their base salaries increase at a similar rate, although finance directors are seeing bigger increases in pay. KPMG noted that the rate of increase in directors' pay is far higher than the national average .

The median total remuneration for FTSE-100 chief executives in 2007 - including new hires as well as promotions - increased to £2.6 million, compared with £2.3 million last year.

Whereas today's Independent is reporting of the story is that The bonanza in boardroom pay has become even more spectacular, according to the latest figures from the accountancy firm KPMG. The typical chief executiveof a FTSE 100 company has seen their total remuneration rise by 12 per cent in the past year, to reach over £2.6m. That's four times the rate of increase in average earnings, leaving the business elite on pay over 100 times what most of their employees earn.

Britain's top corporate earner is probably still Bob Diamond of Barclays Capital, who took home £22.9 million last year, including a performance-related bonus of £10.4 million.

Bart Becht, chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser, the man behind Mr Sheen, on £22 million; Giles Thorley, head of Punch Taverns, making ends meet on £11 million; . Mr Thorley's package is equivalent to 1,147 of his staff's pay.

Taken together, the directors of FTSE 100 companies collectively earned £515 million lastyear – exceeding the GDP of the likes of Eritrea and the Seychelles.

BE AFRAID, VERY AFRAID

Capitalism is a frightening society with its poverty, crime and world hunger, but there is another cloud on the horizon for the working class. "An air warfare conference in Washington last week was told how American air chiefs have helped to co-ordinate intelligence-sharing with Gulf Arab nations and organise combined exercises designed to make it easier to fight together. Gen Michael Mosley, the US Air Force chief of staff, used the conference to seek closer links with allies whose support America might need if President George W Bush chooses to bomb Iran. Pentagon air chiefs have helped set up an air warfare centre in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where Gulf nations are training their fighter pilots and America has big bases.
(Sunday Telegraph, 30th September) RD

YOU RANG, MY LORD?

We are always told that it is tough at the top and here is another example of how the capitalist class have problems that we lucky workers never have to confront. "They have their private jets, luxury yachts and an island or two in the Caribbean. But for the plutocrat with everything, this season's ultimate accessory is much harder to acquire – a top-flight British butler with skills honed and polished by the royal household. The art of "butling" is enjoying an unprecedented renaissance. Not since the days of the landed gentry have butlers been such hot property, providing the ultimate butling in the Beckham household as well as offering media-shy dotcom millionaires and Russian oligarchs that extra bit of personal service. The 21st-century butler has, however, been given a radical makeover that has included being renamed as a "household manager". Today's butlers are not only expected to pour champagne, dust antique furnishings and open doors for guests, but they also have to be able to deal with new technology." (Independent on Sunday, 30 September)
Like the master is always saying - "You just can't get the servants nowadays". RD

WARS WITHOUT END

Kids at British schools are usually taught about the first and second world wars and led to believe that Britain has been at peace since 1945, but capitalism just doesn't work that way. It is a brutal competitive society that is forced from time to time to settle the rivalries between different groups of capitalists in the bloodletting of wars that kill millions of workers. A recent interview with Lord Tebbit the right wing Conservative peer reminds us just how constant this conflict is. Speaking about a book he is working on that deals with the history of Britain's wars - "All 61 of them!" he exclaims - since 1945." (Times Magazine, 29 September) RD

The Protests in Burma

Phan, a member of the ethnic Karen group which has been mercilessly persecuted by the ruling military junta, was just 14 when her village was attacked by Burmese soldiers. She fled to the jungle and lived in hiding .

"... While I was in hiding in the jungle, British businessmen were dining in Rangoon and making deals with the very men who had ordered the slaughter of my people." says Phan .

The Burmese army has been routinely accused of using rape (including that of children) as a weapon of war, as well as ethnic cleansing, extra-judicial executions and torture and imprisonment without trial. More than one million people have been displaced and 3000 villages destroyed by government troops.

The UK has more companies than any other nation on Earth trading with the regime. In total, the London-based Burma Campaign has found that 128 firms globally are trading with Burma - of those 44% are British. An example of one of the 56 British firms trading with Burma, and propping up the army generals currently smashing the nation's pro-democracy movement, is Britannic Garden Furniture (BGF).The company builds expensive accessories for Britons using Burmese teak.
Total Oil, which has offices in London, is in a joint venture with the military regime, developing an offshore gas field. It has been taken to court by six Burmese people who were allegedly used as forced labour in the preparation of Total's pipeline in Burma.
Perhaps the most high-profile firm is Rolls-Royce. Through its Singaporean subsidiary, the company has a contract to supply and service aircraft engines for at least one Burmese airline.

Among the firms are two Scottish-based companies: Aquatic from Aberdeen, and Schlumberger from Westhill in Aberdeenshire. Aquatic is a privately owned company, with offices in Burma, that provides specialist services to the oil and gas industry. Gas exports are the military dictatorship's biggest source of income.

Anna Roberts, acting director of the BurmaCampaignUK,said:
"The Burmese regime spends half its budget on the military, and just 19p per person on health and education. It relies on foreign trade to supply this income. So, companies which trade with Burma are helping support a military dictatorship which uses foreign money to buy weapons to suppress its own people."

See Socialism or Your Money Back for a socialist point of view of the present Burma situaton

A TASTY TIPPLE

"An anonymous telephone bidder has paid £29,000 for a 157-year-old bottle of whisky. McTears auctioneers in Glasgow sold the Bowmore single malt, which was bottled in 1850. The price, a record for a Scottish whisky at auction, was almost double pre-sale estimates, despite the fact that the whisky's cork had dropped into the bottle. ... .In 2005, a bottle of Dalmore 62 Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky is thought to have become the world's most expensive after it was bought at a hotel in England. A businessman paid £32,000 for the rare bottle, produced in 1943." (Daily Telegraph, 29 September)
20 to 30 grand for a bottle of whisky is everyday stuff for members of the capitalist class while members of the working class cannot even afford medicine to keep them alive! RD

And its jobs for the boys ( and girls ) . Ex-attorney general , Lord Goldsmith , starts a lucrative new career with a big American law firm called Debevoise & Plimpton LLP on a salary thought to be in the region of £1 million a year. As European chair of litigation, Lord Goldsmith will be part of a firm that prides itself on conflict resolution and anti-corruption investigations - it recently acted for a company in connection with a worldwide inquiry into possible corrupt payments to government officials. Lord Goldsmith , of course , possesses plenty of experience upon how to handle corruption cases as witnessed by his handling of the Saudi Arabian - BAE arms and bribery investigation . Never let the law and legal nicieties interfere with politics and business .

Other pigs with snouts in the trough as reported by the Guardian are :-

· Alan Milburn - The former health secretary is an adviser to Pepsi which brings him £25,000 a year. He also holds a £30,000-a-year role on Lloyds pharmacy's health advisory panel and draws another £35,000 as an adviser to the European board of Bridgepoint Capital Ltd, a finance company with an interest in healthcare.

· Stephen Byers - The former transport and trade secretary is a paid consultant to a Lebanese construction firm based in Athens. He is chairs the board of the Yalta European Strategy group.

· David Blunkett - The former home secretary, collected £385,000 from his memoirs, and up to £150,000 a year from his weekly Sun column. He is also an adviser to Entrust, a company which is bidding to run Britain's controversial identity cards programme.

· John Prescott - The former deputy prime minister signed a £300,000 deal to tell his story in Prezza: Pulling No Punches after stepping down this year.

· John Reid - The former home secretary who was famously labelled Labour's "attack dog" by Jeremy Paxman is expected to become chairman of Celtic Football Club.

· Alastair Campbell - Downing Street's former communications director is reported to have earned £1 million for his book, The Blair Years: Extracts from the Alastair Campbell Diaries.

The poor and education

Socialist Courier has directed readers towards findings that have indicated a link between class and educational achievement here and here and the Herald reports further connections between poverty and educational success .

Figures from the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) show that Glasgow, Dundee, North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire are among the councils with the lowest attainment rates at Standard Grade and Higher - all are regions which have a much higher proportion of pupils on free school meals than the national average of 14.6% - a key indicator of deprivation. Glasgow , for instance , has 32% of pupils are on free meals .

The best performing councils, including East Renfrewshire, East Dunbartonshire, Stirling and the Western Isles all have much lower proportions of pupils on free school meals. In East Renfrewshire, the figure is 8.3%.

The latest figures to highlight the gulf in exam attainment between rich and poor will spark renewed concerns that not enough is being done to address the problem. Last year, HM Inspectorate of Education found the gap between the best and worst-performing pupils in Scotland was growing wider, despite a raft of government initiatives and £19 billion spent on education since devolution.
Isabel Hutton, education spokeswoman for Cosla, which represents local authorities, called for the "inequalities arising from deprivation" to be removed.
A Scottish Government spokesman said the focus by ministers of early intervention, cutting class sizes in deprived areas and ensuring teachers were retained in nurseries would all help to raise attainment across the board.

Socialist Courier doubts if such palliative will address the situation . After all , it has been an objective of all governments , of all shades of the political spectrum , to foster an educated work-force and here we are still facing the same problem .

The New Gold Rush

BHP Billiton will tomorrow announce that it estimates the reserves of gold at its Australian Olympic Dam mine are more than 50% bigger than previously thought, raising speculation that it is sitting on the largest gold mine in the world. Situated 330 miles north of Adelaide, South Australia, Olympic Dam contains deposits of several minerals and is already the home to the world's largest uranium mine.
BHP shares hit record levels with feverish expectations that a recent drilling programme had vastly exceeded expectations. BHP has grown in value on the back of the China-fuelled commodity boom. Its stock market value has reached $200 billion (£99 billion), compared with $30 billion five years ago. Yesterday the share price rose 81p to £17.37.

The price of gold neared a 28-year peak yesterday as investors continued to buy into the commodity as a hedge against a falling dollar and the potential for a serious economic downturn in the US. The precious metal hit $736.05 per troy ounce at one stage helped by a forecast from Goldman Sachs that prices could soon reach $775. Gold prices have been rising since 2000 when they were as low as $280 per oz.

BEHIND THE FINE WORDS

At the annual conferences of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Parties we hear fine words about full employment and prosperity but what is the reality? "Danny Wilde collected his last pay cheque from the Tulip pork factory in Norfolk on Friday before joining the dole queue. His wife, Melissa, was made redundant from her job at the same Thetford plant earlier this month. They both joined the meat processing lines from school and have put in 20 years at the company between them, taking turns on early and late shifts so that they could look after their two children. There have been jobs cuts here before: in 2003 more than 170 full-time employees were made redundant and replaced immediately with agency staff, most of them migrants on poorer terms - lower rates of pay, mostly just the minimum wage, less overtime money, less holiday, more antisocial shift patterns, uncertain hours. The full-time employees had no pay rise for three years and watched as their incomes were eroded by inflation. Now the rest of the work has gone, most of it relocated to another subsidiary of the trans-national Danish Crown group in Cornwall. The Wildes feel badly let down after years of loyal work. As Melissa puts it: "That's business today, isn't it. It doesn't care." Tulip has been Thetford's largest employer since Thermos closed its factory on the same industrial estate five years ago and shifted to China where the labour is cheaper. Up to 700 people who have worked at Tulip regularly will now have to look for jobs elsewhere." (Guardian, 25 September) RD

MILITARY PRECISION?

There is a much used phrase in the English language - "military precision". If something is carried out efficiently we use "military precision" to denote an extremely smooth operation. We may have to get rid of that phrase though in view of recent developments.
"Nuclear warheads capable of unleashing the equivalent of 10 Hiroshima bombs were mistakenly flown across the United States by a bomber crew who thought they were dummies, and the terrifying security lapse was not discovered for almost 36 hours, it has been revealed. The Pentagon is examining how so many vital checks and balances, painstakingly set out during the Cold War era, broke down causing an incident that military personnel are calling one of the biggest mistakes in US Air Force history.... The B-52 took off from the remote Minot air force base in North Dakota with 12 cruise missiles that were being taken out of commission and scheduled for burial in Louisiana. The warheads on the decommissioned missiles should have been replaced with dummies of the same weight, but personnel failed to notice that six of the 12 were fully operational nuclear warheads." (Independent, 25 September) RD

SPEED AND STUPIDITY

"The fastest driver ever caught in a routine speed check in the UK has been sentenced to 10 weeks in jail. Timothy Brady, 33, of Earls Crescent, Harrow, north-west London, pleaded guilty at Oxford Crown Court to dangerous driving. Brady was clocked at 172mph in a Porsche 911 Turbo in a 70mph zone on the A420 in Oxfordshire on 27 January. He was banned from driving for three years and will have to take an extended driving test to get another licence. He denied another charge of aggravated vehicle taking. The court heard Brady had taken the Porsche from luxury car hire firm Helphire, where he worked as a delivery driver. ... Judge David Morton Jack said to Brady in court: "Your driving was criminally self-indulgent and utterly thoughtless of the danger you might be creating for the innocent." Police have criticised Brady for travelling at such high speed." (BBC News, 24 September)
Brady was criticised by the judge, the police, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the Safe Speed Safety Committee.
The manufacturers of this potential baby killing Porsche and the advertisers of this speed death trap escaped censure of course. After all, that's business, isn't it? RD

Health service rationing

According to the BBC , Doctor magazine asked readers about rationing.

16% - said patients had died early as a result.

Over 50% said patients had suffered as a result .

They reported not being allowed to prescribe drug treatments including smoking cessation drugs and anti-obesity treatment. They also reported that local NHS trusts had been placing restrictions on fertility treatments, obesity surgery and a host of minor operations, including those for varicose veins.

Many experts fear the situation will get worse with increasing demands on the health service made by the ageing population and expected advances in medicines.

Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's GPs committee, said:
"The NHS could spend whatever you gave it, but it obviously works with a limited budget ...Rationing is the great unspoken reality. The only people who refuse to mention the 'r-word' are the media and the politicians, who continue to want to promise everything for everyone in order to win elections."

Malnourished old folk

A major survey is to try to establish how many people are malnourished when they enter hospitals and care homes. The three-day investigation by nutrition charity Bapen - assessing more than 500 institutions across the UK .

Based on studies carried out 10 years ago, an estimated 30% of patients in hospitals and care homes are clinically malnourished - a total of 3m people.

Charities such as Age Concern complain malnutrition remains prevalent .

As many as 10% of people aged over 65 are malnourished. That figure rises to 60% when it comes to elderly people in hospital.

"Weight loss and poor nutritional state is not a normal part of aging. And if it's happening we ought to address it and treat it." - The director of nutrition at King's College hospital , Rick Wilson said

More pay for company directors

It is reported that the typical salary increase of executive directors was 7 per cent last year, well above the UK average of 3.7 per cent.

Potential bonuses were an average 130 per cent of salary, up from 115 per cent the year before - but the actual bonus payout rocketed from 75 per cent to 94 per cent.

"Increases for executive directors are still significantly ahead of those received by the general workforce" the report by accountancy firm Deloitte said.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

"Tory defector Quentin Davies has urged other Conservative MPs to "take the plunge" at the Labour Party conference. He accused Tory leader David Cameron of having made a "Faustian pact with his own extremists" on Europe. He said he was proud of his new party and won a standing ovation from many delegates but others appeared to find the speech amusing. Deputy leader Harriet Harman welcomed other ex-Tories, including Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward. ..Mr Davies praised Gordon Brown as a man of "sound judgement" and "great competence" who had dealt with a series of trials since becoming prime minister. By contrast he accused Mr Cameron of saying and doing "such consistently foolish and superficial and transparently contradictory things" - on schools and tax and spending." (BBC News, 24 September)
Mr Davies was the former Tory MP for Grantham and Stamford who defected to the Labour Party in June. It shows that the differences between Labour and Conservative, never very great at any time, grow less and less as the Labour Party shows itself as an out and out supporter of capitalism. RD

DEMOS? NO BOTHER

"The ray gun has been a staple of science fiction since HG Wells’s The War of the Worlds, but fantasy is now reality as the first heat-ray weapon goes on display in London this week.
Raytheon, the American defence company, is hoping to find customers for its Silent Guardian system, developed as a form of non-lethal crowd control, which will be shown at the Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition, the world’s largest arms fair, at the Excel centre in Docklands, East London. The weapon emits a wave of energy that vaporises skin moisture, causing an intense burning sensation. Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials will be invited to place their hands in front of the machine’s ray and experience what its maker describes as “intolerable” pain." (Times, 10 September)
Isn't capitalism wonderful? Think of the millions of pounds the owning class will save in policing demonstrations and protests, as for the "intolerable pain" who cares? RD

IT BEGGARS BELIEF

"Inside a tiny courtroom buzzing with flies, a police officer stands before a judge and carefully unfolds a white handkerchief. The damning evidence inside: 13 coins worth about 30 cents. He says he found them in the pockets of Shanni Ram Ganga, a hunched man standing next to him facing a sentence of one to three years. Ganga's alleged crime: begging. Beggars crowd every sidewalk in India, yet panhandling is illegal, so a separate judicial system exists just for those accused of pleading for coins in public. More than 1,400 people are serving sentences in beggars' homes — rundown facilities often little better than prisons, critics say — and that number is expected to rise as the government "cleans up" the Indian capital to host the Commonwealth Games, a major sports competition, in 2010....There are some 60,000 beggars in New Delhi, most earning 50-100 rupees a day, not much less than the working poor, according to a recent government-commissioned study on beggars. Many are handicapped." (Yahoo News, 15 September)
Yes this is New Delhi part of the new vibrant Indian capitalism that we are told about. RD

A WASTEFUL SOCIETY

Occasionally some workers might push the boat out and spend a little more than they intended on a night out, but it is doubtful if they could reach this sort of extravagance.
"Kobe beef can fetch up to $250,000 (£125,000) per animal. It comes from the black Tajimaushi breed of Wagyu cattle, which are raised according to strict tradition, including daily massages and supplies of sake, in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. In 2004,
The London restaurant Zafferano bought an 850g white truffle for £28,000. It was accidentally left to rot." (Times, 10 September)
This sort of extravagance can be reported in a society where many are living on less than $2 a day. It makes us sick, how about you? RD

AN EXPENSIVE SOCIETY

Many workers get upset when the landlord ups their rent, but really they are getting upset about nothing when you consider the plight of members of the capitalist class. "A record has been set for the world’s most expensive office rents after Permal, a hedge fund group, committed to occupy two floors in the West End – in spite of the woes in financial markets. The group, an international fund of funds which is part of Legg Mason, agreed on Friday to pay £140 and £130 per sq ft for the fifth and sixth floors of 12 St James’s Square, a redevelopment by D2, a private Irish group." (Financial Times, 21 September) RD

Upstairs and Downstairs

This week, the socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson revealed that she had a "massive staff", mainly from Ukraine. "As I don't have a husband, I rather look forward to having people around me. I have half the Ukraine here every day. It's like the Russian army coming in to clean. I want to come back at night and feel like I'm in a five-star hotel," she said.

The British middle classes [sic] are looking for domestic help who can't easily pack up and leave, which means employing people from war-torn countries or from non-EU countries whose presence in Britain is dependent on their employment .

It is legal for a private householder to refuse to employ someone on the grounds of their colour, their nationality or their religion, and from our interviews with employers, it is clear that they do .

Sting's wife, Trudie Styler, was sued by her cook, Jane Martin, earlier this year.
Ms Martin claimed sexual discrimination after being forced to work 14-hour days while pregnant. The tribunal heard how Ms Styler, 52, abused her domestic staff to make her "feel royal".

Who owns the Atlantic Ocean - Part 1

Britain is preparing territorial claims on tens of thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean floor around the Falklands, Ascension Island and Rockall in the hope of annexing potentially lucrative gas, mineral and oil fields .

"The Russians may be claiming the Arctic but the UK is claiming a large chunk of the Atlantic. Some states might ask why a big power is entitled to huge stretches of the ocean's resources thousands of miles away from its land, but that's the way the law is." - Martin Pratt, director of research at Durham University's international boundaries research unit .

Britain is accelerating its process of submitting applications to the UN - which is fraught with diplomatic sensitivities, not least with Argentina - before an international deadline for registering interests. Relying on detailed geological and geophysical surveys by scientists and hydrographers, any state can delineate a new "continental shelf outer limit" that can extend up to 350 miles from its shoreline. According to the convention on the law of the sea, applicant states may register their rights by "establishing the foot of the continental slope, by meeting the requirements stated for the thickness of sedimentary rocks".
Once demarcated, the ocean floor may then be claimed up to 60 nautical miles from the bottom of the continental slope. When territorial rights have been obtained, states have the right to extract any minerals, natural gas or oil discovered in the annexed seabed.
There is a deadline of May 2009 for claims from the UK and other countries to be submitted, although states that ratified the treaty later have more time

Greenpeace has described the process as a "land grab".

The Falklands claim has the most potential for acrimonious political fallout. Britain and Argentina fought over the islands 25 years ago, and the value of the oil under the sea in the region is understood to be immense: seismic tests suggest there could be up to 60 million barrels under the ocean floor. Britain has been granted licences for exploratory drilling around the islands within the normal 200-mile exploration limit and any new claim to UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf would extend territorial rights further into the Atlantic.

A MOTHER SPEAKS

"There were around 600 deaths in custody in England and Wales last year, a third of them suicides, according to a report published today. The study, by the Forum for Preventing Deaths in Custody, found there were 500 to 600 deaths in custody each year, some of which were preventable. ...In 2004-05 - the most recent year with a full breakdown of the cause of deaths in custody - 127 of the 590 deaths in custody were suicides. ..The report also raised concerns about the number of mentally ill people in custody, and suggested they would be better looked after in psychiatric care... Pauline Campbell, whose daughter Sarah died in custody, told the BBC that prisons were being "overwhelmed" by high numbers of vulnerable people who needed care, not punishment "They're being used as social dustbins for people who are mentally ill, drug and alcohol dependents, the homeless and so on," she said. (BBC News, 21 September)
If you cannot produce surplus value for the owning class you are thrown into the social dustbin. Mrs Campbell has got it right. RD

Who owns the North Pole - Part 8

Continung our series of postings about the the competition to control the Artic and the North Pole ( last reported here ) , we can now declare that the North Pole belongs to the Russians - or so they have now claimed .

A Russian expedition has proved that a ridge of mountains below the Arctic Ocean is part of Russia's continental shelf . Russia's Natural Resources Ministry said early test results on the soil samples showed Russia is geologically linked to the Lomonosov Ridge.

"Results of an analysis of the Earth's crust show that the structure of the underwater Lomonosov mountain chain is similar to the world's other continental shelves, and the ridge is therefore part of Russia's land mass," a statement from the ministry said.

So now it is official , at least , for Russian interests .
Socialist Courier rather doubts that for Denmark , Norway , Canada and the USA , who all possess conflicting claims , will be seeing it Moscow's way .

ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN

It is the nature of capitalist politics that you must pander to your audience. Thus in one week the late President Kennedy could declare to a German audience "I am a Berliner", to an Irish audience boast of his Irish descent and finish off in the USA extolling his American patriotism.
Mitt Romney who is contesting the Republican primaries is using a similar ploy. "Whereas he once took on the powerful gun lobby, he more recently joined the National Rifle Association as a life member. Elected in Massachusetts as a strong supporter of gay rights, he now proclaims himself as a fierce opponent of same sex marriage." (Times, 20 September)
Obviously, a man of principles. The main principle being “does anything to get elected". RD

The Old School Tie

The school that a pupil attended remains a bigger factor in whether they get into a top university than having good A-level grades, research suggests.

The Sutton Trust charity, which analysed admissions from 2002-06, says state school youngsters are losing out. The trust found the number of pupils at the top 30 comprehensives who went to Oxbridge was just a third of what might be expected if based on ability. But at the top 30 independent schools, more than expected got Oxbridge places.

The trust says the findings cannot be attributed to A-level results alone.

Sutton Trust chairman Sir Peter Lampl said :-

"We have a class structure, that is the very simple answer. We actually do have a class structure and that gets in the way of trying to do something about this."

The Blairs cash in

Cherie Blair has struck a deal to publish a "warts and all" autobiography in a deal reported to be worth £1 million . Her memoirs will be published in October next year .

Mrs Blair's £1 million advance will be paid in three stages – an upfront payment of £300,000, then £300,000 when her book is handed over and the rest when it is published.

Blair , himself , could earn £6 million from his own memoirs but for the moment he is in no hurry to write them.

IMMIGRATION IN THE USA

There is a great deal of dispute in the USA at the moment between capitalists who welcome immigrants as a source of cheap labour and those that oppose immigration on the grounds of taxation costs, but both groups will have to take in to consideration the immense costs of deportation. "It would cost at least $94 billion to find, detain and remove all 12 million people believed to be staying illegally in the United States, the federal government estimated Wednesday. Julie Myers, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, gave the figure during a hearing before a Senate committee Wednesday. She acknowledged it was based on "very rough calculations." An ICE spokesman later said the $94 billion did not include the cost of finding illegal immigrants, nor court costs -- dollar amounts that are largely unknowable." (CNN.com., 12 September)
In view of those figures we suppose it is safe to assume despite the political posturing, the immigrants will stay. RD

WALL STREET SNOOPERS

The USA declares that it is opposed to dictatorships and is in favour of democracy, but when profits can be made it soon forgets such high principles.
"Li Runsen, the powerful technology director of China’s ministry of public security, is best known for leading Project Golden Shield, China’s intensive effort to strengthen police control over the Internet. But last month Mr. Li took an additional title: director for China Security and Surveillance Technology, a fast-growing company that installs and sometimes operates surveillance systems for Chinese police agencies, jails and banks, among other customers.
The company has just been approved for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The company’s listing and Mr. Li’s membership on its board are just the latest signs of ever-closer ties among Wall Street, surveillance companies and the Chinese government’s security apparatus. Wall Street analysts now follow the growth of companies that install surveillance systems providing Chinese police stations with 24-hour video feeds from nearby Internet cafes. Hedge fund money from the United States has paid for the development of not just better video cameras, but face-recognition software and even newer behaviour-recognition software designed to spot the beginnings of a street protest and notify police." (New York Times, 11 September) RD

PROMISES, PROMISES

Politicians are notorious for making promises, and the further they are from power the more outrageous the promises. Thus the Scottish Socialist Party could promise to double the old age pension, safe in the knowledge that they were not going to get elected. We suspect the Liberal Democrats do not fancy their electoral chances either when this happens.
"Far-reaching proposals to transform Britain into a carbon-neutral economy within 40 years won overwhelming backing from the Liberal Democrat rank and file yesterday. Delegates at the party's annual conference in Brighton approved a series of measures, including plans to remove petrol-driven cars from the roads by 2040, invest billions in the railways and pour resources into renewable power to give Britain a network of non-carbon emitting electricity generators." (Independent, 18 September)
One of the few political promises ever kept was Winston Churchill's "Blood, Sweat and Tears". We certainly got those. RD

A CLUSTER OF LIES

"Humanitarian organisations accuse the Ministry of Defence today of reclassifying one of its newest weapons to escape an expected world ban on cluster bombs. The MoD last year described the Hydra CRV-7 system, which delivers a number of bomblets from a helicopter-mounted rocket pod, as a cluster weapon.
Later in the year, Margaret Beckett, then foreign secretary, said the government did not consider the weapon fell within the term "dumb", because virtually all the bomblets exploded on impact. . ...However, the MoD admitted trials in the US had revealed a 6% failure rate. .. The reclassification is attacked today by Oxfam, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, who also say that Britain has been the world's third largest user of lethal cluster bombs over the last 10 years. "Ten years after it championed a treaty banning landmines, the UK has a chance to do the same with cluster bombs - but instead it is spinning a cluster bomb con," said Simon Conway, Director of Landmine Action. ..Anna MacDonald of Oxfam said: "Current UK policy on cluster bombs makes no sense. They say they want an international treaty but they also want to keep using cluster bombs well known to kill and injure civilians." (Guardian, 18 September)
Ms MacDonald might think it "makes no sense", but from the standpoint of British capitalism, having the cheapest and most efficient weapons, it makes a great deal of sense. RD

SHAME IN IRAQ

"2,000-year-old Sumerian cities torn apart and plundered by robbers. The very walls of the mighty Ur of the Chaldees cracking under the strain of massive troop movements, the privatisation of looting as landlords buy up the remaining sites of ancient Mesopotamia to strip them of their artefacts and wealth. The near total destruction of Iraq's historic past – the very cradle of human civilisation – has emerged as one of the most shameful symbols of our disastrous occupation." (Independent, 17 September)
This touching article, displaying as it does a great concern for historical artefacts, is surely wide of the mark when it states "the most shameful symbols". What about the tens of thousands of deaths, injuries and misery suffered by the population? RD